Basketball Club (Women's): Welfare Officer

When I applied for the Welfare officer role last year, I talked about my experience in the UCLWB committee, my personal interest in mental health and inclusivity, my experience volunteering with vulnerable people, and my knowledge of the help and support available for students both from within the university and outside.

Now, having been the UCLWB welfare officer for the past 9 months, I realise that all those things, as well as the Welfare trainings that I have attended throughout the years have been invaluable. However, if there is something I have learnt in this role is that talking to people is the most important, as well as the most rewarding aspect of it.

The position has not come without its challenges, but I have enjoyed working through those for what I believe are the club’s best interests. I hope that I have done justice to the role, and I hope that I can continue to do that, using my experience to become even better at my job and helping UCLWB improve as a club.

 Aside from supporting individual members of the club, my priorities include fostering inclusivity and inter-team relationships in UCLWB, which will become even more important as the club grows, and which will hopefully lead to many more people seeing UCLWB as I have seen it for the past 4 years: a family.

During the years I’ve spent with the club, it’s become clear how important team coherence and support between the players can be. Having had a captain role for the past 2 years I've found that this positive culture is important to set from the beginning of the year, something which we facilitated in our team by having an open discussion about expectations for how we as a team wanted to function and what that would require from individual players. This kind of active discussion is something I would like to promote throughout the club through a role in the committee as welfare officer. Players need to feel a level of respect and support in order to play to the best of their capabilities, ultimately that is something I believe will let UCLWB grow as a club. 

The role of the welfare officer extends beyond driving a good club culture to being the contact point for individual players when they need support. With previous experience of working with mental health through psychiatric internships I am familiar with discussing personal concerns and issues, and would strive to help facilitate further support if that would be needed. Additionally, I would like to drive a good relationship between the club and support services provided by UCL. As a club we stand in a position to act as a resource and middle man between the university and our players. If elected as welfare officer, that is what I would like to ensure we provide our players with in the coming seasons.