Linda works at One Housing, one of the organisations that our Student-Led Projects collaborate with. We had a wonderful chat with her about their experience working with our Student-Led Projects, and the impact they have had on the organisation and its beneficiaries.
Can you tell us about the Student-Led Projects that you have worked with this year?
At One Housing we have worked with Double Exposure, in which students worked with our customers on photography and art, it was a lovely project. The student volunteers were very adaptable, kind, understanding, patient, and they came out with lots and lots of ideas. That’s one project that we are very grateful for.
We also worked with UCLef, Kaito (the Project Leader) is a great asset and very valued by us. He offered to do a Christmas concert last year, which was difficult because of COVID-19, but he came back this Christmas and did a concert with his fellow students. I asked whether they would do jingles and carols, and they played them, it was absolutely brilliant. He has done other one-off concerts, and people just love him, they look forward to having him. Kaito is so brilliant, so kind, and the music, and the group that he plays with is just unbelievable, so thank you so much.
Now we are doing a project with the Origami Volunteering Project. I saw the project in your newsletter but that it was for school children, so I sent an email and said “Would you do it for older people?”, and yes! We’ve adapted it for older people.
To me this relationship with UCL is absolutely brilliant, because you are so kind to us, and the students that have come along have been brilliant!
We are also in discussions with Project Impactive, because we want them to work with customers in senior living, looking at devices that would help them. The Project Leader is now talking to the General Manager, and they are working out the best devices that we can make together, something that’s useful, easy to use, and that would really benefit the lives of our customers.
Can you briefly describe the activities that your participants were involved in?
With the Origami Volunteering Project, they are so talented it’s unbelievable. Like with all UCL students, they are so adaptable and so patient, because our customers are vulnerable, and you need to be flexible with them and understanding, and they are doing some brilliant work. They created roses in red, white and blue, and we are going to send them to the Queen for her Jubilee.
If you look at our older people, they are senior living, and need extra care, so they are people living with dementia, with learning disabilities, there are abled bodied people as well, but we have a mixture. So, art is such a great leveller, just like music, it helps them use their cognitive skills, their hand-eye coordination. When we have the project with us, I don’t want them to go, but I know we’ve only got them for a short period… it motivates the older people, and some of the things that they have done, you think wow! In an hour or two hours, to produce something like this is unbelievable.
With Project Impactive, the leaders have taken the time to come down, to walk around, to talk to the General Manager, to understand what the needs of our customers are. So they haven't come and said “we’ve got this project and you’re going to take it”, they come and say “we have an idea, what would you like us to do?”, so it’s a partnership from start to finish, that’s what I like.
With UCLef, it’s classical music and people love it, it’s calming, it’s soothing, really helpful for people living with dementia or the onset of dementia, it is brilliant.
It’s partnership, it’s a work in progress, and that’s the beauty of it, it’s not forced on you, it grows with you.
Why did your organisations decide to host one of our Student-Led Projects?
When I was told about the Student-Led Projects, I was attracted to it because it’s intergenerational, that means that you have young people that come into the services, and that has helped the well-being of our customers. Young people come to us, we’re not forced to go to them, so the customers, who are vulnerable, feel safe where they are. That’s one of the things that I liked about the projects.
To be truthful as well, we are so short on funding, and there is a grant to help the students, so we are not tied in with the funding.
And also, they are helpful, they don’t create obstacles, so it’s easy, it’s an easy win for us, because they are adaptive and helpful, and they find solutions, and problem solve. So it’s easy to work with the projects, it’s an easy relationship. They want to make a difference to the people that they work with, and they are not judgemental.
The enthusiasm of your students to want to make a difference is a joy.
I haven’t come across any one of the students who has turned their noses up, and that makes a big difference.
What impact did these Student-Led Projects have on the participants and/or your organisation?
The impact is that it improves their mental wellbeing, you know to do a project, to be taken out, to be able to take pictures, and then see the end product. For our homeless customers, that someone actually cared, that they came and did a project with them, it helps.
For our older people it’s breaking down isolation, bringing them together, having young people in the room. "All of these people are giving up their time, they’re young, and they want to be with us". That helps their mental wellbeing, it breaks down isolation by bringing people together, because sometimes, you live in a house and you don’t know your neighbours, it’s the same with someone in one of our supported living rooms, they live in their own flats and they don’t know their neighbours, so bringing them together, it expands their network. After the session is over, it helps their wellbeing, because they take their hard work back home and they can think to themselves, “I created this”.
It also has a knock on effect, because if our customers are feeling well and happy, they interact with their support workers in a different way, they are more amenable, more receptive to taking their medication, more receptive to all the things we need to do, because they’re in a good mood.
What advice would you give to another organisation considering whether to host one of our Student-Led Projects?
Don’t procrastinate. Personally, I hope that this programme continues forever, there are lots of projects that will come along, and I will always take them. You will only win, not only you as an organisation, but your beneficiaries, and at the end of the day they are what you’re doing this for, you’re doing it for your beneficiaries, and for their well-being, so I wouldn’t procrastinate.
Also, work collaboratively. I found that with the students, you talk to them, you share ideas, it’s a partnership, and in a partnership, it develops, so let it develop normally. If you put up boundaries, it’s not going to be a success. Have a discussion, and let it grow, and then you and your beneficiaries will benefit. They will enjoy it, and they'll ask for more projects.
I think that you’re leading the way in this, because actually, UCL is a big university in the middle of Camden. People walk in and out of it. It’s an amazing place, but what you’re doing for the community, you can’t buy it, and organisations like myself, can’t buy it. I can’t put enough value on it.
The value of the things you do, not only for your students because they also gain from it, but also for us as a community, you can't put a price on it.
It's been a pleasure working with you, and I hope that we continue the partnership. I’ve never had one complaint, and I’m sure I’ll never have one complaint. The students are a credit to you and what you do is a credit to Camden as a whole, and they should value it.
Want to start your own Student-led Volunteering Project? Find out more and share your ideas with us here!