E M O C L E W O OUR T
1 1 O 2 G N I SPR SLETTER NEW Student Hubs is working to transform student involvement in social action. We act as a catalyst, empowering students to become active changemakers in their local and global community, both now and in the future.
Dear Hub Supporters, It has been another busy couple of months across the Student Hubs network, with some great highlights: - Brookes Hub, the newest addition to the Student Hubs family, saw its official launch and took a lead on the Brookes University Human Rights Film Festival, with a range of films, discussions and speakers. - Our first-ever conference on student volunteering and social action, Impact 2011, went ahead in early March and was a brilliant example of an initiative run for students, by students. - Marking the 10th anniversary of Student Volunteering Week, in what is also the European Year of the Volunteer, we took the opportunity to highlight all the wonderful activities students are getting involved with across our network. Now we are over half way through the academic year, we are beginning to look towards the summer and next year: we have been running recruitment for new staff and are starting to plan for 2011-12. If you would like to attend any Student Hubs initiatives, then take a look at www.studenthubs.org/ whatson. As always, please feel free to get in touch with any comments or questions about Student Hubs: info@studenthubs.org.
Have a lovely Spring!
Student Volunteering Week
Newsreel Student Hubs has had a busy few months, which means lots of news. Not only were Oxford Hub student volunteers covered in the local press, but two of the founders featured in Oxford University’s Annual Review and the alumni publication, Oxford Today, highlighting the Vice-Chancellor’s Civic Awards and Oxford Hub’s move to new premises scheduled for August this year. Excitingly, one of Bristol Hub’s coordinators, Jonathan Broad (above centre), was awarded the Matt Spencer Award for 2011 from Volunteering England. Jonathan has been involved in a wide range of activities, including musical entertainment for older people, teaching English at a refugee centre and a project that redistributes surplus food to people in food poverty. Jonathan has also brought much energy, dedication and innovation to the Bristol Hub team and the Student Hubs network. We’re very proud of him and this wonderful achievement. Student Hubs was also placed second in NCVO’s annual photography competition, with a photograph of last year’s New Voters New Politics event, taken by Tom Bradley (above top left). To keep up to date with all our news, check out www.studenthubs.org/news a: Student Hubs The Old Music Hall 106 - 108 Cowley Road Oxford, OX4 1JE
t: 01865 403 352 e: info@studenthubs.org w: www.studenthubs.org twitter: @studenthubs
Student Hubs is a registered charity in England and Wales, number 1122328.
21-27 February marked the 10th anniversary of National Student Volunteering Week. The Student Hubs network is full of passionate student volunteers, so the week was jam packed with events, opportunities and fundraisers. Volunteers played volleyball with the elderly, played lazerquest with young carers, held a pub quiz to support literacy in primary schools, had daily discussion lunches about social issues, sold cakes for a children’s hospice and much more. The week’s grand finale took place on Sunday, when students donned wellies and took up shovels to plant 1000 trees on an old sports ground in Oxford as part of a new edible community garden run by student volunteers.
IN FIGURES SINCE CHRISTMAS... OVER 2OO STUDENTS APPLIED FOR ONLY 4O ETHICAL INTERNSHIP SUMMER PLACEMENTS ... AND 9OO STUDENTS HAVE TAKEN UP A TRAINING OR LEARNING OPPORTUNITY THROUGH STUDENT HUBS
Impact conference
Student Hubs stepped up to the challenge of organising the 2011 national conference on student volunteering and social action, which took place in Cambridge. Headed by current students Rebecca Rewbury and Pete Teverson, the Impact conference team brought together representatives from 23 universities to participate in three key tracks; Debate It, Do It, Discover It. Sessions included: ‘How can student volunteering be student and community led?’; ‘Is volunteering altruism or personal benefit?’; skillshare sessions including tips on fundraising, using online resources and successful campaigning; and showcases of initiatives from across the UK, from Greenifying your university in Bristol to working in schools in Oxford. Two particular elements of the conference are set to leave a legacy and help move towards a more co-ordinated student volunteering movement in the future. The first is the 'Nitty Gritty Committee', made up of a number of exemplary students volunteers from across the UK who came together to debate key issues prior to the conference, harvest sessions, listen to delegates and invite new students to work on the committee in the future. Secondly, a £100 prize was available, courtesy of the NCCPE, for the development of one student project. Delegates chose Nottingham Trent student Hannah, who will use the money to conduct research into student prostitution within her institution.
OxFID 2O11
Brookes Hub Film Festival
Brookes Hub saw its official full launch in February this year, and its first largescale event to support was the Oxford Brookes Human Rights Film Festival. The Film Festival is in its ninth year, and saw a great line-up of films covering topics such as gender and development, climate change, marginalised communities and refugees. The programme of events featured discussions and speakers and even theatre and comedy pieces as well as films, which stimulated lively debate. Brookes Hub is hoping to draw on the success of the Film Festival to deliver some new initiatives in the coming months.
The Oxford Forum for International Development (OxFID) is an annual student conference exploring issues related to International Development. This year, OxFID 2011 took the theme 'Tensions in Development', exploring topical debates on human rights, top-down versus grassroots approaches, governments and NGO interventions, and the business-based aspects of development. This year, OxFID's speakers included the Secretary-General of the Commonwealth and the Director of Transparency International, who were joined by representatives from organisations as diverse as Islamic Relief, Christian Aid, UNESCO, CAFOD, DfID, SOAS, Fairtrade Foundation and World Development Movement. Journalists and academics from leading universities also joined the roster of OxFID speakers. Sessions included 'Peace-building', 'Participatory Development', 'Charity with a business mind', and 'Media in development'. The most popular - and most livelydebated - panel session was opened by His Excellency Hatem Atallah, Ambassador of Tunisia to the UK, on the topic of the Middle East. Joined by political analyst Sharmine Narwani and academics from the University of Oxford and SOAS, the panel saw engaged discussion with the student audience which they described as "stimulating". OxFID was both innovative and inspiring, and made a lasting impression on delegates. So much so that a one told us that, for them, OxFID was: "Brilliant. Life-changing. Five stars." With thanks to our supporters:
Bristol Climate Forum
Held in February at the University of Bristol Students’ Union, the Bristol Climate Forum allowed students from Bristol and across the UK to come together to learn more about issues and share skills and ideas in a series of interactive workshops, speaker sessions and debates. Run in partnership with Bristol University Sustainability Team and kindly sponsored by Clifford Chance, the event welcomed 30 attendees from 5 universities, and hosted speakers from the UK Youth Climate Coalition, Otesha Project UK, Futerra, Contemporary Climate Authors and the Centre for Alternative Technology.