By Tom Taylor, Digital Editor
The only encounter some university students have with local Bristolians is when they receive a knock at the door asking them to keep the noise down.
This article was written in 2019.
Students may have chosen to call Bristol their home, yet it is too easy to stay in familiar, heavily student populated areas such as Clifton, Redland and Stokes Croft.
Across the country, it seems as though the relationship between ‘town’ and ‘gown’ is becoming more fractured as students and locals clash over issues such as noise, gentrification and anti-social behaviour.
Below the surface, however, many students are working hard to give back to the communities they joined when they arrived in Bristol for the first time. The work they do helps mend the faltering relationship between students and the local communities that they are part of.
Nina, a University of Bristol psychology student, told me about a group she works for called The Black Dog Project. The group goes into different schools and youth groups to run sessions educating young people about their mental health. Nina explains how the Project has ‘completed a series of interactive school talks about social media and peer pressure’.
Below the surface, however, many students are working hard to give back to the communities they joined when they arrived in Bristol for the first time.
‘We have had a hugely positive response from schools’, Nina said, ‘they enjoy the fact that it isn’t just the teachers talking to the children about mental health, it is young people they can relate to’.
| Meet the UoB Charity Fashion Show model who wants to get us talking about mental health
Volunteering for charities and projects can be a rewarding way for students to encounter and engage with people from outside the University. Joselyn, originally from London, is the President of Bristol Hub and studies Maths and Computer Science. Bristol Hub is a student led organisation which ‘helps students learn about and tackle social problems and create positive social change, especially in their local community.’
The group runs a scheme called LinkAges in which students are paired with an elderly resident of a care home in order to get to know them and share experiences. ‘We are essentially trying to tackle the issue of social isolation amongst the elderly and get students out of the University bubble’, Joselyn explains.
Volunteering for charities and projects can be a rewarding way for students to encounter and engage with people from outside the University.
Joselyn told me that ‘local community groups and care homes have been really supportive and really open to having lots of students’ and that ‘all our projects are based around what Bristol wants and what Bristol needs’. ‘For example, Bristol has a really high percentage of private schools compared to other places in the UK and so we have a tutoring program to help combat income inequality’.
| Mayor Marvin Rees: 'City is walking a tightrope' with University
Students often find that when they engage in community volunteering, they see a different side to Bristol. Shauna is a second-year English student from South Wales. She works for a charity called Jacari which goes into schools and tutors’ children who are struggling with their English language development. The students are often refugees who arrived at school with limited or no English language skills.
When asked whether she felt there was a divide between students and local people, Shauna said that ‘I thought there would be a divide – I thought it would just be me watching and not getting involved but it hasn’t been like that’. ‘We do kids events where you take the whole family and it’s nice to spend time with people you wouldn’t normally spend time with’.
Bristol University societies Phab and Pit Stop work with young people with disabilities in Bristol. Student-led Phab runs a fortnightly youth group at the Elmgrove Centre near Redland Station.
Each meeting, between 30 and 45 young people, with and without disabilities, come together enjoy activities such as sports nights, quizzes and pancake making. Kate, who works for the charity, explains that ‘the people who own the Elmgrove Centre were so delighted that we wanted to hold it at their hall’. ‘The parents of external members who come every week seem to be really thrilled with that we’re doing and always tell us how much their kids really love coming along’.
Phab are keen to integrate further into the community and are discussing potential ways to involve non-student volunteers as well.
Student-led Phab runs a fortnightly youth group at the Elmgrove Centre near Redland Station.
Suzie arrived in Bristol four years ago from Coventry to study German and Italian. She joined a student run organisation called Pit Stop which provides day trips for young people with disabilities in and around Bristol.
| Bristol Cycling Club swap flight home for train in first ‘carbon-neutral’ tour
‘The last trip we did was to Cribbs Causeway where we went bowling and went to the cinema’, Suzie told me, and ‘at Christmas we have a tradition of going to the pantomime at the Hippodrome which is a really nice trip’.
The response from parents ‘has been really positive’. ‘We had a pub quiz last night and one of the parents came along and he stood up and spoke about how much it has benefited his son who had previously been very shy, but with us he had come out of his shell and was meeting lots of new people’.
There is real desire from students to integrate more into their wider communities. Volunteers are eager to work with more local organisations and charities in order to amplify the work that they are doing.
Jonty founded Bristol University Food Bank with a friend last summer. The group collects food donated by students and gives it to the Trussell Trust Food bank. Recently, they began a scheme in collaboration with café chain Pret a Manger whereby volunteers would deliver Pret sandwiches to a homeless charity in College Green.
| Do societies help boost your wellbeing?
Jonty hopes to find other charitable groups within Bristol to donate the food they collect to. He told me that ‘one of the best things about the food bank is that students begin to understand the lives of people they walk past every day and have no interaction with.’
Interaction between students and local people is not always constructive or positive. There are serious concerns on both sides of the divide about how the other is perceived. However, it is important to remember that many students are working hard to prevent and mend this fragmentation and their efforts should not go unnoticed.
Featured: Black Dog Project
Are you part of a society that makes a difference in Bristol? Let us know.
