TeamUCL Sports Clubs are powerhouses. Last year, including taster memberships, our clubs reached over 11,000 students. That’s 20% percent of all students at UCL.
There is so much potential for clubs to offer not just sport, but also community, and that’s why TeamUCL Against Hate was created. It’s our framework to empower clubs to deliver impactful events, initiatives, and programmes to benefit students across UCL.
What is TeamUCL Against Hate?
This programme supports clubs to deliver action plans based on three areas; Pride in TeamUCL, Diversity in TeamUCL, and Zero Tolerance of Sexual Harassment.
- Pride in TeamUCL relates to all things LGBTQ+ inclusion! For example; trans inclusion, tackling homophobia and active allyship through sport.
- Diversity in TeamUCL relates to improving diversity in your club, sport or community. This could be demographic based, such as broadening gender or ethnic diversity in a club, or even based on type of courses. E.g., are your sessions inaccessible to postgrads? What can you do about that?
- Zero Tolerance of Sexual Harassment relates to reducing instances of sexual assault or harassment in student communities. Topics could be things like consent, body positivity or tackling misogyny and promoting positive masculinity.
What does it look like?
- Clubs first complete a compulsory training session to start building an inclusion plan. This session is mandatory for Welfare Officers based on feedback from clubs that took part in 2023/24, and Presidents and any other committee members who focus on equity and inclusion can also attend. Within the programme, the initial training session is the only compulsory element.
- Clubs will then sign a pledge, which commits them to certain actions, like actively opposing abuse, appointing representatives for each of the three areas, and writing an inclusion plan.
- The inclusion plan targets three areas: Diversity, Pride, and Zero Tolerance of Sexual Harassment. Clubs get support from staff to map out things like events, initiatives and training opportunities that hit each area. Once completed, submit this to TeamUCL, and get started on your actions! You’ll have staff on hand to help at any point during the year.
- At the end of the year, you’ll be asked to submit an impact report, detailing how you enacted positive change across each area. Impact is measured by the range of target groups reached. For example, did initiatives reach club members, the wider TeamUCL community through clubs collaborating, or the wider community, through things like charity fundraising. Some initiatives will hit more than one group!
Why is TeamUCL Against Hate important?
For students and members
- More students feel like UCL is somewhere they can belong.
- More students see sports clubs as something fun and welcoming, and as communities they want to join.
- More students join, talk about and love TeamUCL sports clubs.
For clubs
- Greater visibility across Union channels through a detailed comms plan.
- Increased number and diversity of members.
- Increased impact of club offer; more students playing sport, better chances to perform at competitions, and better attendance at sessions and socials.
- Gain development points to push for either Bronze, Silver, or Gold Development Awards, earning funding for your club. All Gold clubs from the last two years have gained significant development points from TeamUCL Against Hate.
Club support
Sports Development staff are formalising the support given to clubs who engage in EDI programmes and initiatives. There will be 'check-in' workshops for TeamUCL Against Hate and Workshops
| TeamUCL Against Hate workshops | Campaign workshops | Regular updates | staff support |
|---|---|---|---|
| Term 1 – end of November Term 2 – end of February | Held roughly two weeks before each campaign. | Email and newsletter content with other projects and how to get involved. | Support via email Drop in meetings |
Submission deadlines
| Item | Date | Time | Medium |
|---|---|---|---|
| All clubs have access to key documents | Tuesday 8th October | ||
| Inclusion Plan Drop In Session | Monday 14th October | 12:00 | What's On event |
| Pledge and draft plan deadline | Sunday 27th October | 23:59 | Submission webform |
| Term 1 workshop | November | tbc | What's On event |
| Term 2 workshop | February | tbc | What's On event |
| Inclusion report deadline | tbc | tbc | Submission webform |
Get involved in Union EDI work!
Campaigns
TeamUCL will be engaging in:
- Black History Month (October)
- Disability History Month (November/December)
- LGBT+ History Month (February)
We'll be running campaign workshops for clubs to chat about ideas, share learnings from previous years and find opportunities to collaborate.
All Jokes Aside
Our campaign 'All Jokes Aside' aims to support male-identifying students at UCL to meaningfully engage in activities to support their mental health and wellbeing. We run free sport and activity sessions, deliver training and provide resources through the campaign page. Find out more here!
Project Active
Project Active aim to support postgraduate students and women of the global majority to get physically active. They run classes 7 days a week, and have just launched their new 'Give it a go' programme to collaborate with sports clubs! Project Active also run a 'This Girl Can' campaign each year in Term 2, and there will be opportunities to collaborate during that week. Find out more about Give It A Go here.