Tuesday 21-11-2023 - 09:52

Hi everyone! I’m Alexandria, your Vice President Community & Wellbeing officer here at JMSU! I have had a fantastic few months engaging with our students and campaigning on important issues. Below I will share what I’ve been up to and how I have been working towards my manifesto goals! 

 

Student safety 

I have created over 500 safety packs for students and distributed them in various locations, such as Freshers Fair and at our pop-up unions across campus. Some of the items in the safety packs have been placed in the Student Life Building for students to take when they need them (e.g., reusable drinks covers, drinks spiking test strips, condoms, information leaflets with LJMU & JMSU support services). If you would like a safety pack, please do not hesitate to email me and I will be more than happy to help! 

We have successfully promoted and started recruitment for the Nighttime Guardian scheme, a project I am very passionate about. The first cohort of guardians have now completed their training, which I also took part in. The volunteers and I will be ready to go out into the city centre over the coming months to help vulnerable students using the night-time economy to feel safer.  

At the beginning of next semester, we will be recruiting again for more volunteers. If you would like to get involved or find out more information about the Nighttime Guardian scheme, please check out the website. 

I attended the Club Health International conference in Liverpool, which was hosted by LJMU, Merseyside Violence Reduction Partnership, and Nighttime Economy Solutions. There were aspects of student safety which have been insightful and helped to shape my manifesto goals even more. Topics included:  

• DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION (making nightlife safer & more equitable) 

• DRINK, DRUGS AND RELATED HEALTH BEHAVIOURS (preventing & mitigating harm) 

• VIOLENCE (preventing & responding to violence against women and girls, sexual violence, exploitation and terrorism) 

• MENTAL HEALTH AND NIGHTLIFE 

• DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY  

Finally, I been planning an event at the Student Life Building on Friday 24th November, the day before EVAWG (Saturday 25th November), for students to attend and find out what support services are available to them. During the event, various charities such as RASA & WHISC will be there to talk to students about the services they offer. There will also be a banner making session in the SLB activities space where students can attend to make banners for the march and vigil that is taking place in the city centre on the 25th. This will be in collaboration with various societies such as: Survivors, Feminist, LGBTQ+, Women in STEM, and Psychology. 

 

Travel & Accommodation support 

Shaquita, the JMSU Voice & Support team and I are creating a transport paper which identifies issues that students face with travelling to university and the costs that come with it. This has been sent to the Executive Leadership Team at the university to hopefully help students with their travel costs as part of our work for cost-of-living support. 

I have been working with staff from the Legal Advice Centre to distribute the Know Your Rights booklet, which was an initiative started by a previous officer. The booklet aims to inform students of their rights and how to get support on various issues such as: renting, harassment, discrimination etc. This booklet can be found on the JMSU website over the upcoming months. 

Furthermore, in collaboration with Liverpool Student Homes and the SAW Student Living Team, I am arranging various housing awareness drop-in events. We aim to alleviate the pressure on students searching for housing shortly after starting university, providing valuable guidance and support. I am planning to have multiple drop ins throughout the academic year to make sure students are being supported with their accommodation/housing all the way through their time at LJMU, from the moment they begin university to the moment they graduate. 

 

Enhanced wellbeing support 

For World Animal Day this year, we led a volunteering event alongside Dr Julia Nowack to help set up Hedgehog tracker tunnels and cameras across LJMU campuses, hoping to observe these creatures in action and locate their habitats. Despite dedicated efforts, no Hedgehogs were recorded, but valuable wildlife footage, including a young fox at the John Lennon Art Building gardens, was captured. Although unsuccessful in Hedgehog sightings, the initiative sparked student interest in the Hedgehog Friendly Campus Society. I hope events like these will help to contribute to the positive wellbeing of students by getting them involved with the animals and nature that surrounds our campuses! 

I have been working with JMSU events team and the other officers on hosting wellbeing events on the last Wednesday of each month to help promote wellbeing amongst students, particularly around stressful times of the year such as exam periods. 

Something big I’m working towards on my manifesto is successfully getting therapy animals visiting campus – I have been working with JMSU staff and the Health & Safety at LJMU to plan events for therapy dogs from a charity to visit LJMU campuses to help support the mental health and wellbeing of LJMU students. Watch this space for more info on this... 

 

I am really enjoying my time so far as you VP Community and Wellbeing and can’t wait to see you all at upcoming events! If you want to follow my journey, further feel free to follow me on social media.