Student Volunteering Week
Student Volunteering Week Grant Winner Case Study Project Falmouth Spring Clean Day delivered by FXU (Falmouth and Exeter) Students Union working with Falmouth Business Improvement District.
What happened? Falmouth Spring Clean Day involved beach cleaning, painting, gardening – a bit of everything! We helped to revamp a number of sites in and around Falmouth. This is a yearly event which takes place in loads of different locations around Falmouth Town. Students from the FXU volunteered to help out with a beach clean of the 3 local beaches, helped run a painting workshop at a local nursery and helped clear overgrown gorse and moorland from around an ancient monument site in West Penwith. The event benefited all the students that got involved, as it provided them some excellent skills and a great way to help out in the local community. Being a new University in Cornwall, we are still smoothing out teething problems with the University being located in the town. The variety of activities provided an excellent opportunity for students to do some good in the local community and help to promote a positive image for the university. The local town and community hugely benefited from the volunteering carried out by the students and many different sites looked great after some work! It was great to see students getting involved with local community projects and getting a lot of fun out of the day. I received great feedback from the community groups we were working in and they were all very thankful for the help the students gave. They were all impressed with the students’ work, which is great for our students in building bridges with the local community. It was also great to give students the opportunity to get out and do something good. Volunteering provides a great break
from University work and students get a lot out of it. They learnt new skills and got to see the benefit of their work.
Raising the profile The event encompassed a wide range of different activities, appealing to many students and fulfilling the needs of students from both university institutions. Community volunteering helped to create a positive image of students within the local community. A lot of students live in Falmouth or spend time in the town as well, so it was also great to be able to help to improve the areas that they live in. The event promoted volunteering by offering huge support from the Students Union and providing students with an easy access into volunteering in the local community. This kind of volunteering event, supported by the local community also provided a great networking opportunity for information on other institutions that need help or other volunteering that can be undertaken.
Challenges The event coincided with other volunteering events we already had planned, but we overcame this by shuttling volunteers around to different projects. By publicising the event a lot, we also created good awareness, which helped to increase sign-ups. We have quite a large student base, so advertised to many different groups of students. The offer of free transport to certain sites, including the beach, also helped to get students involved and increase the accessibility of the event.
Final thoughts Firstly, DO IT!! Volunteering is a great way to do something good and for us at the FXU; it is excellent to be able to offer volunteering opportunities to our students. Other advice would be to start planning enough time in advance and make sure everything is in place at least a week before the event. Also creating an easy sign-up spread sheet is a great idea to track numbers and keep the volunteers up to date. An incentive or reward for volunteers is also a good idea (particularly for students).
What happened? Falmouth Spring Clean Day involved beach cleaning, painting, gardening – a bit of everything! We helped to revamp a number of sites in and around Falmouth. This is a yearly event which takes place in loads of different locations around Falmouth Town. Students from the FXU volunteered to help out with a beach clean of the 3 local beaches, helped run a painting workshop at a local nursery and helped clear overgrown gorse and moorland from around an ancient monument site in West Penwith. The event benefited all the students that got involved, as it provided them some excellent skills and a great way to help out in the local community. Being a new University in Cornwall, we are still smoothing out teething problems with the University being located in the town. The variety of activities provided an excellent opportunity for students to do some good in the local community and help to promote a positive image for the university. The local town and community hugely benefited from the volunteering carried out by the students and many different sites looked great after some work! It was great to see students getting involved with local community projects and getting a lot of fun out of the day. I received great feedback from the community groups we were working in and they were all very thankful for the help the students gave. They were all impressed with the students’ work, which is great for our students in building bridges with the local community. It was also great to give students the opportunity to get out and do something good. Volunteering provides a great break
from University work and students get a lot out of it. They learnt new skills and got to see the benefit of their work.
Raising the profile The event encompassed a wide range of different activities, appealing to many students and fulfilling the needs of students from both university institutions. Community volunteering helped to create a positive image of students within the local community. A lot of students live in Falmouth or spend time in the town as well, so it was also great to be able to help to improve the areas that they live in. The event promoted volunteering by offering huge support from the Students Union and providing students with an easy access into volunteering in the local community. This kind of volunteering event, supported by the local community also provided a great networking opportunity for information on other institutions that need help or other volunteering that can be undertaken.
Challenges The event coincided with other volunteering events we already had planned, but we overcame this by shuttling volunteers around to different projects. By publicising the event a lot, we also created good awareness, which helped to increase sign-ups. We have quite a large student base, so advertised to many different groups of students. The offer of free transport to certain sites, including the beach, also helped to get students involved and increase the accessibility of the event.
Final thoughts Firstly, DO IT!! Volunteering is a great way to do something good and for us at the FXU; it is excellent to be able to offer volunteering opportunities to our students. Other advice would be to start planning enough time in advance and make sure everything is in place at least a week before the event. Also creating an easy sign-up spread sheet is a great idea to track numbers and keep the volunteers up to date. An incentive or reward for volunteers is also a good idea (particularly for students).
