DUSVO Exec Manifestos 2020-21

NAOMI GREEN for DUSVO PRESIDENT About me       

3rd year Liberal Arts student Currently on a YA in Argentina, working for 2 NGOs DUSVO events officer 2018-19 "Outstanding volunteer" at 2019 Volunteer Awards 2 years as a CATSS volunteer Worked to establish Project SOUP in Durham Cuth’s Welfare Committee 2018-19

Working as an intern at Delicias de Alicia, a social project helping to fight malnutrition in low income areas of Buenos Aires

Walking 35k dressed as Winnie the Pooh to raise money for CATSS

My ideas VISIBILITY

 Improve visibility within the organisation- push for more flow down of info from

Experience Durham to student and project execs regarding finance and strategy  Improve visibility of the organisation- work to grow DUSVO even further to rival DUCK in terms of our reputation and level of engagement from the university

COMMUNICATION  Continue integrating staff and student volunteering-

Having a boogie at Soul Food, raising over £850 to go towards DUSVO projects

more joint initiatives  More communication between projects, sharing of ideas & strategy  Reach out to other universities to open discussion on key outreach issues, such as project ideas, maintenance of a good relationship with the surrounding community, how to recruit more vols and especially male vols, etc  Engage more with vols- recognition on our social media e.g. “volunteer of the week”

IMPACT  Work more closely with the community to extract exactly what needs doing, and make

sure our projects are doing it  More student interaction with community members and partners (as opposed to everything going through Experience Durham) to help break down barriers and establish a better relationship between the student and local community

Vote Lijie for: President Have a good understanding of DUSVO Recognise the importance of situating the university within the broader community Make the Exec accountable, transparent and accessible to YOU Communicate with volunteering coordinator Make Exec meetings short and efficient

Education Chair

Expand number of service users Liaise with schools in the community Bridge the gap between PLs, volunteers and Exec Publicise projects that requires more publicity

I am: BRIDGING the gap between DUSVO Exec and volunteers EMBEDDING the University in the local community GROWING with the community through engaging education

My past experience: Keenan House Project Leader I created international community sessions, facilitated cultural awareness among the group doubled the number of volunteers from last year

Durham Student Ambassador Work with Access and Engagement Team to work towards widening participation Encourage underrepresented groups to progress into Higher Education

Research Assistant (Education) Teacher reflective research program: using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to analyse data from school teacher Organise the logistics of teacher workshops and collect data

Scholar into Schools

¡Volunteered with Scholar into Schools Talked about Chinese myths and led interactive craft activities positive feedback from children and teachers

EMILY GIBBINS FOR EDUCATION PROJECTS CHAIR About me: 2nd Year Combined Social Sciences Josephine Butler

Experience ⁃ ⁃ ⁃ ⁃ ⁃

Primary school tutor for Students4Students (2019/20) Sixth Form Tutoring (2018/19) One-off volunteering – theatre outreach, school visits Volunteer assistant at performing arts summer school at home Course Rep and SSCC student co-chair – experienced in communicating with and representing different groups, so I have the necessary skills to work with the exec and Experience Durham, project leaders and the schools we work with ⁃ College Involvement – Debating Society President, theatre directing, Frep – I enjoy working with people, have good organisational skills and have experience holding positions of responsibility

Ideas ⁃ Connect volunteers and create a sense of community – a lot of education volunteering is one-to-one so there can be little interaction between volunteers ⁃ Regular contact and support for project leaders – both digitally and in person ⁃ Promote more one-off events that could attract new volunteers ⁃ Education project of the month – so that people can be recognised for their fantastic work, and promoting projects to attract more volunteers ⁃ Emphasis on strong handovers at the end of this year – important for new project leaders to know as much as possible to move forward and start the new academic year strongly!

I want to be Education Projects Chair because I think helping younger students realise their potential is one of the most important and rewarding things we can do as students. Volunteering through DUSVO has been one of my favourite parts of my two years in Durham and I’d love to be part of the exec to support more students who want to contribute to the amazing education outreach work we do.

Vice President

Connect DUSVO Exec, PLs & Volunteers (e.g. cafĂŠ chat sessions) Promote clear branding & publicity to internal & external users Actively use various channels to appeal to more volunteers Streamline feedback to improve volunteering experience

Key Leadership Experiences

1-2-1 Tutoring Co-Project Leader

Co-managed DUSVO's largest educational project Over 1000 volunteer hours benefitting tutees this year Collated first GDrive for shared resources

Student Representative e.g. Course Rep for 2 years, DUBS Open Days Active and confident in communicating your interests

Society Execs

Education Chair Contact schools & local community about interest early in year Actively seek more volunteers to meet service users' demand Hold regular check-in meetings with PLs Work on feedback with the Exec in a timely manner

e.g. Economics Co-Chief Editor: revived the journal; Consulting Secretary: newsletter, ball, conference, etc.

Skilled at time, project & social media management

Jenny Teoh

Committed DUSVO Volunteer 1-2-1 Tutoring (Y2 Co-PL & Y1 volunteer), Free Cakes for Kids (Y2&1), Computeas (Y1)

EXPERIENCE & INVOLVEMENT

LOWRI MATHIAS FOR EDUCATION PROJECTS CHAIR

WHO AM I Second Year Education Studies-English Studies Collingwood College

IN A NUTSHELL I have two years experience with DUSVO and so have a well formed understanding of the organisation and the various projects attached to it. I am extremely passionate about educational outreach, especially in terms of combating educational inequality and early years education, and would love to see all of our education projects operating at the highest possible standard so they can have the biggest impact on the Durham community.

As Education Project Chair my main focus would be on creating and maintaining links between the projects to create a solid community, as well as improving social media coverage to maximise recruitement.

DUSVO Experience Creche Co-Project Leader ('19-'20), Project Access Campus Team Member ('19-'20), Creche Project Volunteer ('18-'19), Sixth Form Mentor ('18-'19), DASH Volunteer ('18-'19) Wider University Involvement Vegetarian and Vegan Society Exec (Publicity Officer, '19-'20), Education Society Exec (CoPresident, '19-'20), Durham Student Theatre ('18-'20), Vegetarian and Vegan Society ('18'19)

WHY ME? I have been involved with DUSVO and its Education Projects since my first year at Durham. As a result, I have seen first hand the amazing work that DUSVO enables students to do, and would love to be able to support this work as an exec member. Having been an Education Project Leader myself, I am aware of the demands and expectations of the role as well as frequently faced challenges, and so believe I am in a good position to support other Project Leaders to establish and maintain their projects.

PLANS FOR THE ROLE —Establish a strong working relationship between the Education Project Leaders through termly socials and meetings with all leaders — Organise socials with both Project Leaders and volunteers. A problem Project Leaders frequently face is finding volunteers who continue to attend sessions; forging a community will help tackle this issue as volunteers will meet everyone and see the scale of the organisation they are a part of!

—Get the Education Projects more active on social media! This will aid recruitment and spread the word about our projects and the wonderful work they do —Support Project Leaders to forge links with various other university societies that would be interested in our projects — Keep Project Leaders in the loop about DUSVO exec meetings via emailed minutes

DAISY ROBINSON FOR SOCIAL INCLUSION AND COMPLEX NEEDS PROJECT CHAIR Who am I? My name is Daisy Robinson, I’m a First-year English student from Butler College, and I’d be thrilled to stand as Social Inclusion and Complex Needs Project Chair for the year 2020/21 as part of the Exec. For the last few years, I’ve developed a great love for volunteering in seeing how such small and simple acts of charity can have profound impacts on vulnerable communities. The feeling of seeing how you’ve helped improve someone’s life, no matter how small, is genuinely incomparable and I’m very eager to adapt and hone this passion into something worthwhile on a larger university-wide scale.

Why do I want this role?

I’d love this role as not only would it develop essential skills that I can hopefully carry forward into a career in the NGO and charity sector, but it specifically revolves around inclusivity and access for all, a charitable theme I’m particularly devoted to. I believe everyone deserves equal opportunity, with young people deserving the chance to be care-free and happy and other vulnerable communities such as the elderly and homeless deserving as much sustainable support as we can give them. As a first year who hasn’t been here as long as others, I would intend to prove and inspire others that volunteering is something anyone can get involved with at any time; every minute being given always has value and therefore deserves to be celebrated and cultivated for every project group, which I’d be delighted to aid in doing.

My experience Over the last few years, I’ve thrown myself into every possible volunteer opportunity I can. I’ve volunteered as part of the summer reading challenge twice and volunteered for several hours a week over a year at Townsend Outdoors Centre, which provided country day trips for city kids. Both these oppurtunities gave me a chance to both stretch my creative capacity and imagination through fun activities, as well as exercising my patience and team leading. Furthermore, I volunteered as a YOPEY Befriender at a local dementia care home, which gave me valuable insight into how to care for vulnerable adults and how to adapt my volunteering to a personal level through working directly with the residents to improve their wellbeing. This experience inspired me to raise money for Alzheimer’s UK through a memory walk over summer where I raised over £150 for charity independently, and this coming summer I’m currently planning on organising my own fun run, where the profits will be split between a local Durham Charity and a local charity in my home town, in order to celebrate how small actions can have a nationwide impact. I also volunteer for Margaret Green Animal Rescue in Dorset and Food Cycle, Burnhope Primary School and Durham Refugees Club in Durham when I can, both very different yet valuable causes that have proved to me that volunteering’s flexibility really allows for anyone to get involved to some capacity and can promote these sorts of oppurtunities to a new target market of students. During my time at Durham so far, I’m also a food bank representative for my College, which has involved publicising how to help the food bank and running food drives in conjunction with social events such as formals. Equally, I’m also a volunteer with CATSS Primary Project, which has involved extensive development of my skills with working with children, such as learning how to work with children with ADHD. This has been a job that involves a positive attitude, commitment and strong teamwork in order to give the children the best experience possible. Throughout all this experience, most of all I have learnt the value of positivity and friendliness in every opportunity, as learning to approach each new task with such an attitude allows everyone to get the best out of the experience and this is something, I would love to encourage others to do Additionally, my theatre experience has been largely applicable in developing transferable skills to a leadership role. I’ve been a head of costume three times, stage manager 5 times and also worked as light and sound op during my 8 shows at Durham. I’ve learnt to appreciate every aspect that goes into building an end product and am willing to help out in every group as part of a team to create a desired effect. Equally, I’ve developed punctuality and managed demanding timings that change often. This ties into quick problem-solving skills I’ve learnt, such as when mics break, or cues are forgotten, therefore requiring creativity in the most pressing situations. Finally, I’ve also developed a lot of publicity skills in ensuring we get a spectacular turn out for every show which would be extremely helpful in publishing all the good work DUSVO achieve and the lasting impacts of their work.

My Ideas I’m very eager to work with the rest of the exec as well as the individual volunteering project leaders to publicise their fantastic work as far as possible, encourage everyone to get involved and support new and upcoming local charities. Spreading the word about charities would include being very active on social media in publishing not just the oppurtunities available to students but equally publicising the lasting impacts of their work t students feel like they’re making a real difference. Furthermore, I’d love to do some social media takeovers with different projects to publicise their work over certain weeks, as well as organise collaborations not just between certain charities, but also between other sorts of group. For example, music groups such as the Northern Lights that are looking to record an album could donate some of the profit to charity and publicise the charity in their own social media.

Furthermore, I want to act as a friendly face that all project leaders can approach with problems, as well as new project ideas which I’d try my best to bring to fruition. I’d do this by potentially having drop-in sessions that anyone who wants to volunteer or start a project can pop into to discuss options, allowing for volunteering to be made as easy as possible. I’m also keen to work closely with all project leaders to be active in fundraising for a range of volunteering projects at Durham, showing that at the heart of DUVSO is help, support and inclusivity. Overall, I’d love to uphold the already fantastically rewarding work DUVSO completes whilst maintaining a positive, warming core to the organisation that’s approachable to all old and new charitable projects and ultimately encourages as wide a range of students to get involved as possible.

Volunteering Experience

- 2nd Year - Psychology - Trevs

My Aims: • •

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Regular communication with community partners, project leaders and volunteers Maintain volunteer commitment for current projects and help the development of new projects Increase the transparency of the exec – who they are, what they do etc.

Increase publicity of projects throughout the year

SCA/DUSVO • CATSS Primary • Creche • Science Club • Dog Walking

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Beach Cleans One-off events (e.g. Community Fun Day)

Outside of Uni • Local Brownie unit leader • Volunteer researcher in primary schools • Volunteer playworker for children and young adults with special educational needs and disabilities • Residential volunteer for children with special educational needs and disabilities • Assist in teaching children dance • Service project in Kenya supporting a small community

Why Me? During my time at Durham I have been a committed and reliable volunteer, getting involved with various projects. I love volunteering and think DUSVO is amazing, giving students so many opportunities to get involved in the wider community and make a real impact. Therefore, I’d love to get further involved by going behind the scenes of DUSVO as your next Social Inclusion and Complex Needs Projects Chair! This is an area that’s really important to me and so to be able to support the running of these projects would be incredible. I believe my experience and genuine passion for inclusivity and supporting those with complex needs, would make me a perfect fit for the role!

Social Inclusion and Complex Needs Chair- Matthew Ward This year I was co-project Leader for Generations Together, one of the largest projects managed by the social inclusion and complex needs chair, which aims to alleviate loneliness and provide an opportunity for students to affect real change in the Durham Community. Having been a Project Leader, I understand the complexities and challenges that are faced by students when trying to manage a student-led project. I am confident that I am well-placed to impart the knowledge and skills needed on to the new project leaders which will allow them to thrive and further expand their volunteer base and positively impact peoples lives in the local community. Throughout Generations Together, I had to liaise with a large number of external stakeholders in Durham and establish connections with charities such as Age UK and Sanctuary care homes. Consequently, I am well positioned to connect with a broader role of stakeholders and charities in the role of Social Inclusion and Complex Needs Chair and feel confident in solidifying the relationships I have already made.

Aside from being Project Leader, I have extensive experience dealing with people with complex needs and those suffering from social exclusion. I have volunteered for the past three summers on a Diocesan pilgrimage to Lourdes, accompanying sick and terminally ill adults and children to Lourdes.

Furthermore, In Easter and Summer 2019, I volunteered at Revitalise Jubilee Lodge, Essex a charity offering respite care and holidays for adults with varying degrees of physical and mental impairment.

Here, I was responsible for the care of a different guest each day to ensure their well-being and enjoyment of the various excursions organised in and around London. Lastly, throughout Sixth Form, I attended Syston Friendship group weekly, an opportunity to socialise and play games with adults suffering with mental disabilities. These roles have taught me the importance of volunteering for those less fortunate, empathy and the necessity to go beyond my duty of care to ensure the wellbeing of an individual.

I would like this role because I am hugely passionate about volunteering and making a meaningful impact on others lives. Being Complex Needs and Social Inclusion chair would present an incredible opportunity to oversee the exceptional work of students at Durham and ensure they are benefitting from the volunteering as well as those they are helping. Moreover, I believe this role is a natural progression after many years of volunteering and a year of project leadership and I think I have the experience necessary to successfully guide the new project leaders. I recognise the immense benefits that volunteering can have on the lives of others and I endeavour to convey my ambitions to further increase student participation and satisfaction on Project Leaders.

Subsequently, the ideas that I would implement if chosen are as follows: 

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New Projects: I propose that a variety of new projects could be created such as ‘Music for the Elderly’; working with projects such as Generations Together and Tea Parties, students who have musical ability could play to an audience on a weekly basis. Introduction of seasonal projects, where one project leader could oversee different projects based on different times of the year. For example, in the lead up to Christmas, the project could be focused on collecting shoeboxes whilst after Christmas, the project could be focused on helping Durham homeless stay warm.

Provide a standardised questionnaire that must be filled in by Project Leaders and optionally by volunteers to see how Projects could be altered or improved and ensure student satisfaction.

Encourage more collaboration between Project Leaders and set up meetings and events where ideas and information between projects can be shared to increase student participation and better existing projects

First Year Economics with Study Abroad John Snow College

Volunteering Experience  1-2-1 A level Maths Tutoring  One-off volunteering: Seaham Beach Clean, DASH (painting), baking cakes for charity (e.g. Age UK)  REfUSE café volunteering: Front-of-House  Salvation Army (Indonesia): Taught basic English and Maths of varying difficulty at a local orphanage of 50 children. Organised and oversaw after-school activities.  DUCK EBC Trek: Fundraising £2000 for Hope for Children and trekking to EBC in September

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Plans and Aims Deepen connection with societies and colleges so as to increase publicity, support for volunteering activities, and number of volunteers Increase publicity of projects Encourage PLs to start recruiting early and help them if need be Organise regular meetings (both group and individual) and socials with PLs and volunteers, making sure that everyone is on track Develop existing projects and establish new ones – contact community organisations early More ambitiously, reach out to the Energy and Sustainabilty Team and work with them to launch new projects

Izzy Ingram For Fundraising and Sponsorship Officer Who am I? I’m Izzy and I’m: -

An English student in my second year, from Hild Bede.

- The social media co-ordinator for a charity called the Mwezi Foundation.

- A member of my college’s international committee.

- Nightline and Welfare trained.

Experience in Fundraising:

Ideas: -

Create regular, appealing social media content.

Organise more engaging fundraising events. In particular, I would like to draw upon sources of support that we already, and uniquely, have at our disposal as a university (such as clubs and societies, or colleges). This might include inter-college sports fixtures, for example.

In January, I independently organised a charity auction, in order to raise the funds required to send Happy Nazi, a Kenyan schoolgirl, to senior school. Happy had already earned her place at senior school, but she was unable to take it up because her family could not afford the fees. I heard about this through my work with the Mwezi Foundation, and contacted several local businesses, asking for donations to the auction and informing them about the cause.

As a result, Happy is now in school. In addition, I am running the Great North Run this September, and am already making fundraising plans for this.