September at Oxford Hub
September — a month for heading back to school, spotting the changing colours and conkers around the city, and returning from the summer with renewed energy for social change!
Systems Changers
As part of our work with families and professionals in the Leys, we have been exploring how to improve the system of early help for families, delivering more community-based support. During module 3 in September we focused on taking action, and we learned more about community organising with Citizens UK. This helped Systems Changers participants learn about relational power and how to use this to take action and achieve wins in the areas that are important to them. From reclaiming the local leisure centre so that it serves the community, to engaging parents to make schools more inclusive, participants enjoyed exploring what could be possible if they worked together.
We’ll be sharing more about the Systems Changers on our blog as participants move to action over the next module — stay tuned to find out more!
Students get creative on our communications and design placement
We ran a Communications and Design Placement for Oxford University students. It may have officially lasted for one week, but we hope for it to have an even longer impact!
We had a blast with all of the wonderful students involved in the placement, which was all about producing communications designs and campaigns for three Oxford Hub programmes: Schools Plus, FELLOW, and Ready Set Go, to inspire students and residents to get volunteering with them.
It was great to see everyone’s designs and campaigns — from postcards to flyers, newsletters to Instagram graphics, T-shirts to word-of-mouth shout-outs and more, we’ve been left incredibly inspired and motivated.
Thank you so much to all of the fantastic students for getting so stuck in and for being such superstars throughout! We cannot wait to see your fantastic work going out there.
Changes in our health support work
It’s two and a half years since we started Oxford Together in response to the covid pandemic. What a journey we’ve all been on since then!
Over the uncertainty and change of the last two years, we have adapted, discontinued some of our activities, and handed some of them over to more specialist partners. We have also learned a lot about what the needs are in Oxford’s communities, and have started new activities to address these in a longer-term, sustainable way. Now, we’re formally ending Together Neighbours, and we’ve written a blog post to share with you some of the highlights of what we achieved together, and our plans for the future.
We’d also like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who contributed to the amazing community response to the pandemic, to all the neighbours continuing to support each other, and community groups doing sterling work to face new and ongoing challenges in our city and beyond 🌟
New staff members have joined our team!
This month, two new team members have joined us to build a better Oxford.
Carmen is joining us as Schools Plus manager and will be coordinating our Schools Plus tutors. The volunteer tutors help local children with their schoolwork, supporting them to reach their academic potential. She’ll also manage our Twinning programme, which connects local schools with Oxford University colleges to break down barriers to education.
Roisin has joined us as Student Social Action Coordinator. She’ll be getting university students, particularly students from low-income households, volunteering on our programmes and engaged in social action, for example by setting up their own community enterprises.
Get in touch to find out more about the programmes and join the amazing community building a better Oxford!
Preparing for another academic year
We are looking forward to welcoming back to student population for a new academic year, with Brookes students having returned this September. We have been busy making plans to get students involved in our volunteering programmes, and we hope to collaborate with the Student Union to host the Social Action Fair to get students involved with local charities, non-profits and social action societies.
