In Our WordsStudent Hubs Annual Review 2011-12

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On 22 September 2011, Student Hubs realised a long-held dream: we opened the UK’s only multi-purpose building dedicated to student social action and volunteering. Ever since we set up what was then Oxford Hub in 2007, we’ve believed that our model could operate through a physical space in order to reach out to the community. We imagined a place where people could come together, make connections, learn, discover, collaborate and make a positive difference in the world.

And now - many paint pots, electricians, kitchen staff, plates of food and numerous challenges later - we’re here. We write this from our new central office in Oxford, overlooking a few of the colleges, cafes and libraries in which Student Hubs was born. Our dream is slowly and surely taking hold: more students are getting involved, forging links with the local community, enjoying the space to host ethical events, reaching more people and setting up new projects. We’re financially safeguarding our future, too, through the development of our sister social enterprise (more on Turl Street Kitchen on pages 6-7). We’re learning more every day but, so far, this is working. And in the future, we will continue to explore the different ways Hubs can operate in local environments, whether through networks, community spaces, or online.

Another highlight of the year has been developing our national programmes. The team hosted a successful Emerge conference on social entrepreneurship with inspiring speakers Bill Strickland and Jack Sim (pages 26-27), supported students passionate about international development with overseas volunteering workshops and resources (pages 24-25), and delivered the Impact conference (page 23) on student volunteering and social action. We also expanded the Ethical Internships Scheme (pages 32-33), placing 75 students after a record 451 applications, and

WelcomeWelcome to our 2011-12 Annual Review

2 | INTRODUCTION

Contents

2 Introduction6 Social Enterprise8 More Students10 Warwick Hub11 Imperial Hub12 Southampton Hub:Futures Festival13 What Next?14 Doing More15 The Week16 Oxford Hub: Community Volunteering18 Conferences19 Bristol Hub: Social Enterprise Conference20 Oxford Hub: Vice Chancellor’s Civic Awards21 What Next?22 More Effectively23 Impact Conference24 Training & Incubation26 Emerge Conference28 Warwick Hub: Supporting Charitable Activities29 What Next?30 For Longer31 Graduates32 Ethical Internships34 The Social35 What Next?36 Hubbits37 Finances38 Thanks

Adam O’Boyle Executive Director

Adam Grodecki Chair of Trustees

delivered a set of Climate Forums to encourage debate and discussion on environmental and sustainability issues.

This Annual Review presents our impact through the four Student Hubs key outcomes: more students (from page 8), doing more (from page 14), more effectively (from page 22) and for longer (from page 30). This reflects our fundamental belief that students will access our services at different points on their own journey, and have different support needs, from inspiration to tailored advice and training.

For delivering this impact, enormous thanks and congratulations are due to our hard-working, innovative, and downright incredible family of students, staff, and trustees. They make amazing things happen in Bristol, Cambridge, Imperial College, Oxford, Oxford Brookes Southampton, Warwick, and beyond.

There’s much more to come. In 2012-13, we will be hosting Student Volunteering Week together with NUS for the first time. We will reach and surpass the milestone of 25,000 students signed up to our network. We will open a new Hub, at SOAS. We will welcome a further twelve graduates to our staff team, working across our four offices in Bristol, Cambridge, London, and Oxford. And, in May 2013, we will celebrate the fifth birthday of Student Hubs.

So to our partners, stakeholders and friends - your support has never been so deeply appreciated. On behalf of everyone here at Student Hubs (and you can find us all on page 36), thank you. And here’s to another wonderful year.

About Student Hubs

Theory of change

Founded in 2007, Student Hubs is a charity working in UK universities to transform student social action. We act as a catalyst, providing events, opportunities and support to empower students to make a positive difference now and in the future.

Our motivationThe world is full of challenges: poverty, climate change, injustice, apathy. We believe that to face these challenges it is crucial to invest in students. They have the energy, passion and drive to make a difference in the world.

Students are also at a highly formative stage of life, which means issues and causes they engage with now are likely to remain important to them in the future. And given that the students of today are the leaders, thinkers, and decision-makers of tomorrow, facilitating their engagement in social action now will reap benefits for years to come.

4 | INTRODUCTION

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Our impactOur approach is built towards achieving four key outcomes:1. We engage MORE STUDENTS in social issues and action.2. Students we engage are DOING MORE to achieve social change. 3. Students are acting MORE EFFECTIVELY to achieve impact. 4. Engagement in social issues and action lasts FOR LONGER..

Be ambitious

Be social

Be long-term

Be motivational

Be innovative

Our vision Our vision is of a flourishing community of socially aware and socially active students who make a positive difference at home and abroad, both during their time at university and in their future careers.

Our missionOur mission is to increase student engagement in social action and to ensure these efforts are effective and sustainable.

Our valuesWe are problem solvers, and go the extra mile just to check out the view. We are constantly learning.

We aim to be social and to nurture all relationships with empathy and understanding. We believe that together is stronger, and fun is better.

We hold a long-term perspective, and will always stay true to our core values to guide us into the future.

We act positively, with enabling energy and motivation. We are optimistic and give everyone and everything a chance.

We’re bold and we’re visionary. We want maximum impact, and we will change things to get there. We’re not afraid to try, and we’re not afraid to fail.

Highlight: Opening our own socialenterpriseFour years since the begin-ning of the Student Hubs journey, we launched a sister social enterprise to build a sustainable future. Turl Street Kitchen supports, promotes and underpins the social impact of Student Hubs, and is already becoming a firm favourite in central Oxford.

When we started our Student Hubs journey in 2007, we knew that one day we would need our own home. And we also knew that one day we would need our own sustainable income stream. With these two motivators in mind, and a lot of searching later, we found and leased a tall old Georgian townhouse in the centre of Oxford, opening in late September 2011. It is with enormous pride and excitement that we can look back at one year of running the only building in the UK dedicated to supporting student and community engagement. The main commercial operation,

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120,000cups of tea sold

6 | INTRODUCTION

and the heart of our home, is Turl Street Kitchen, headed up by the fantastic Carl, Patrick and Josh. The food is delicious and, where possible, it is local, seasonal and sustainably sourced. This has been a challenge all through the year, but it is one we have relished. To really push the sustainability agenda, we set ourselves the task of running events where only produce sourced within a 25-mile radius of Turl Street Kitchen could be served.

Upstairs is our real, live Hub which is always bustling with events and meetings led by

IN OUR WORDS | 7

65,000fresh, local, seasonal

meals served

Featured in the

Good Food Guide

”students and community groups alike. We’ve had Oxfam host a swap shop on International Women’s Day and fundraising events run by the student group Friends of Helen and Douglas House. There have been film screenings as part of the Oxford Brookes Human Rights Film Festival, away days for local charities, and student comedy nights raising laughs, funds, and awareness for international development initiatives. We’ve created a library, specially for students running social action projects. And the door is always open to the offices where our team help students on the ground

find the perfect opportunity for them to make a difference in the world.

The list of ways in which this building is changing how students change the world is endless, growing, and never ceases to amaze. We can’t wait to report back on our second year, and perhaps plans for a second centre like this one. In the meantime, please drop in and say hello.

Adam O’Boyle, Hub Commercial Ventures

We engage

MORE STUDENTS with social issues and action

21,569 students have joined

the network

7Local Hubs: Bristol, Brookes, Cambridge, Oxford, Imperial, Southampton,and Warwick

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Outcome 1

Our first step to achieving greater impact is to deliver initiatives which encourage more students to get involved in and engage with social and environmental issues. This means creating a higher level of on-campus awareness of issues and opportunities and pro-actively reaching out to more and more diverse communities of students. It also means gradually growing our network to include new universities where there is a need for a Hub.

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= 500 students that have joined the network

2500 students joined the network

in the first month

New Hub: Warwick

I was Warwick Hub’s first ever coordinator, from conception to the end of our first full year. I’m proud of everything we managed to achieve last year; but my personal highlights would have to be the first event we ever put on - a film screening of Just Do It that attracted over 150 people, “The Series” which we successfully ran in the second term, but most of all the support that we managed to provide for any individual or group that wanted to do something charitable. Before the Hub, Warwick’s charitable groups felt like separate groups each struggling to attract members or get people excited about charity, but I believe that with the Hub we’ve managed to turn those groups into a community of like minded individuals, which many more people want to be apart of. I’ve loved my time with the Hub, and I’d like to think that we’ve managed to make a lasting impact, but having met next year’s fantastic committee I’m sure they’re going to do it even bigger and better than we did!Jonny Sherwood, former Warwick Hub Co-ordinator, currently Teach First Graduate

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Warwick Hub launched at the start of October 2011 and has focussed on reaching as many students as possible, supporting student charity groups and bringing students together through networking events and socials.

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8 strong inaugural committee.

New Hub:Imperial

During the Easter holidays this year, myself and 3 other members of the newly formed Imperial Hub committee, alongside other Hub committee members from across the UK, took a precious day out of our revision time tables to participate in some Student Hubs training. The training day was held at the Imperial College Union and included learning about the mission of Student Hubs as well as how to be a successful committee and lead a team. I thought that the day was a fantastic way to get to know the other members of the Imperial Hub better and also meet some committee members from other Hubs. I soon felt as though I was beginning to properly understand what Student Hubs was really all about. After a yummy lunch we discussed some of the skills that good leaders should possess to effect real change in the world around them. As I left I felt really excited and enthused about working with the Imperial Hub committee to set up some projects for the following academic year. Caroline Wood, Imperial Hub Committee Member

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Our first adventure in the capital came in the form of Imperial Hub in early 2012. Imperial Hub has been building up support and recognition as well as their core committee ahead of a full launch at the start of the 2012-13 academic year.

An experiment in reaching more than our ‘usual suspects’, the Futures Festival hosted by Southampton Hub aimed to engage students with social and environmental issues through different themes and perspectives, such as ethical fashion.

Futures Festival: Spotlight on Southampton Hub

Amy and Rosie (and the rest of their huge team) worked so hard to pull together the Futures Festival, which is certainly Southampton Hub’s most ambitious event so far, and I really enjoyed watching and helping it all come together. For me, the highlights of the weekend were packing out the Bridge bar on Friday night for the ethical fashion show and seeing the wonderful ethical clothes available locally. I also loved the range of speakers - from fellow students to global activists and those using state of the art technology to find solutions to environmental problems. Lastly, the union cafe’s vegan dinner was a wonderful way to end the festival. But what made the weekend really amazing was that the committee was a collaboration of people from Hubs, student groups; Green Action and students from Southampton Solent University, working with support from the union’s ethics and environments committee. I am also so proud of the various things that have since emerged from the conference. Myself and Amy have set up an Ethical Fashion Forum, loads of delegates reconsidered dissertation topics, changed their behaviour, and we put the spotlight on local enterprises that are working towards a better future!

Tasha Unwin, Southampton Hub Co-ordinator

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Eightydelegates attended

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What next?

We will launch SOAS Hub, bringing our total number of Hubs to eight

We will surpass 25,000 students signed up to our network

Each Hub will expand their reach in the student community by at least 25%

Our network will develop programmes to engage new audiences, such as graduates and students interested in sport and business

Outcome 2

We provide initiatives across 5 different programmes: community action, ethical careers, international development, environment & sustainability and social entrepreneurship

Students we engage are

DOING MORE to achieve social change

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It is not enough to just encourage more students to get involved; we also work to highlight and create opportunities for students to take action, whether it is through an inspiring conference with scope for learning and networking, or signposting clear pathways to, for example, internships and volunteering opportunities. Something we’re very proud of is maintaining a balance of supporting opportunities and creating new ones where there is student demand.

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When I joined the Cambridge Hub committee I didn’t really know what sort of ethical activities were going on in the university, so writing The Week was a great way to get involved with only my enthusiasm, and no real expertise, to bring to the table.

Over the following year, the responsibility of putting together the newsletter every week gave me a good reason to stay on top of it all, which I’m sure I wouldn’t have managed otherwise,

The WeekOur weekly e-newsletter is a student’s gateway to opportunities, events and groups in the social and ethical scene. It is a core service of all our Hubs, and the cornerstone in our belief that if students know what is available, they can do and achieve more.

and because of this I ended the year with a much clearer picture of all the good things students get up to. On top of that, being part of the Hub committee meant I also learnt a lot about what it takes to organise things like talks, voluntary projects and even national conferences, and this definitely opened my eyes to how much is possible.

Jon Whitehead, Cambridge Hub’s The Week Author

The Hub emails and friends talking about events have made me more aware of different social issues, and its general existence is a great antidote to the excuses of apathy and ‘there’s no alternative’.

Student recipient of The Week

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CommunityVolunteering:Spotlight on Oxford HubOxford Hub incubates and supports student-led volunteering projects which tackle a range of social issues such as homelessness, isolation, and educational disadvantage.

576

Students volunteering in the local community through student-led projects

16 | DOING MORE

The students are great, they listen and help me out whenI’m confused or stuck.

School pupil

I have loved being a project coordinator and I’m very sad to be giving it up! I have met so many amazing people and developed a number of organisation and communication skills.

Project Co-ordinator

The children have developed in confidence and attitude and reading standards are improving.

Teacher

I like the number of workshops they hosted on areas like child protection. It makes you feel more prepared for your role and transfers to situations outside of the classroom too.

Volunteer

It amazes me that, in Oxford, you can drive ten minutes around the ring road from north Oxford to the Blackbird Leys estate and see a reduction in life expectancy of ten years. A growing number of students like me are discovering our borrowed city’s challenges, such as this huge inequality, and trying to do something about it.

Last year I was the Coordinator of the Oxford Hub community volunteering programme. This gave me the chance to work alongside hundreds of other students giving their time and energy to tackle issues such as homelessness, educational disadvantage and isolation. I lead the committee supporting student-led volunteering projects, helping out with challenges like scheduling, policies and building connections with different groups across the university and the community.

It’s hard for me to pick only a few projects to highlight, but for me the past year was characterised by existing volunteering projects trying new things. Kids Adventure, a project which organises activity days for children identified by Social Services as in need of extra adult attention, introduced more one-to-one mentorship time between student volunteers and the children.

Reading Plus is part of our Schools Plus programme and an established project through which students give reading and literacy support to children in primary schools. This year, the project developed a new initiative to support secondary school pupils still struggling with literacy. This has its own challenges, but we’ve worked really closely with the school, Oxford Academy, to make sure that the pupils receive the best support possible from student volunteers.

I’ve loved working with Oxford Hub on community volunteering, and can only imagine the incredible projects which will develop next year!

Eleri Smith, Oxford Hub Community Volunteering Coordinator

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In 2011-12, Hub students worked on the following conferences: Bristol International Development ConferenceBristol Social Enterprise ConferenceCambridge Climate & Sustainability ForumCambridge International Development CourseOxford Brookes Human Rights Film Festival Oxford Climate ForumOxford Ethical Careers Day

ConferencesThese events serve as a great platform for students to engage with experts, practitioners and their peers around the topics they care about, like international development and climate change. Often, Hub conferences are students’ first steps on the route to taking action and creating real impact in the world.

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Oxford Forum for International DevelopmentOxford Introduction to International DevelopmentSouthampton Futures Festival (see p. 12)Southampton International Development ConferenceWarwick Climate ForumWarwick Higher Education Summit

A key part of our local Hubs’ activities, student conferences serve to both inspire and inform, whether the topic is sustainability, human rights, education or international development. Setting aside a day or a weekend to engage with a particular issue, to learn, debate and question, can open eyes and open doors to further opportunities. It is important that local Hubs deliver and support conferences on the ground in their own university environment, to build a community of students who can then go on to

collaborate and support each other. As such, conferences are just the start of the journey to further involvement in these issues.

Over the last year we have developed follow-up initiatives to make the most of conference energy and the connections forged by delegates and speakers alike. Attendees have been inspired to start campaigns, organise local training sessions or set up projects to make an impact in their communities.

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Social Enterprise Conference: Spotlight onBristol HubThere is enormous need to demystify social enterprise among students, so many of our Hubs also run conferences and events to engage students in this area at the grassroots level.

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Social entrepreneurship seeks to innovate and create new business models that are financially sound to effect lasting social change. The Bristol Social Enterprise Conference focused on how students can make the transition from social consciousness into finding entrepreneurial solutions to social problems.

The event brought together students with budding social entrepreneurs to discuss and

debate issues and opportunities; debates explored the role of social enterprise in higher education, new inventions tackling climate change and new systems of money such as the Bristol Pound. As support and financial backing for young people’s ideas in social enterprise continues to grow, young people have a new and valued stake in shaping the worldwe live in.

Jonathan Levin, SE Conference Organiser

Social enterprise may seem like a contradiction in terms for some, but is fast emerging as a growing way to go about effecting social change.

Jonathan Levin, SE Conference Organiser

Vice-Chancellor’s Civic Awards: Spotlight on Oxford Hub

These Awards celebrate and recognise the exceptional achievements of students making a positive difference in their local or global community. Awardees demonstrate commitment and dedication to volunteering, research, campaigning or fundraising across a range of social and environmental issues.

We were presented with our awards in June. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was there to receive an award and we got to spend the day with her. I also got to meet the President of Harvard and writer John le Carré so a very, very good day full of insights and inspiration!

Joy O’Neill, Awardee

As a world-leading institution, Oxford should expect to make a major impact on the world beyond its main achievements in teaching and research. It is my great pleasure to present awards to seven students who have made a special contribution as volunteers - and in some cases not just as volunteers but as founders of new voluntary organisations.

Andrew Hamilton, Vice-Chancellor

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Schools Plus will be rolled out across three cities where Hubs operate, involving over 500 students Over 6,000 students will attend Hub events such as themed conferences on international development and climate change The Ethical Intern cohort for 2013 will grow to 100 placements for students We will host Student Volunteering Week in partnership with NUS, championing student social action across the UK

What next?

Students are acting

MORE EFFECTIVELY to achieve impact

22 | MORE EFFECTIVELY

Outcome 3 When students are engaged in running charitable groups, setting up their own social enterprises, or going out and volunteering in the local community, we offer key support such as training and advice to help these activities take place as effectively as possible. This is fundamental to increasing impact, leveraging what is already taking place to create more change, for longer.

Incubation programme Hubworks supported eight ventures to create social change

41universities accessed volunteering training at Impact 2012

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Impact just gets bigger and better each year. Nothing in the volunteering world competes with it: this year we’ve had over 150 students from 41 universities, discussing the challenges and opportunities that they’re facing. I think it’s a great atmosphere. You find people problem sharing, as much as meeting and mapping big ideas for future projects and enterprises. For me, the highlight this year was a keynote by the public academic and journalist Will Hutton. By popular agreement, he was a sensation - explaining that the work of building a strong social fabric in Britain was essential for facing key challenges - as broad as social mobility, climate change, and financial crisis. I think he really put the efforts of student volunteers into context and brought the weekend alive.

James Hubbard, Impact Conference Co-ordinator

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ImpactThe Impact Conference brings together a wide community of university students and staff involved in running volunteering initiatives. The Impact Network serves to support this activity and facilitate collaboration throughout the year.

I’m leaving the conference with a whole to-do list of ideas and approaches inspired by talks and various conversations - as well as new and stronger friendships.

Impact Delegate

Training and IncubationDifferent support is needed at different levels, so Student Hubs offers a range of training and incubation services for students and groups, to help them to be as effective as possible in their actions.

We believe that training and support give an enormous boost to students who want to make a difference in the world. We have found that this support must adapt to deliver what students need depending on their situation, whether that is just starting out as a volunteer or running a social enterprise. As such, our training and incubation initiatives are many and varied; here are some the year’s highlights.

Cambridge Hub developed an in-depth schedule of training sessions for students including fundraising, branding, presenting and

The best thing about the programme was meeting lots of inspiring people! I hadn’t anticipated that aspect of it at all but meeting the Hubs team and my fellow Hubworkers was the most useful part of the event. It is possible!

Hubworks Delegate

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even CV writing skills for students looking for careers in the voluntary sector. The training was organized well in advance so Cambridge Hub was able to promote a full training ‘termcard’ which prompted good attendance levels.

HubWorks is a new initiative aimed at incubating student projects right at the start of their lifecycle, when ideas start to become reality. The first HubWorks was delivered as a set of sessions over a residential weekend, including business planning, communications and networking. After positive feedback from the students involved,

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Last November, as the president of InterVol Nottingham, I attended the SVOP (Student Volunteering Overseas Partnership) conference, an annual conference for student-led international volunteering organisations. We discussed the ways in which we could create a UK-wide network of international volunteering organisations sharing knowledge, ideas, skills and best practice inorder to raise the standard of student-led international volunteering.

Abi Taylor - SVOP Co-ordinator

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85% of Hubworks delegates feel more equipped to create social change

HubWorks will be rolled out across our Hubs in the next year.

For the first time, Student Hubs supported an existing initiative called SVOP (Students Volunteering Overseas Partnership), which is a group of student societies facilitating international volunteering placements. Drawing on the training we provide for students volunteering in their local community, Student Hubs hosted the annual SVOP training weekend, giving support in curating and organising sessions.

EmergeWhat an amazing opportunity to share some thoughts with the business leaders of the future. Thank you.

Mike Barry, Head of Sustainable Business at Marks & Spencer

78% of Emerge delegates said the conference gave them new-found inspiration and insight on the sector.

The Emerge conference is the most significant student conference on social entrepreneurship in the UK. The Emerge Venture Lab is a spin-off programme of intense incubation support for young social entrepreneurs bringing their ideas to market.

26 | MORE EFFECTIVELY

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Great initiative to spread the word and build the skills of the student population. Fantastic persenters, stimulating debates and flawless organisation.

Dorje Mundle, Head of Corporate Citizenship at Novartis

The Emerge Conference 2011 took place on 29-30 October as the cornerstone initiative of the Emerge Programme. This year’s conference proved to be a resounding success as 450 delegates filled Oxford University’s Said Business School to capacity.

The weekend provided delegates with the opportunity to meet and learn from 60 world renowned speakers hailing from ten countries. These included: Bill Strickland (Founder and CEO of the Manchester Craftsmans’ Guild) and Jack Sim (Founder of the World Toilet Organisation), sharing their own inspiring

stories and giving advice to aspiring student social entrepreneurs.

The Emerge Venture Lab is a fellowship programme providing a range of support to eight selected high-potential student social ventures each year. Through provision of mentorship, residentials, advice clinics with corporate partners and seed funding, the Lab aims to guide these ventures from ideation to implementation. This year the lab incubated eight high-potential impact ventures with support from a wide range of mentors and organisations.

Warwick Hub worked with 13 diverse member groups in 2011-12, from large political campaigners like Warwick Amnesty to smaller volunteering groups such as the Kenyan Orphans Project (KOP) as well as the fundraising enthusiasts at RAG. I was responsible for making sure Warwick Hub gave as much effective support to these groups as possible.

The primary form of member group engagement was through the Inter-Charity Forum, a group that meets three times a term to discuss the Hub, providing feedback on our activities, as well as the actions of each group and potential

collaborations within the Warwick charity scene. We also held two successful socials for member groups: ‘The Launch’, attracting over 100 people to a Student’s Union bar for networking, and ‘The Relaunch’, a similar event with live music which had 70 attendees.

Our member engagement was largely successful, and particularly so with the more active groups, so we will focus on outreach to the smaller charities in the coming year.

Francis Wight, Warwick Hub Member Group Support and author of The Week

Supporting charitable activities: Spotlight on Warwick Hub

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Each Hub brings together and supports a network of student groups that focus on social and environmental issues. This was a key service delivered by Warwick Hub during its inaugural year.

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We will increase the number of universities and student volunteering centres that engage with the Impact Conference and the Impact Network Impact International will be launched to specifically support students volunteering overseas Training and networking will be a priority area across all Hubs and we will roll out HubWorks to all locations We will support over 100 student-led societies and groups to increase their social and environmental impact

What next?

Outcome 4

Engagement in social issues and action lasts

FOR LONGER

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Our theory of change (page 4) is based upon our the importance of the student experience on future engagement with social and environmental issues. As such, we work to ensure that students can take their passions, beliefs and interests with them into their future lives and careers. Many students are keen to pursue a career in the voluntary and social enterprise sectors, so we support them to do so as successfully as possible.

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Hub GraduatesFor the first time in 2011-12, Student Hubs pioneered an accessible, fully-funded internship scheme for recent graduates, providing accommodation, food and a stipend alongside exceptional personal and professional development opportunities in the Hub staff team.

My role whilst with Student Hubs was split into two, the first part was as a national programme coordinator, focusing on how students across the UK engage with issues of international development and human rights. My time was spent supporting conferences, events and network development in this area. The other half of my role was as part of a three person communications team working on audiovisual and design work, and supporting strategy across the organisation. Each day brought a new challenge, whether it

was getting to grips with producing a short video or organising a conference on international volunteering.

A few weeks after leaving I was able to secure my first charity job with the Social Impact Analysts Association, an international membership organisation working to make a range of social purpose organisations more effective and impactful.

Ruth Whateley, Hub Graduate

Ethical InternshipsEach summer, we recruit a cohort of students keen to get real-world experience of the voluntary and social enterprise sectors. We find hosts to match their interests and personal development needs, and give training and support to both interns and hosts throughout.

I study geography at Cambridge and am going into my third year. I’ve always wanted a charity based career and I know how competitive they are, so I thought that an internship would be a great place to start. The Student Hub route seemed like a really good option as charity internships can be just as competitive as the jobs! I spent 5 weeks with the James Andre Godfrey Smartt-Ford (JAGS) Foundation, a Community Interest Company based in Croydon which aims to end youth violence by empowering young

“ people and helping those affected by youth violence. It is a relatively small and quite new organisation but with really big ideas.

As there were so few people in the office and so much going on I was given quite a lot of responsibility which was great! I ended up doing a bit of everything: researching foundations, writing grant applications, creating a fundraising plan, designing an annual report, sending newsletters, writing surveys, making presentations! It was a really friendly environment, one clearly run by passionate and

Aspire’s experience of the ethical internships programme could not have been better; the two students were everything you could hope for- great attitude, great energy and they really delivered on the projects they were given. We loved having them here and will definitely be applying to the programme again next year. We really cannot recommend the experience highly enough.

Aspire, Host Organisation

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I had a great experience interning at HAFAD. The staff were all incredibly welcoming, and I was given a wide range of responsibilites, working completely independently at times and alongside different staff members at others. It has given me a real insight into the third sector and how important, varied and interesting the work can be.

Anna Fahy, Intern”

224% increase in applications

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2011

2012

dedicated people making it really exciting to be a part of. Next year I’ll be doing the Teach First leadership development programme and so will be working with disadvantaged young people. The approaches to ending youth violence and giving young people the confidence to achieve successful and independent futures I saw at JAGS Foundation will definitely come in handy and I will be staying in touch!

Noami Cohen-Lask, Intern

The SocialAfter a long time spent focus-ing on students, we spent 2011-12 developing a network for alumni and graduates so we could continue to support them in creating a real impact in the world once they leave university.

Since 2007 Student Hubs has been successfully inspiring and engaging students with some of the world’s greatest social and environmental challenges. However, we’ve always faced the barrier that, eventually, our students leave university. And some still need or want our support. As a consequence, it has been a long-held ambition of Student Hubs to launch an alumni network which continues to inspire and engage our students as they embark on their careers.

As we’ve developed this idea, we realised that a traditional alumni network focusing only on Hub universities may alienate those who had not engaged with us at university. Our pilot,

which has the moniker ‘The Social’ for 2012-13, is our attempt to adapt the Hub model to the London young professional scene, inspiring and engaging more people with the same social and environmental challenges.

The Social will inform members about social issues and opportunities to give back, inspire them through speakers and events, connect members together through social events and digital platforms, and provide support and advice to early social start-ups. Over time we hope to build a sustainable community of committed professionals across the capital supporting each other to engage with social and environmental challenges.

I have no doubt that Student Hubs has been a key influence on my career so far. After university I started work in the field of social entrepreneurship – a term I hadn’t even heard of before I attended Student Hub’s first Emerge Conference in 2009. I was part of the first cohort in Student Hub’s Ethical Internship scheme and volunteered at an environmental organisation the summer of my second year. The experience gave me great insight into my career options and good connections in the sector. This also inspired me to start up the Oxford Climate Forum in my final year, and Student Hubs proved the perfect organisation to help coordinate and support that first conference. Transitioning out of university was a challenging time – with my good exam results I felt very pressured to join the Milk Round but after a year out I found my feet and gained the confidence to stay in the social sector and follow my values. Without Student Hubs’ early influence that confidence probably wouldn’t have emerged until years later. I hope The Social now will be able to support students in that crucial transition phase, to help many others find their feet.

Julia Koskella, former Oxford Climate Forum Coordinator

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We will roll out our graduate network, The Social

We will support university-based start-up social enterprises in partnership with Hefce and UnLtd

We will expand the Student Hubs graduate programme across three cities

What next?

CoreCommitteesOur student teams, who make it all happen.

36 | Hubbits

Bristol Hub Shruti Choudhary, Alice Peck, Josephine Suherman, Lucy King, Louise Brown, Ellen Harrison, Lauren Hoskin-Parr, Kat Potts

Brookes Hub Peter Wootton-Beard, Christina Vondracek, Alex Crumpton-Taylor, Josh Harsant, David Liddiard, Sarah Brice, Ellie Massey, Jessie Singer

Cambridge Hub Pete Teverson, Izzy Braithwaite, Michaela Collord, Lillie Dore, Victoria Lee, Alice Robinson, Jon Whitehead, Daniel Macmillen, Mingwei Xia, Rebekka Rumpel, Alexa Zeitz, Matt Williams, Katie Honey, Marianne Lagrue

Oxford Hub Genevieve Laurier, Rachel Nichols, Eleri Smith, Freddie Lazell, Jonas Schoenefeld, Ellie Horrocks, Alex Duffy, Emily Stuart, Oscar Benjamin, Yulia Shenderovich, Ailsa Leen, Wenyu Xiong, Hester Carro, Phosile Mashinkila, Matt Ingram, Emily Kilburn, Sachin de Stone, Josh Powell, Zoe Conn, Chris Reid, Emily Hislop, Laura Blattner, Yulia Shenderovich, Abi Adams, Caroline Huang, Katie Braham, Mark Mills, Karl Gerth, Caroline Huang

Southampton Hub Tasha Unwin, Sophie Bradfield, Paulina Jakubec, Kathleen Barlow , George Legg , Sophie Pearce, Olli Niyi-Awosusi, Amy Nicholass, Sai On Lewis Tang, Amber Chaudry, Abbey Ingram, Graham Read, Serena Patel

Warwick Hub Jonny Sherwood, David Reed, Dhruvni Shah, Sarah Clarke, Martin Christ, Euan Mackway-Jones, Charlie Game, Francis Wight, Laurie Whittaker, Georgina Conway, Leisha Beardmore, Maahwish Mirza, Catherine Macaulay, Felix Thomson, Omair Nazimi, Lia Suissa

IN OUR WORDS | 37

FinancesDetails of our income and expenditure for 2011-12, with a breakdown of how we raise and spend Student Hubs funds.

Income (£) 390,924Generated Income 330,322

Corporate grantsw 104,839

Charitable grants, private donations and trusts 154,906

General and community fundraising 27,712

University and Colleges grants 42,865

Charitable Activities 54,336

Services 23,385

Events, conferences 30,951

Expenditure (£) 412,936Salaries, staff costs, recruitment 230,696

Office rent, charges, fees, resources 64,656

Website, brand, publicity 9,806

Conferences and events 31,796

Volunteer costs and project grants 63,126

Travel, meetings, miscellaneous 12,856

Profit/Loss (£) -22,012

Where our funding comes from: What we spend our funding on:

9% Individual Donations32% Trusts and Foundations28% Corporate Partners11% University Partners7% Public Funding13% Earned Income

81% Service Delivery11% Running & Support 8% Generating Further Income

Summary- Accounts show rise in income of 70% and expenditure of 82% this year. - Income continues to diversify to longer-term sustainable sources. - Expenditure continues to be as lean as possible, given the range and diversity of activity, supported by a huge base of volunteer activity. - Loss is largely accounted for by additional investment this year in systems that will allow us to expand our activities: database function, financial function, technology for our expanded team.- Accounts are budgeted to return to 10% surplus in 2012-13, with a rise in income of 40%- Hub Commercial Ventures CIC (which operates our property in Oxford) has its accounts stated separately. In its first year of operation, it has had revenues of c.£900,000 and will show a small negative EBITDA, budgeted for within the start-up phase. It has had positive EBITDA since Janu-ary 2012 and continues to look like a healthy source of income for Student Hubs in the future.

Student Hubs would like to take this opportunity to thank our financial supporters from 2011-12, who together make our work possible. Funders are acknowledged

here in bold text.

Student Hubs: Barclays (Community Investment & Graduate Recruitment), Man Group, O2 Think Big, Katy Neilson, National Youth Agency, NCVYS (Dominic Weinberg, Ana Brankovic, Steven Pryse), WiSCV, Accenture, CAFOD, Garfield Weston Foundation, Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, Buzzbnk, Dell Social Innovation Competition, Youth in Action through the British Council, TeachFirst, Michael Norton, CIVA, Ethical Property Company, Ashoka

Bristol Hub: Bristol University Sustainability Department, Martin Wiles, Rachel Miller, Clare Prosser, UBU, Bristol Careers Service, Phillippa Bayley, Dave Jarman, Val Bishop

Brookes Hub: Oxford Brookes Sustainability Team, Oxford Brookes University, Hilary Lowe, Careers Service, Brookes SU, Oxford Brookes Social Entrepreneur Awards Team

Cambridge Hub: Societies Syndicate, Cambridge Community Foundation, Newton Trust, Careers Service, Public Engagement Department, Estates Management Department, CUSU & CUSU Ethical Affairs, Humanitarian Centre, SCA, FutureBusiness, RAG, Papworth Trust

Imperial Hub: Imperial College Union, Drapers’ Company, Team London through Greater London Authority, Phil Power, Outreach Department, Sustainability Department

Oxford Hub: Ernest Cook Trust, Baily Thomas Charitable Fund, Doris Field Charitable Trust, Children in Need, Oxford County Council, University of Oxford, Proctors of the University of Oxford, Professor Andrew Hamilton, Vice-Chancellor, and his Office, Tim Stevenson, Careers Service, Balliol College, Wadham JCR, Brasenose JCR, St Edmund Hall JCR, Jesus College, Keble JCR, Trinity JCR, Magdelen JCR, Queen Elizabeth Hall, New College, OCVA, Oxfordshire Community Foundation, Hamilton Trust, Spurgeons, The Oxford Academy, Age UK Oxfordshire, Oxford Food Bank, Susie Perks, Daniel Stone

Southampton Hub: G F Forsey Fund, University of Southampton, Career Destinations, SUSU, Community Volunteers, Debra Humphris

Warwick Hub: University of Warwick, Vice-Chancellor’s Office, Warwick SU, Peter Rose, Warwick Volunteers, The Student Journals

Environment & Sustainability: Ecotricity, Eradicating Ecocide, People and Planet

38 | FOR LONGER

IN OUR WORDS | 39

Ethical Careers (Host Organisations): African Health PolicyNetwork, Envision, Ethex, Go Low, HAFAD, Platform 51, Sumatran Orangutan Society, GSMA, People’s P.ow.e.r Collective, Fruni, The Ashmolean Museum, The Exchange, Moving Mountains Trust, Overseas Development Institute, Positive East, Housing for Women, The Social Investment Business, 2Way Development, Aegis Trust, Afrinspire, AKU Society, Ashoka, Aspire Oxfordshire, Buzzbnk, Cultivate, East African Playgrounds, Eradicating Ecocide, Hub Islington, Hub Westminster, Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust, JAGS Foundation, London Youth, OxFizz, Papworth Trust, SRSH, The Hackney Pirates, Yellow Submarine, YOH, Young Professionals in Human Rights

Social Action: Will Hutton, Georgina Brewis, Volunteering England

Social Enterprise: All at the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship, Cliff Prior and the UnLtd team, Jack Graham at Year Here, Jonathan Jenkins and the Social Investment Business team, Liam Black and the Wavelength team, Emil Wallner, Mark Cheng and Rob Wilson and the Ashoka team, David Mills and Joe Jervis at the Guardian Social Enterprise Network, Bain, BCG and all Emerge Lab partners and mentors. International Development: Tourism Concern, Moving Mountains, Engineers Without Borders, VSO, Ashoka, READ International

Staff: Adam O’Boyle, Sara Fernandez, Rachel Stephenson, Anna Machin, Peter Ptashko, Alice Thornton, Elena Lynch, Hannah Martin, Doireann Lalor, Hannah MacDiarmid, Amy Anderson, Rhiannon Horsley, Sophie Hewitt, Catherine Kemp, Laura Steele, Ruth Whateley, Freddie Williams, Robert Holtom, James Hubbard, Jan Matern

Trustees: Francesca Devereux, Adam Grodecki (Chair), Tris Lumley, John Mellor, Kathleen Soriano, Max Wakefield

Interns and Long-term Volunteers: Martin Evans, Graham Read, Ben Harris, Abi Taylor, Kathleen Barlow, Serena Patel, Lydia Greenaway

Hub Commercial Ventures Team: Josh Rhodes, Patrick Tustian, Charis Sharpe, Sean O’Reilly, Carl Isham, Sacha Henry

Photo credits: All Student Hubs except:p7 Amaël Yehiri (photo), Marie Chkaiban (editing)p8 Sai On Tang, Jack Hamilton, Abdullah Maskari, Lily Congcong Li

Thanks to...To all our stakeholders, partners and supporters, with enormous thanks for every-thing you do to help us Hub.

To find out more about Student Hubs visit studenthubs.org or email us at info@studenthubs.org.

With many thanks to our founding sponsors:

and our supporting partners:

Student Hubs is a registered charity in England and Wales, number 1122328.