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Through volunteering in the community, skilled placements and project incubation.

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Cambridge Hub: Cambridge Hub is a network inspiring, connecting &connecting: supporting students;

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About Cambridge Hub .

Cambridge Hub is transforming students’ involvement with social and environmental challenges in Cambridge and around the world. Through the provision of skilled placements, practical volunteering and project incubation, we inspire students about their power and potential to shape a better world, connect them to opportunities to make a difference during their time at university, and support them to become civic leaders in their future lives and careers. We are part of Student Hubs, a national network with the mission to create a culture change in UK universities so that student-powered social change becomes the norm and not the exception – inspiring socially active citizens for life.

89% of students who took part in the Social Innovation Programme said that it had enhanced their university experience

39 volunteers tutoring at 3 local schools

12 student social

enterprises incubated & seed funded

121

local organisations supported through our work

INSPIRE

2015/16 in numbers Skilled Placements • 17 student interns participating in national Social Impact Internship Scheme • 78 long-term volunteers working with 17 charities and social enterprises to address local challenges as part of the Social Innovation Programme • 89% of students who took part in the Social Innovation Programme said that it had enhanced their university experience. 100% agreed that they better understood how they could use their skills to support local organisations Practical Volunteering • 39 students volunteering as tutors to tackle educational disadvantage in 3 local schools through Schools Plus • 12 one-off volunteers on our creative writing project, Hiraeth, working with local homelessness charities Incubation • 20 student projects incubated, including 12 projects provided with seed funding through our Venture for Change Awards • 1 social awareness campaign offering 9 perspectives on issues of homelessness in Cambridge & beyond Critical Engagement Events & Training • 1,780 students attending events from October to April • 17 training sessions held from October to May, attended by 217 students • 270 attendees at our sixth annual Climate and Sustainability Forum and seventh annual Cambridge International Development Conference • 872 attendees and 105 organisations represented at Volunteer for Cambridge, Cambridge’s only town & university-wide volunteering fair, organised in collaboration with Cambridge City Council

CONNECT

SUPPORT

Cambridge Hub

Cambridge Hub, 10 Pembroke Street, Cambridge, CB2 3QY 01223 350 365 [email protected] www.cambridgehub.org

Measuring our Long-Term Impact

Venture for Change Awards

In collaboration with Social Incubator East, Cambridge Hub recently commissioned Third Sector Futures to conduct an analysis into the long-term impact of our work. We collected data from our alumni to measure the influence that engaging with the Hub has had on their career and life choices post-university.

Venture for Change provides budding student social entrepreneurs with seed funding, training and mentoring for their ideas. Run in collaboration with the University’s Public Engagement Team and Careers Service, Venture for Change provided grants of up to £500 to 12 student projects this year. The Hub mentored the students to prepare them to apply for the funding.

Through surveying Cambridge Hub’s alumni, we found that the Hub cultivates a motivation in graduates to turn their passion and desire to do good into action. Our report showed that 88% of our alumni felt that they had a better understanding of the social impact sector as a result of their engagement with the Hub, and 71% felt that they were more able to take action on the issues they care about. One graduate stated that the Hub “gave me a chance to try new skills and work in new structures… The Hub refined my experiences and improved me as a campaigner”. Significantly, we also found that 71% of our alumni continue to volunteer, compared to 47% of the general population. Read our blog on the report here.

Awardee Case Study: George Foot George’s project, Cove, utilises up-cycled seashells as a low-cost micro-plastic replacement in cosmetics, creating an environmentally friendly exfoliant. The seashells are collected from seafood producers who see them as a waste product in this industry, allowing money to be generated from collecting the seashells as well as selling the final cosmetic product.

Social Innovation Programme The Social Innovation Programme allows students to act as consultants for local charities and social enterprises in Cambridge, with the dual aims of enhancing their employability skills and allowing them to contribute to the wider Cambridge community. Students conduct research and present a report to local charities at the end of 6 weeks, developing a range of skills including teamwork, project management and stakeholder engagement. This year we partnered with 17 local organisations to provide consultancy challenges to 78 students. Our community partners included Cambridge Sustainable Food, North Cambridge Academy, Business in the Community, Wintercomfort and the National Trust, and covered a broad range of social & environmental issues including homelessness, food waste and access to education. This year, we piloted a mentoring scheme in collaboration with ARM; 82% of students agreed that their project benefitted from support from a mentor from ARM. Overall, 96% of students agreed they had gained insight into a socially impactful organisation and/or the social impact sector and 93% agreed that they had developed professional skills.

What Students and Stakeholders say... “We define education very broadly, and we want our students to fulfil their potential in so many ways. One of the best ways that they can do that is to participate in volunteering. The University of Cambridge is fully behind all of our students learning from and engaging with volunteering, for their own benefit but also to benefit others. I want to thank Cambridge Hub.” Professor Graham Virgo, Pro Vice-Chancellor for Education at the University of Cambridge “I chose the Social Innovation Programme because it seemed a fantastic way to develop a range of skills, from report writing to working as a team; and secondly, I wanted to give something back to a city which I have loved being a student in. It is one of the best things that I’ve been involved with at Cambridge. As a scheme it was well run: there’s tremendous support from the team at the Hub, both in terms of personal consultation and training, and our community partner could not have been more helpful. Moreover, it is manageable – it is flexible and if you’re organised you can comfortably fit it around your degree. It was really satisfying to produce something tangible which is of use to your community partner. As an arts student who more than once has wondered what the point of my degree is, it is great to see the skills that you develop at Cambridge can be used to help the local community.” - Laurie Wooldridge (Finalist in History at Homerton College), Team Leader for the Friends of the Rock Road Library challenge, Social Innovation Programme

Founding partners:

Strategic partner: Cambridge Hub is part of Student Hubs, a registered charity in England and Wales number 1122328