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Introduction
The Higher Education Active Community Fund (HEACF) enhances the key role played by higher education institutions (HEIs) in their local communities. The HEACF funds institution-wide co-ordination and generation of volunteering activity within HEIs and encourages collaboration with established volunteering organisations.
Volunteering helps to promote a fairer, more cohesive society in which individuals feel they have a stake. It also helps to build bridges between communities and local organisations such as HEIs. Increasing the involvement of HEIs with their communities should help staff and students to gain new perspectives, enable students to develop employment skills, and help to enhance the quality of life in disadvantaged sections of the community.
These case studies of good practice in student and staff volunteering funded by the HEACF cover a broad range of activities. They aim to provide a sound resource for practitioners or managers of the fund. Contributors come from the spectrum of HEACF practitioners, including students' unions, volunteering units, careers services and cross-university collaborations.
Case studies have been compiled and edited by the Careers Research and Advisory Centre (CRAC). CRAC is an educational charity which aims to promote and encourage active career development and career-related learning for the benefit of individuals, the economy and society.
The HEACF is administered by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), and is part of the Government's wider Active Community initiative. The HEACF commenced in March 2002, and it is due to end in July 2009.
Notes on contributions
HEACF practitioners within HEIs were asked to submit case studies of good practice as part of the HEACF Student Volunteering Awards Programme.
Guidance on submissions was provided; this can be downloaded from www.heacf-awards.ac.uk.
Institutions were first invited to submit case studies for selection in autumn 2003, based on the following criteria:
- relevance to HEACF
- transferability
- subject diversity
- quality of entry.
In some cases, contributions were not selected due to the sheer volume of entries on a particular subject.
In autumn 2004 HEIs were invited to submit case studies on specified themes that were under-represented among the 2003 contributions. Finally, in autumn 2005, institutions were invited to update any earlier case studies they had contributed, and to submit new case studies showing recent practice.
Case studies are organised in thematic sections according to their main focus of activity (pp.65-9). The cross-reference guide (pp. 10-14) acts as an index of subsidiary subjects, to enable users to explore themes further in case studies that have more than one focus of interest.
Case study titles indicate the year they were submitted.
The following submissions were selected by the editorial team as exemplars, and were invited to present and exhibit at the HEACF Student Volunteering Awards Ceremonies in December 2003, 2004 and 2005.
- Case study AV4: Innovative Learning in Action (2004)
University of Salford - Case study C4: Promotion of Volunteering as an Opportunity for
Students (2003)
London Metropolitan University - Case study ES3: Project Leaders Scheme (2003)
University College London - Case study ES4: A Blueprint for Sustainable Volunteering (2003)
University of Sheffield - Case study ES6: SheffieldVolunteering Hub (2004)
University of Sheffield - Case study IN6: SheffieldVolunteering (2005)
University of Sheffield - Case study IN7: Capacity Building and Service Enhancement Using
Information Systems (2005)
University of East Anglia - Case study P3: University and Students' Union Partnership (2003)
University of Plymouth - Case study R1: Manchester Student Volunteers Taster Sessions
(2003 updated in 2005)
The University of Manchester - Case study R4: 'Just Do It' Recruitment Event (2003)
University of Northumbria at Newcastle - Case study R6: Sponte Community Volunteer Scheme (2003)
Staffordshire University Students' Union - Case study R7: TVU Volunteers: Volunteering Awareness (2003)
Thames Valley University - Case study SS2: @ctive Student and Project V (2004)
University of Brighton and University of Sussex - Case study SV1: Best Practice in Staff Volunteering (2004)
Kent Union, University of Kent - Case study T1: Involve (2003)
University of Birmingham