December Update: Hampshire Hub Day, Mid-Year Feedback and Happy Holidays!
The end of 2018 is finally upon us and what a year it has been. For Student Hubs, you can see all about our year in our 2017–18 Impact Report, which showcases the fantastic work all of our Hubs do across the network (and features two of our students and one partner!).
But what have we been up to at Southampton Hub this month?
Applications OPEN:
Applications are open for Schools Plus, Code Plus, Libraries Plus, Branch Up and Active, so make sure you get those applications in by Wednesday 23rd January. We will be doing selection and training workshops the week commencing the week commencing 28th January, so start your 2019 off with some amazing social action opportunities!
LinkAges, BioCycle and Local Action have applications open all year round, so you can apply to these as well if you have missed our deadline or want to try something non-youth based.
Hampshire Hub Day:
On Wednesday 5th December, we brought together student committees from Winchester Hub and Southampton Hub for a five hour mega-training session.
The day was held at Avenue Campus and involved a hackathon about problems the Hubs face, a mindfulness and wellbeing session, opportunities to network with each other’s committees, and a skill sharing exercise.
The day was all organised by Sophie, Youth Projects Officer (pictured right in the red jumper) and Lydia, Project Support Officer (pictured left behind Arvin) from Winchester Hub, so well done to them and the committees for such a fantastic day!
Mid-Year Feedback:
It’s that time of year where we ask all our partners and student volunteers to fill out our mid-year feedback (see the above links to our student volunteer GForm), but why do we do it? Here’s some of our reasons:
- Data: yes, data can be very boring, but it’s also incredibly important! The figures and stats we’re able to pull from our impact reporting go directly to our funders to prove the wonderful things we’re doing with their funding; it goes into new funding bids to raise more funding for projects and staffing; and they demonstrate whether we’re meeting our outcomes (AKA the reasons the projects exist in the first place).
- Quality: we want to make sure that all the projects we’re offering are high-quality and high impact for the people who engage with them, students AND beneficiaries as per our double benefit model. Our impact reporting is a great way to assess this and pick up on any issues so we can fix them for the next term.
- The network: all the questions you get asked for a project like Schools Plus at Southampton Hub are exactly the same as what people at Kingston Hub or Bristol Hub get asked. This is because we use this data to compare and contrast across our network to ensure national programmes like Schools Plus are doing what they set out to do, and so that Student Hubs can showcase the fantastic work they’re doing.
Mid-year feedback and end of project feedback is COMPULSORY for all volunteers this year. Last year we received 25% of all volunteers’ feedback for 2017–18, and we don’t believe this is representative enough of all of your experiences.
So don’t let other volunteers speak for you — fill out the feedback and have your say. We want to hear all feedback, and if something’s not going right in your programme, we want to know. And if things are going right and you’re enjoying it, we absolutely love seeing that as well, so tell us about it!
Happy holidays!:
We hope all of our volunteers and partners have a wonderful holiday over the winter break. For our students, we know prepping for exams or getting coursework completed can be challenging, so make sure to take care of yourself, try set aside time to do your university work, and enjoy your holiday. This is your time to relax, recharge, and get excited for 2019, and we can’t wait to see you all in the new year.
That’s it for December! Keep up to date with our Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and website in the meantime for any updates, and we look forward to seeing you all in January.