Kelly, from Thames Reach, gives us some insight into her experience working with the Student-Led Project (SLP) Open Space Redevelopment. Kelly submitted the idea for this project through the Volunteering Service's Organisation-Led SLP Scheme. UCL students were recruited to develop the project idea and, in partnership with Thames Reach, they worked on very creative and original ideas!
A bit of background from Kelly...
We're a homelessness charity so we have supported housing, where people live with us and we offer them support to try and get themselves ready for more independent living. A big part of staying at a project like this is to make sure people engage in their wellbeing, to keep their mental health, you know, good.
Some of our projects have garden spaces, green spaces sort of attached to the projects. The staff will try and maintain the green spaces, but really a lot of the time the green spaces are not being used and, certainly post COVID, what we found was that the gardens in our projects have gotten really overgrown and clients have stopped using those spaces.
So when I saw that there was an opportunity to have a group supporting us in rejuvenating the green space it just seemed like a really good opportunity to get involved in.
I think the main thing that really spoke to me was that, being a charity, having a budget attached to a project is really helpful for us, because often we have to prioritize. For example, making sure that our clients have things like ID, so they might have to apply for a passport. Those things will always take priority over, say a green space at our project. So it was just really an amazing opportunity for us to get some support from people who are happy to volunteer their time, but also some financial support to make sure it actually happened.
Can you briefly describe the activities that you and the volunteers were involved in during the partnership?
The volunteers planned and brainstormed with me around what we could use the green space for. Traditionally, we've always just had, you know, maybe a bench that people can sit on and the grass area, and that was it. And actually the students were really ambitious in thinking about some of the ideas of different plants that can support wellbeing. So whether that's flowers that have a strong scent or whether that's having a herb garden so that clients can go and pick fresh herbs that they can then cook with or, you know, add to a summer salad, things like that.
So I think that not only was the doing really important, the volunteers have obviously been getting their hands dirty doing some gardening work, but also just the planning and thoughts around how to make this a holistic project was really impressive.
What impact did this Project have on the beneficiaries and your organisation?
I think that for us, a lot of the time our client group feels that people don't care about them, that they might be people with mental health issues, that society almost doesn't think that they're worth having time and money spent on. A project like this really says to our clients “we care about you, other people care about you and they care to put in the time and energy and effort to make your home environment, whilst you're with us, really special”.
So the initial impact is really strong, clients will see students getting involved and think “oh you know the this group really cares about us”.
But I also think that the longer impact, when this project is through, is that having access to a space where, you can see it's lush, it smells nice, there are herbs, and I mean gardening and even just being in a green space is good for the soul.
Certainly, if I go to the park and the park is, you know, either a beautiful day, or the plants are out, or even in the autumn and things are crisp... but if I go to the park and it's full of litter and all the flowers are dead or being trampled over, you know, you don't feel good.
So it really does impact people’s wellbeing and I think that this will be a legacy that can continue over time, which is really nice.
Why did your organisations decide to host one of our Student-Led Projects?
I think for us it was a no brainer. I think UCL were really passionate about being involved in the community and that really shows, there's always lots of different initiatives, the Volunteering Service is really helpful, and so I think for us, yeah, it was like, why wouldn't we?
As I said we sometimes get volunteers that maybe want to do a bit of clearing or a bit of garden maintenance which is fine. But when we've got a project that's quite unloved, we need a real group focus.
I met with the volunteers online and we did a little bit of training just so that they were aware of the project and the clients and just some things to think about. I'm just really impressed with how engaged the students were, a lot of them were from outside of the UK and potentially from places where they don't have the huge visual street homelessness population, and people were just really keen and asked questions, and I was just really impressed.
To be honest with you, I kind of reflected on my time as a student, I was definitely less community engaged and I think students now are just so keen to help out and get involved, which is just fab.
What advice would you give to another organisation considering whether to host one of our Student-Led Projects?
Be ambitious and also let the students come up with ideas and think about if those ideas can be implemented. So often when we're in our work we're so in it that we can't think of new ideas, if someone messaged me now to come up with a new idea, I'd be like… I don't know!
And actually a lot of the time the students came up with new thoughts and ideas that perhaps we wouldn't have thought of as an organisation.
So I would say be ambitious and let students be creative because that's where some really good ideas come from.
If your school or organisation is interested in partnering with one of our Student-Led Projects? Find out more information here!