Active Students part of our Local Communities

Many of the partnership activities case studied so far have centred on staff engagement with our local communities and organisations but this does not fully represent the University of Bradford's community partnership activities. Our active and diverse student body play a big part in community engagement and this case study will highlight a small range of these activities. 

Example 1

Horton Community Farm is a plan to transform the large, (2.5 acre) derelict portion of Cecil Avenue Allotments into a thriving community resource and food growing area supplying locally grown, fresh fruit and veg at prices accessible to all the local community.  Cecil Avenue is an allotment site in the local community that directly surrounds the University campus. Approximately 90% of this 5 acre site is derelict and therefore attracts fly tipping, litter, vandalism, theft and drug abuse.

Part of the Transition Bradford Group and already experienced in setting up a 'Grow your Own' Veg Out Patch as part of a Students Union supported Ecoversity Project, Ros Coulton, UCAN, Student Activities, Student Volunteer project worker, is part of the project. Ros comments "Over the last 5 years the group have been looking for opportunities to turn our dream of making good things ,like growing our own food, happen locally whilst bringing people together a reality. Horton Community Farm is that dream being realised."

"We are working to create a community supported agriculture scheme (CSA) to directly involve people in their food production through volunteering and education; providing fresh fruit and vegetables through a membership box scheme."

 "As much of the site as possible will be designed and run on permaculture principles and two of the growing areas are currently being designed by groups of University of Bradford students, as part of their coursework for the Peace Studies Permaculture Design Course Module."

On 4 June 2009, Ros with her experience as a student volunteer co-ordinator with UCAN organised a volunteer day to begin clearing the site, between 15 and 20 students of the University turned up to support this local initiative and offer their skills to the project. Ros states "with so many of the University students being local to the area this project is something that they can be involved in that directly contributes to the community they live in."

Horton Community Farm provides benefits  to our local communities and students in many ways such as; improving the immediate environment for local residents; reduces food miles; has health benefits for local people through healthy eating, exercise and supports wellbeing through learning new skills; renovates a derelict piece of council owned land; shows what local collaboration can do; raises the profile of Bradford as a showcase of best practice in community and urban regeneration and supplies volunteer opportunities which develop skills for employment.

Rory Argyle, Project Manager for HCF "it is invaluable to have groups of students volunteering with HCF. We are a small group and days like the Volunteer Action Days allow us to have a big push and tackle areas of the project we would otherwise struggle with. We benefit greatly too from the diversity that the students bring¿diversity of ideas as well as people and backgrounds".

For more information on Horton Community Farm please see www.hcf.org.uk

Example 2

Student Action for Refugees (STAR) Bradford is a student run, volunteer based, society which supports refugees in Bradford and the district. Benita Sumita and Larenda Twigg both PhD students within the School of Social and International Studies co-ordinate the work of Bradford STAR with support of 15-20 volunteers on average.

Each Monday from 6-8pm in the Treehouse Cafe STAR volunteers run an open evening drop in session for local refugees. Offering support with study or exams, English language, campaigning cases or facilitating links with other refugee support agencies the volunteers have a regular client base.

In February 2011 Bradford STAR was funded through the Braduate fund to organise a refugee awareness day. The aim was to highlight refugee destitution and raise awareness of the many issues such as employment, education and gender, concerning refugee communities and asylum seekers in Bradford. The Refugee Action day included a panel discussion, an afternoon fayre, a screening of 'In This World' and a sleepout campaign and was a pre cursor to Refugee Awareness Week which takes place 20-26 June 2011.

Benita comments "Being involved in STAR not only supports refugees within Bradford but has benefits to the students involved as volunteers. Being able to interact with local communities and understand the environment of Bradford helps you to feel more engaged with the City you are studying in. It also gives valuable experience of community outreach, event organisation and crisis management, all of which are skills that make you more employable after your studies".

Bradford STAR welcome new volunteers, if you would like to find out more about the work they are doing please contact Benita on b.sumita@bradford.ac.uk or Larenda on l.n.twigg@bradford.ac.uk You can also visit STAR website for more information

Example 3

University of Bradford Union (UBU), Raise and Give (RAG) week took place week commencing 21 February 2011. This year the students chose to raise money for Bradford City Centre Project (BCCP) as well as Marie Curie Cancer Care. BCCP is a local charity supporting young people in Bradford, aged 16-25, faced with homelessness and other issues through a variety of activities including a UBU Pyjama party, a children's cinema and a Coast to Coast Bike ride.

Chris Wilson, Student, Activities and UCAN Volunteering Manager commented: "We didn't want RAG to seem like the usual fundraising activities that students were starting to get fed up of doing, we wanted them to own RAG and be supported to use their innovation in the way they wanted to, so they did!
Students also wanted to get a feel for how the moneys raised would help the charities, so we had a student committee decide the charities and they met with the organisations to find out more about what they do and based a decision on this. This has also resulted in a number of the students wanting to get more involved with their volunteering who said they wouldn't have been interested otherwise, so it's been really positive!
The fundraising ideas were brilliant! Everything from using the climbing wall to climb the height of Everest, with the local community being able to learn how to climb as and when they wanted, to students working with a group of socially excluded young people from a local community youth centre to involve them in the fundraising appeal as an enterprise challenge".

Alongside the fundraising they also wanted to highlight the fantastic work that student and staff volunteers do around campus and within the local community, so a whole load of Give it a Go Volunteering Opportunities and Showcasing Events ran as well including a youth work volunteering taster session with RISE Mentoring.