Its a special year for Student Hubs, as they look to celebrate their 15th birthday. As a charity, they have been creating impact since 2007 not only in their Hub locations of Bristol, Cambridge, London and Hampshire, but also in their delivery of training, webinars and support for lots of universities, students, and socially impactful organisations across their history and in 2022. 

What we’re doing

On 15 June we’ve booked out 15 hours to walk from Bristol, the city we are both lucky enough to live in, to the beautiful rolling Mendip Hills – and of course we’ll then turn round and come back again.

To prepare for this we have entered full training mode. We need to road test our hiking gear and get out and about to scale our walking from an after work spring stroll to a full blown walking marathon (and then some). We’re also planning out our breaks along the way and our route to make sure we get to see as much of the beautiful Somerset countryside as we can.

Why we’re doing it

We’ve both been involved with Bristol Hub since university, and have seen the impact it has had on ourselves and the local community first hand.

For me (Sophie) being part of the Hub massively improved my own experience at university. I got to meet like minded people and throw myself into projects I was passionate about. When I joined the staff team at Bristol Hub back in 2019 I was able to see the work Student Hubs does from a different perspective. Every week I was out in the local community collaborating with other organisations to make a real, sustained impact. I was particularly fond of Branch Up – seeing the young people I supported grow in confidence across the year really drove home the value of empowering students to make change in their local communities, and become active citizens for life.

For the other me (Sorcha), Bristol Hub opened my eyes to the possibilities of working in the charity sector. Starting out in the Social Innovation Programme as a team leader, my passion for social action was re-ignited after a few years of missed volunteering. Moving into the committee after this allowed me to make some friends for life and build a network of engaged, motivated people making a change. I was so proud to be a part of the network that I applied and got the job to build the Social Innovation Programme in Winchester! Being back in Bristol has allowed me to build even more skills and bring my love for this work back around to where it first started. Working with students and seeing these journeys happen again and again makes me love coming into work everyday to see the powerful change that young people can make in their local communities.

How you can get involved

• Join team 15 – sign up for your own #15ForStudentHubs challenge
• Donate to our JustGiving page – words of wisdom on everything from snacks to routes to songs also very welcome
• Add to our our spotify playlist to keep us motivated!
• Accompany us on our walk – if you’d like to join us for an hour or fifteen, we’ll be sharing our route in advance and would definitely welcome the company
• Match fund our journey – if you’re a potential corporate partner and you’re interested in our challenge, reach out to Sophie at sophie.payne@studenthubs.org

Fundraising can be challenging for many charities, and your donation will help to support the Student Hubs network, which makes their activities high quality, safe, accessible, and adaptable for the hundreds of individuals they engage through their support every year.