student hubs annual review 2010-11

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STUDENT HUBSANNUAL REVIEW 2O1O-11

This year has been momentous for Student Hubs: we’ve seen the addition of our fifth Hub at Oxford Brookes University, supported record numbers of students and student groups, and taken on the lease of the first building in the UK dedicated to student social action.

The latter has been an enormous adventure in itself (New Home). Vitally, Student Hubs has been able to secure future self-sustainability through the development of a sister social enterprise, which will support us financially in years to come. Whilst the voluntary sector - indeed, the whole country - has seen huge upheaval in the past year (Cuts, crisis & coping), we’ve forged a way to respond to an increasingly uncertain tomorrow. And we are enormously grateful to all those who’ve supported us along the way.

Another real highlight of the year for me was hearing some of the feedback from our flagship social enterprise conference, Emerge (Open for social business), which took place last November. Student Hubs exists to empower students to be able to make their mark on the world, to make a positive difference, whatever that might be. And I think one Emerge delegate summed that up perfectly in their feedback: “I came with an idea, I left with a plan.”

With so many exciting, challenging and some downright incredible happenings, you’d think Student Hubs may be thinking of slowing down. But we’re galvanized and looking forward to consolidating our growth: we’ve doubled our staff team, developed our training programmes for student volunteers, and forged links with more partners than ever. Hopefully this means that many, many more students can continue to come to us with an idea and - through support, advice and training - leave with a plan to change the world.

Adam O’BoyleExecutive Director

Student Hubs

ANOTHER GREAT YEAR

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Last year was characterised by two key crises in Student Hubs’ world: that of the Higher Education sector, and that of the voluntary sector - both fundamental to the operation of Student Hubs.

Whilst the cuts have been deep and far-reaching, and the landscape is still evolving, Student Hubs set out to do things differently in order to safeguard the future of support for student-powered social change. We set up a Community Interest Company to trade commercially, with all profits reinvested in Student Hubs the charity. This CIC is the mechanism behind Student Hubs’ new home in central Oxford (New Home), which is set up to generate income through a catering operation, private hire and office lets. This will enable Student Hubs to look towards a more sustainable future despite wider economic uncertainties.

C UTS, CRISIS & COPINGWhat the changing funding landscape has meant for Student Hubs

Brookes Hub - the newest addition to the Student Hubs family - is our fifth Hub in four years, and the first to be founded in the same city as another Hub.

Brookes Hub launched officially in the middle of the academic year, in early 2011. With a focus on discovering, mapping and bringing together Oxford Brookes University students interested in social and environmental issues, the Hub set out both to work with partners on existing initiatives - such as the Brookes Human Rights Film Festival - and to develop new activities to encourage student social action.

To raise money for homeless projects, Brookes Hub hosted a ceilidh which brought together the University’s ethical student societies and also worked to get students involved in the local student community project OxGrow (Green Spaces for Good).

Brookes Hub is looking forward to a big year ahead, with lots of plans and projects in the pipeline. We are confident that whilst the 2010-11 was characterised by laying solid foundations, during 2011-12 the ball will really start to roll.

ROOKES HUBThe newest addition to the Student Hubs FamilyB

Over the year, Student Hubs hosted a series of conferences and workshops focussed on international development, a complex topic which attracts the interest of many students across the network.

In Oxford, an entry-level Introduction to International Development was held near the beginning of the academic year followed by the Oxford Forum for International Development (OxFID) in February. OxFID 2011 took the theme 'Tensions in Development', and explored human rights, top-down versus grassroots approaches, and the business-based aspects of development. The most popular - and most lively-debated - 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, the panel saw engaged discussion with the student audience which they described as "stimulating". This sentiment was echoed by delegates too, with one student telling us that, for them, OxFID was: "Brilliant. Life-changing. Five stars."

In Bristol, the International Development Conference brought together 120 delegates to participate in a day long event including three thematic streams - 'Environment', 'Health' and 'Social'. Keynote addresses came from Will Day, Chair of the Sustainable Development Committee and Dr Dan Magnus of the University of Bristol. The day also saw a range of engaging workshops including food justice and building good governance in post-conflict zones, leading to delegate feedback such as "spoilt for choice - a great range of speakers".

Southampton Hub also hosted an International Development Conference, with speakers representing social enterprise start-up Cola Life and Anti-Slavery International alongside a host of academics and experts from universities across the UK. The IDC was launched with a screening of the Global Poverty Project’s multimedia “1.4 Billion Reasons”, which sets out the fundamentals of poverty and development, setting the tone for the rest of the workshops.

With such enthusiasm across the network for these events, it is clear that international development programming is seen as increasingly important to students, and so will feature strongly in Student Hubs activities for 2011-12.

D EVELOPING STUDENTS IN DEVELOPMENT

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EDuring 2010-11, Student Hubs delivered a series of world-class events on the issues of climate change and sustainability. Placing significant impetus behind our previous activities in this area, Student Hubs ran three conferences - inspiring, informing and connecting over 570 students who represented 42 universities from 8 countries.

The Oxford Climate Forum - the UK’s leading student conference on climate change - was held in November 2010 giving students the opportunity to listen to and meet key leaders in the climate change debate. Off the back of this conference, which attracted speakers such as Professor Mike Hulme and Will Cavendish, a ‘Message to Cancun’ was created by students and then screened to the official delegates at COP 16, The United Nations Climate Change Conference 2010 (http:// bit.ly/fuBqNs).

The Bristol Climate Forum in February 2011 brought together leading students from across the Student Hubs network to learn about practical action and best practice in climate change campaigning. Bit by Bit, an exciting new student project, was launched at the conference, aiming to use videos and social media to connect student-led environmental and campaigning projects.

Finally, Oxford Energy Forum held in May 2011 provided space for 140 students at the University of Oxford to discuss the future of UK energy supply.

Our endeavours to link up events and activities throughout the academic calendar, and across the Student Hubs network, was reiterated by Tony Juniper, former Director of Friends of the Earth, who spoke at the Oxford Climate Forum:

“Great event - you need to replicate this around the country. We need lots of young leaders in this area, and this is a really powerful way to inspire and inform them.”

NVIRONMENTAL LEARNING & DOING

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OOD WASTE SUPPERS FOR JUSTICE

REEN SPACES FOR GOOD

During 2010-11, Bristol Hub supported member group societies to 'host' the fortnightly Student Restaurant. Student Restaurant is run by Foodcycle Bristol and is a not-for profit venture which supports the Foodcycle charity, dealing with food waste and food poverty.

One of the many evenings saw Bristol Volunteers for Development Abroad (BVDA) host the Student Restaurant for a night of tasty food followed by a documentary called 'Life and Debt' (2001), a film about development and globalisation in Jamaica.

Not only are the Student Restaurant nights tasty and informative, they also help hosting societies to raise funds: they are entitled to 25% of students’ donations.

OxGrow is Oxford’s new Edible Community Garden, being developed on grass tennis courts that were donated to the community by one of Oxford University’s colleges. Students and local residents work together on the site to transform it into a thriving and beautiful space which showcases the potential for community-driven urban food production.

Before OxGrow was set up in January 2011 with support from Oxford Hub, there were opportunities for students to learn how to grow food on small college vegetable patches, but the scope and reach of these projects was quite limited. The founders of OxGrow identified - within the student body and within the wider community - both a desire and a real need for a more extensive educational project centred around sustainable food production.

OxGrow is now completely volunteer-run and attracts participants between the ages of one and 71. Every Sunday afternoon volunteers come together to work collaboratively on the plot, and at the end of every session the day’s harvests are shared out among the volunteers. The style of the work-parties is fun and informal, with an emphasis on horizontal skill-share rather than top-down learning. Local expertise and resources have been harnessed in a variety of creative ways, which has built a real sense of community-wide ownership, and an increasing sense of individual empowerment in many of our volunteers.

Member group case study: OxGrow

Member group case study: Student Restaurant

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Emily Middleton receives one of the University of Oxford’s Vice-Chancellor’s Civic Awards, which are delivered by Oxford Hub. Emily is a keen campaigner and received her Civic Award for her inspiring commitment to UNICEF UK.June 2011, CREDIT: Tim Smith-Laing

Current and former Coordinators Pete Teverson and Rhiannon Mulherin present their strategy for Cambridge Hub at the 2O11

Hubathon Weekend, where 40 students from across the network came together to plan, learn and collaborate.

July 2011, CREDIT: Hannah MacDiarmid

H ISTORY IN THE MAKING

Student Hubs is part of a long history of students making a positive difference in the world. The expansion of higher education in the late 19th century brought about many innovations in student volunteering. At that time, university colleges founded settlements in areas of social deprivation, such as Oxford House in East London, where graduates would learn about and engage in social service.

Later, in wartime, students raised funds for hospitals and helped at shelters during the Blitz. In the post-war years, they took on fundraising and campaigning roles in new movements such as the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the Anti-Apartheid Movement. Students also continued to engage in social service, although a shift towards 'action' took place in the late 1960s, based on the desire to be more engaged in community issues.

Much of this history is recognisable in the fundraising, volunteering and campaigning activities undertaken by students across the country today. Student social action continues to evolve, yet the sector's infrastructure has destabilised and diminished rapidly in recent years. Student Hubs is keen to support the sector and will be developing plans to do so during 2011-12. See www.studentvolunteeringhistory.org for more information.

Student volunteering then and now

Student Hubs’ new conference for 2O11

MPACTIMPACT, the national conference on student volunteering and social action - new for 2011 - brought together 26 universities and 100 delegates to share ideas and best practice on making a difference at university. This inaugural Student Hubs conference was a positive step towards creating a national movement of student volunteers as 80% of delegates wanted to see the conference become an annual event.

'Do It' practical sessions on fundraising, volunteer recruitment and identifying community need ran alongside 'Debate It', thematic discussions led by 'The Nitty Gritty Committee', a national panel of students passionate about student social action. Supported by the National Centre for Public Engagement, we were also able to offer a project start-up fund for a new idea formulated and pitched over the weekend. The winner will look at the impact of student prostitution in her university with a view to setting up a project which tackles the taboo around the issue. After opening up the conference to find a venue and organizational team for 2012, Brookes Hub has successfully taken on the project.

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J UMP-STARTING STUDENTS’ CAREERSStudent Hubs’ Ethical Internships scheme matches students who want to do good with ethical organisations who make this possible. This gives the students a chance to gain work experience, an insight into the third sector, new skills and lots of likeminded people.

The scheme, which places exceptional students in 4-8 week placements in small and medium-sized charities and social enterprises over the summer produces just over £80,000 of economic benefit to the third sector each year. This provides much-needed additional capacity to these third sector organisations that often lack the resources to achieve their goals, the capacity, knowledge and ability to recruit high quality student volunteers, and the experience to know how to manage an internship successfully.

In its third year running the Ethical Internships programme received a record 200 applications from students throughout all universities in the network. We placed 45 interns in a wide variety of ethical organisations, including The National Trust, Age UK Oxfordshire and Fairbridge. The interns worked on issues ranging from human rights in Western Sahara to the making of an adaptable open courtyard in Canning Town.

This year, in addition to matching the students to ethical organisations, we also provided weekly training sessions and careers advice to support their personal development. Student Hubs organised training afternoons on project management and fundraising amongst others, whilst further sessions were delivered in partnership with Teach First, UnLtd and the Institute of Volunteering Research.

Our Ethical Internships programme

Host organisations 2010-11:

2Way DevelopmentAfrox

Age Uk OxfordshireAKU

Canning Town CaravanseraiConverging World

EcojamEdirisaEthex

FairbridgeHackney Pirates

HARTHousing For Women

Hub IslingtonThe National Trust

National Children’s BureauOverseas Development Institute

OxFizzOxford House

Platform 51Sandblast Arts

Solomon’s ChildrenSumatran Orangutan Society

Think Africa PressTree Aid

West Lexham Education Centre

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KEEP TALKINGThe InterAction GroupStudent Hubs coordinates InterAction, a support network of national charities which work with university students. The group meets three times a year and brings together over 30 organisations supporting students to make a positive impact on campus. Over the last twelve months the group has grown to incorporate new members doing not only campaigning and fundraising, but also volunteering in the community and abroad.

This year we have started a research project to share best practice for supporting university students, run a training roadshow on campaigning skills and attended relevant NUS fairs to raise the profile of student social action. Over the year members of the group supported each other and shared useful information in order to be more effective in their activities.

InterAction members 2010-11:

Action AidAegis TrustAIESECAmnesty InternationalBarnadosCAFODCampaign Agaist the Arms TradeChristian AidCrisis ActionEngineers Without BordersFairtrade FoundationFellowship of ReconciliationHoward League for Penal ReformMedsinNational Union of StudentsNightlineOxfamPeople and PlanetRight to PlayRestless DevelopmentSpeakSTARStudent Christian MovementStudent Run Self HelpStudents Supporting Street KidsTear FundThree Faiths ForumUNICEFUKYCCWar on WantWomen for Women International

LFor each of our key activities this year – from our climate events to our conferences and community projects – we ensured that we collected feedback from students and speakers. Here’s what they said…

“Keep up the good work, this is a great cause and it needs a dedicated following and support”

Peter Zaman, Clifford Chance, Oxford Climate Forum 2010

"The OCF was a truly inspiring event with a wide range of speakers from numerous different areas of expertise. [...] Hearing politicians, lawyers, business people, NGO directors, campaign activists, economists, and even historians talking on the issues we face and how we can approach them was truly inspiring."

Robert Holtom, Student Delegate, Oxford Climate Forum 2010

“What an inspiration to be in the presence of the generation that really will change the world for the better”

Tim Smit, Founder of the Eden Project, Emerge 2010

“The children were engaged throughout your workshop and learnt a great deal... it greatly benefits them to be exposed to music by students as it is an area of the curriculum which gets lost in primary schools and we’ve seen that learning music... can aid children’s concentration, confidence and ability to learn in other areas of their education.”

A teacher from St Aloysius School in Oxford, discussing the project Music Plus

“The reading volunteers have greatly helped us to improve our standards in reading. The children have appreciated their support and I know that the teachers are incredibly appreciative of all of the volunteers’ hard work. It is fantastic that some of our children get the opportunity to be listened to daily, as it is an opportunity they rarely experience”

Headteacher at Larkrise Primary School in Oxford, about project Reading Plus

Feedback for 2O1O-11

ISTENING & LEARNING

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MONEY, MONEY, MONEYOur finances for the year

INCOME (£) 228,725

Generated income 195,082

Corporate grants 93,500

Charitable grants, private donations and gifts in kind 87,113

University and colleges grants 14,469

Charitable activities 33,643

Services 12,023

Events, conferences 21,620

EXPENDITURE (£) 226,404

Salaries, staff costs, recruitment 133,877

Office rent, charges, fees, resources 33,810

Website, brand, publicity 8,871

Conferences and events 35,939

Volunteer costs 6,065

Travel, meetings, misc 7,842

PROFIT/LOSS (£) 2,321

NEW HOMESince the founding of Oxford Hub in 2007, and the subsequent development of Student Hubs in 2008, the intention to create a real, physical Hub always existed.

In early 2010, this began to be a possibility and, later, a reality as - following a long bidding process - we took on the lease of a building in the heart of Oxford’s city centre and began to develop the UK’s only centre dedicated to student social action and volunteering.

The building, owned by the city council, is a grand, Georgian townhouse, covering five floors and almost 9,000 square feet in total. The space has a long and varied history and many remember its incarnations as one of the country’s first Indian restaurants and, later, as Steven Fry’s “QI” Members Club. In a drastic switch from determined exclusivity to welcoming inclusivity, Student Hubs set out from the start of the development of the building with community in mind.

Partnering with design studio TILT, Student Hubs coordinated workshops to allow students and community members alike to come together to vision, explore and design the space. Building works got underway in early March 2011 and were completed in the summer.

The space was set up to house offices for Student Hubs and other student-facing charities, meeting rooms, events space, a living room, a specialist resources library and a social enterprise cafe-bar-restaurant - Turl Street Kitchen - which feeds the whole operation with a sustainable income stream for the future.

The building was developed with two key goals in mind: to develop Student Hubs’ services and impact, and to ensure that, with the climate of cuts and financial uncertainty, the charity could be sure of a secure future of supporting student-powered social change.

Developing this space made 2010-11 monumental in the history of Student Hubs and in that of student social

action. It was challenging, and costly. But we envisage that the dividends for undertaking such an adventure will be great, and far-reaching for students not only in Oxford, but across the UK.

We look forward to reporting a successful first year of operation in our next review, and thank all our supporters for making this possible.

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Delegates at the 2010 student social enterprise conference, Emerge, enjoy the keynote address given by Eden Project founder, Tim Smit (opposite).November 2010, CREDIT: Tom Bradley

OPEN FOR SOCIAL BUSINESSEmerge 2O1O

This year saw an explosion of interest in social enterprise amongst students.

Our Emerge Conference was held on 27-28 November 2010 in the state-of-the-art Said Business School, Oxford University. It was produced by Student Hubs in partnership with the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship. The conference brought together 54 award-winning leaders in the sector from across the world to speak to, advise and inspire the next generation of social entrepreneurs. Delegates flew in from Israel, France and America, and the conference received the highest number of ‘Tweets’ of any subject in the Social Enterprise stream on Twitter. Liam Black, Founder of Wavelength and former Director of Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen, summed up the weekend astutely: “I have been inspired and invigorated by the energy and passion of these lovely young people. It is – for an old warhorse like me – a great delight to see a new generation coming through.”

Our most exciting development that has grown out of the Emerge Conference was the establishment of the Emerge Venture Lab. Launched at the Conference, the Lab is a new, rigorous fellowship programme for UK social entrepreneurs with early-stage social venture ideas that demonstrate high-impact potential. The eight teams have this year participated in an incubation programme that provides seed funding, mentorship and tailored support. These ventures tackle a whole range of pressing social issues, from using technology to enable early diagnosis of child pneumonia in rural communities to building a web platform to enable microfinance entrepreneurs to sell their products on the global market.

By providing a supportive ecosystem to inspire students and support ventures from ideation to implementation, we hope to develop tomorrowʼs leaders who will drive positive social change.

PBristol HubManager: Sophie HewittCoordinators: Jonathan Broad, Jonny Godwin, Team: Jade Neville, Julija Kod, Joanna Van Der Veen, Ruth Whateley, Arun Malik, Max Wakefield, Zoe Mcintyre

Brookes HubCoordinators: Holly Morgan, Amy Harris, Kim Swallowe, Peter Wootton-Beard

Cambridge HubManager: Catherine KempCoordinators: Rhiannon Mulherin, Nicola LuiTeam:Alice Robinson, Michaela Collord, Junko Takata, Pete Teverson, Rebecca Rewbury, Abha Khushu, Victoria Lee, Rosie Hartropp, Ben Mansfield

Oxford HubManager: Rachel Stephenson; Support: Megan Brown; Outreach: Jake LeeperPresidents: Hannah MacDiarmid, Gioaccino Accurso, Genevieve LaurierTeam: Alice Thornton, Rachel Nichols, Mai Yamaguchi, Jan Matern, Katy Flynn, Phosile Mashinkila, Ailsa Leen, Sarah Hourahane, Oscar Benjamin, Rowan Tindall, Harry Atkinson, Meera Rolaz, Nithya Natarajan, James Ghaffari, Nora SpicerConferences: Lukas Wallrich, Adam Tyndall, Eden Cottee-Jones, Gillian MeadInterns: Alison Raymond, Hannah Blyth, Hannah Wilkinson

Southampton HubCoordinators: Tasha Unwin, George LeggTeam: Kathleen Barlow, Sophie Bradfield, Paulina Jakubec, Amy Nicholass, Sophie Pearce, Aanand Vibhakar, Sophie Eckersley

Warwick HubCoordinators: Jonny SherwoodTeam: David Reed, Dhruvni Shah, Tiffany Liow, Sarah Clarke, Martin Christ, Charlie Game, Leisha Beardmore, Francis Wight, Euan Mackway-Jones

Student HubsDirector: Adam O’BoyleNetwork: Sara FernandezTeam: Francesca Devereux, Rachel Stephenson, Martin EvansInterns: Sam Pilgrim, Sian Whyte, Rhiannon Painter, Carmen O'Loughlin, Jane Saldanha, Alex Taylor, Amy Hale, Emily Hegerty, Shane McIntyre

EOPLE & PLACESThe 2O1O-11 Team

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QUITE INTERESTING

For the number crunchers among us: 2010-11 in figures

Our mailing lists provided over 15,000 students with a comprehensive rundown of relevant ethical and charitable activities each week.

Our websites collectively received over 80,000 unique visitors, displaying a variety of information for students on opportunities available through Student Hubs.

We continued to run the leading student events in the UK on social and environmental issues, this year

hosting over 2,700 students and 200 speakers from around the world.

A number of networking events were also held across our Hubs, attended by over 320 students.

Oxford Hub continued to administer the second Vice Chancellors’ Civic Awards to reward the 6 most outstanding student volunteers at the University of Oxford.

Oxford Hub’s community volunteer programme continued to grow, enabling over 600 students to give

back to their local community each week through 25 student projects.

Our Ethical Internships scheme this year attracted over 200 applications for 45 places.

We extended our training programme to help make our member societies more effective and sustainable. Run in partnership with organisations such as Teach First, Unltd and the Red Cross, the sessions benefitted

over 250 students.

We improved our comprehensive package of support for 133 member groups including office space, meeting rooms, bank accounts, microfinance and handover packs for student societies, helping them to become more effective and sustainable.

R S: READING, WRITING, REACHING OUTSchools Plus in Oxford

‘A Tale of Two Cities’ may not have featured Oxford, but its educational landscape would have us think otherwise. Oxford is, of course, home to not one but two world-class universities. Indeed, the University of Oxford has been a vanguard of educational excellence for hundreds of years.

In the same city, however, primary and secondary schools achieve results which are among the worst in the UK. Currently, the city’s state-educated seven year olds are at the very bottom. Educational disadvantage is very real in the city of the dreaming spires, and shows little sign of abating.

One of the largest, and largely untapped resources, of those very dreaming spires is, of course, the wealth of student talent, motivation and capacity to create social change. It is exactly this that Oxford Hub has worked to harness in order to help to combat the challenges faced by Oxford’s schools, through the initiative Schools Plus.

Following on from the successful operation of a student volunteer-led literacy project and an initiative pairing GSCE Maths students with student tutors, Oxford Hub supported the launch of a further three Schools Plus projects to cover the subjects English, Science and Modern Languages.

Operating in local secondary schools, the three new projects each work to engage young people with exciting material which complements or directly supports their curricula. Sessions are held on a weekly basis in order to build up consistency and a relationship between the university students and the school pupils involved in the programmes.

Schools Plus aims to increase educational attainment through these projects, each of which are specifically tailored to support young people to achieve their goals. However, through sustained interaction with a young adult in Higher Education, the programme also works to raise the school pupils’ aspirations by improving their awareness of and motivations to access post-16 opportunities.

Student Hubs hopes to grow Schools Plus in Oxford and across the network in the next academic year, and will look to build upon and learn from the experiences and impact of the 2010-11 volunteers. In this way, Student Hubs hopes to be helping to redress the inequalities of university towns which are also home to struggling schools, and inspiring a new generation of university students to be positive and motivated towards a brighter future.

THE THREE

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S One of the greatest strengths of the Student Hubs network is that local Hubs can easily share experiences and learn from one another. A flagship activity for Oxford Hub for many years is The Series, a weekly speaker event which serves as a platform for ethical student societies to invite inspiring experts, academics and practitioners in the field. In 2010-11, Cambridge Hub took up the Series model, and rolled out a programme of speaker events.

In what was its inaugural year, the Cambridge Hub Series drew in over 430 students over the course of two terms to discuss a range of topics from increasing the age of criminal responsibility to demystifying global aid organisations. These discussions were deliberately diverse to draw in a range students, those typically engaged with particular issues and those who were not. The Cambridge Hub Series brought together, for the first time, student societies working on a range of issues to present to students in the same place at the same time each week. Cambridge Hub worked with large and small societies alike to invite speakers and publicise beyond their usual capacity. The team helped the Student Union Ethical Affairs group run their highest attended event in Green Week and incubated a brand new Barnardos society after inviting the charity to speak at the Series.

Having successfully transported the Series model from Oxford to Cambridge, 2011-12 will be characterised by more cross-network sharing of activities, as well as a more Series programmes in other Hubs.

ERIES OF SERIES

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2010 was the year that Student Hubs got to grips with the world of Twitter, and has been using it to reach out to to partners and stakeholders across the sector.

We’ve seen the number of students engaging through this medium grow as the year went on, which means there is a simple, quick, easy route for them to find out the latest news from Student Hubs.

If you’d like to see how Student Hubs is using Twitter to reach out and engage with wider audiences, check us out: @studenthubs.

WEET TWEET!Student Hubs on TwitterT

UNIVERSITIES AS CATALYSTS FOR SOCIAL CHANGEThis was the fourth year of operation for Student Hubs. That means we saw the first students who had begun university with an existing Hub graduate and enter the world of work. This is a pivotal point for us: as they leave the university environment, students are no longer within direct reach of our local Hubs, and yet what they go on to do is immensely important to us.

Student Hubs is based on the premise that university is a uniquely formative stage in life. It has been shown that behaviours and passions cultivated during our youth are taken forward into our futures. Therefore we must support students - the leaders of tomorrow - to be equipped to create positive social change not only now, but in the future too.

Student Hubs is working directly with students so that the university experience can do this. Young people and the world need more than academic qualifications to face the challenges of the future, and Student Hubs is working to facilitate a culture of social awareness and social action which will be sustained over a lifetime.

The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford, Professor Andrew Hamilton, agrees with us: "I firmly believe that universities should produce not only world-class academics, but also world-class citizens. It is our duty to enable students to do the best that they can in the world - for themselves and, crucially, for the global communities they live in.”

This diagram explains the Student Hubs theory of change:

1. We input our model with funding and recources to enable students to be socially and active.

2. This promoted effective student groups and responsible volunteering, which results in positive social impact now.

3. When they graduate, socially aware and active students enter the workplace and continue their social action. This results in sustained, positive, social impact into the future.

Our theory of change

1

2

3

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V ALUE ADDEDWe continually monitor and evaluate our activities so that we can keep improving our practices and produce a high positive social impact. The following figures show our key statistics for this year which demonstrate our short-term community impact. Over the coming year we will increase our impact measurement activities through practices including Social Return on Investment and undertaking longitudinal studies into the chosen career paths of Student Hubs Alumni. This will extend our knowledge of the long-term impact that we produce, as our work with students at this highly formative stage of life encourages them to remain civically engaged once they graduate.

- Student Hubs has facilitated volunteering, activism, campaigning, fundraising, learning and philanthropy amongst our network of over 15,000 students (up from 11,000 last year), which means more students are making more of a positive difference in their local and global communities. Our most recent survey undertaken in Oxford in June 2011 showed that 85% of students attended an event they didn’t know about previously, 25% became involved in a new community volunteering project and 46% became involved with a charitable organisation that they were not aware of as a result of reading this mailing list.

- Feedback from our conferences and speaker events has shown the impression that they are making on students. 81% of delegates at the Emerge student social enterprise conference held in November 2010 stated that their access to the social enterprise community rose as a result of the conference, 73% said that their commitment to creating a social impact had increased and 80% of delegates said that they would follow up with someone that they had met at the conference.

- We have facilitated fundraising events that raised over £3,000 for local charities.

- Additionally we have supported 133 student-led groups (up from 95 last year) working on social and environmental issues. This has enabled these groups to increase their impact in the community, and to undertake more ambitious projects. In addition, through InterAction we have co-ordinated and supported 20 national and international NGOs that work with UK university students. This has enabled these NGOs to further increase their immediate impact in the community.

- 45 students have been placed in our third sector work placements scheme (up from 25 last year) which will generate over £110,000 of economic benefit1 to local communities and small and medium sized charities and social enterprises. This provides much-needed additional capacity to these third sector organisations which often lack the resources to achieve their goals, the capacity, knowledge and ability to recruit high quality students volunteers, and the experience to know how to manage a work placement successfully. Organisations supported this year include the AKU society, a leading patient organisation supporting sufferers of rare diseases, the National Trust, AGE UK and 2waydevelopment, a specialist international volunteering agency.

- In addition, we supported the establishment and development of 12 high potential charities, societies and social enterprises through our Local Hubs and the Emerge Venture Lab.

- Now in its third year of operation the number of projects active in the local community increased from 18 to 25, facilitating 610 volunteering opportunities for students (515 in 2010). These volunteers spent an average of 82 hours per year on our community projects, together producing the equivalent of £590,400 of economic benefit to the community.

Delivering & measuring our impact

WX

ARWICK HUB

TRA! XTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT!

Warwick Hub is the latest addition to the Hubs network, officially launching at the start of the new academic year in October 2011. However we already have a dedicated team of 12 on board, ready to ensure Warwick is the Hub to aspire to within the next few months!

Several members of the Warwick team attended the Hubathon in June, which was a great experience - the excitement was palpable and they came away with lots of great ideas to implement in Warwick Hub’s first year of existence. One of these will be the Warwick Education Conference, which will be the first conference of its kind in the Hub network.

The team will also be working hard to improve joined-up thinking on campus – there are a number of charitable and environmental groups, but a lack of coordination between them. Warwick Hub will be establishing an Inter-Charities Forum to address this issue and to ensure that connecting Warwick students with causes becomes easier and better.

Over the year Student Hubs saw a growing level of coverage in local press and was featured in a number of external publications such as the University of Oxford’s alumni publication Oxford Today.

As our network grew to five Hubs with a sixth (Warwick Hub) in the pipeline, by mid 2011 Student Hubs definitely found itself with a lot to say about student volunteering and social action. As such, a priority for 2011-12 is to strengthen our voice in this sector and engage in national and international debates about the power of student-led social change.

The sixth wonder of Student Hubs

Student Hubs in the press

24 February 2010 - Students taking part in a volunteering fair in Oxford this week could be in with a chance to spend a day shadowing the region’s Green Euro-MP.

The Student Volunteering Fair is being held in Oxford Town Hall to coincide with the national Student Volunteering Week (22-28 February) – and Caroline Lucas MEP is offering students the chance to work-shadow her in return for volunteering hours in the local community.

Caroline, who is also Green Party leader, praised the efforts of the Oxford Hub, the focal point for charitable activity at Oxford University, in encouraging students to get more involved in local neighbourhoods through practical volunteering opportunities.

She also welcomed the Auction of Promises initiative, which involves students pledging volunteering hours in return for ‘unique experiences’ provided by the local community.

Each reward item put up for auction – including the day with Caroline – will have a minimum bid, depending on its worth, equal to no less than10 hours of volunteering. The winning students will have one term to complete their volunteering commitment and will not be able to claim their ‘experience’ until they have fulfilled it.

Speaking in support of the Student Volunteering Fair, Caroline Lucas said:

“Volunteering is a fantastic way for students to build relationships and actively contribute to social and environmental wellbeing in the local community, while also developing their own skills and enhancing their CVs.

“By spending a day shadowing my work in the South East constituency, the winning student will gain a unique insight into what goes on behind the scenes and what an MEP’s typical day looks like. I very much hope that offering this opportunity will help the Oxford Hub to gain a greater commitment to volunteering – for the benefit of students and of the wider community."

The Auction of Promises will be open until Wednesday 3 March.

Students Volunteer For Chance To Shadow Oxford’s Green Euro-MP

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The Student Power Debates were a series of conferences held in seven different locations across the UK, coordinated by Student Hubs.

In conjunction with eleven partner organisations, the Student Power Debates provided free campaigning and activism training to over 100 students from 19 different universities and further education institutions, focusing on a range of different topics and campaigns.

Despite only two weeks lead-time to organise these events before the first Student Power Debate in Oxford, the programme worked remarkably well, and received very positive feedback from both participating organisations and the students who attended:

“I really enjoyed the fact that everyone has an interest in activism, but over such a broad range of different campaigns” - London Student Power Debate attendee.

The Student Power Debates took place across the country - in Oxford, Newcastle, Bristol, Birmingham, Southampton, Manchester, and London - and were a great opportunity for Student Hubs to forge links with partners in the voluntary and citizenship sector.

The Student Power Debates served to complement the work of the local Hubs to resource and empower students to have their voices heard and make a difference in the world.

We hope to roll out a similar programme during 2012.

ES OR NO?YStudent Power Debates 2O11

www.studenthubs.orgStudent Hubs is a registered charity in England and Wales, number 1122328.

student hubs annual review 2010-11

Documents

student hubs world

operation of student

student hubs new home

student volunteers

student groups

student social action

social change

social business