Community Partnership in 2012

Posted on February 6, 2012 by gbache

Well it has been a while since I last blogged but that has been cos’ so much has been going on. In October 2011 we launched our Leadership Institute for Communities, an exciting new membership scheme building and empowering a network of active citizens within Bradford and the Region. Information on the Institute can be found at http://www.bradford.ac.uk/sled/leadershipinstitute

As part of the Institute we held our first leadership workshop on Wednesday 23 November with the main speaker as Deputy Vice-Chancellor Sue Kershaw discussing Leadership in a Changing World. With 40 attendees the network kicked off in style!

We also held a workshop at the NCCPE Engage conference in Bristol to get feedback from our national and international collegues on this new approach to Community Engagement.

Our 2012 programme of public lectures is now planned till the summer and we have a full schedule of interesting speakers culmintating with Tony Benn in June! We hope to attract thousands of people on to campus this year with our diverse programme of speakers including internal staff discussing their research and international speakers who are experts in their own field. Check out our website http://www.bradford.ac.uk/community-partnerships and search for events.

Our free enterprise programme Amaze Yourself is still going strong with programmes planned each month until September.

Our Dean, Nadira Mirza, continues her strong partnership work as Chair of Board at the University Academy Keighley and her work as board member with Bradford NHS. She continually shares her and the University’s expertise in International forums and conferences.

So for 2012 I’m excited to looking deeper at how we can support researchers and academics to be active in public and community engagement.

Can’t wait to see how the year develops!

Georgie Bache, Community Partnerships Officer.

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Community Partnerships Video’s on website

Posted on July 21, 2011 by gbache

Can’t believe it is 3 months since the last blog, this year seems to be flying by!

It has been a very interesting time in Higher Education recently with government agendas driving massive change meaning institutions have to adapt and react quickly to secure themselves for the future. The University of Bradford has set its fees at £9000 which has implications on the whole insitution and we believe there has never been a more important time for Community Partnerships. We need to ensure we are connected across the District and beyond to help us deliver an outstanding student experience,  to continue attracting non traditional students and be an institution that can respond effectively to change. So everything we are currently doing; forging new partnerships, exploring countless funding opportunities and looking at connecting the institution with our communities is aimed at strengthening the University and the District.

On a slightly lighter note the University’s web team captured scences from the Schools Eco Learning Day that took place on 30 March and it is now live on our new video section on the Community Partnerships site http://www.bradford.ac.uk/community-partnerships/video/ It was a great day but this film just reminds me how tiring it was!

We are also really excited  about a new concept we are developing entitled the Leadership Institute for Communities which will launch later in the year and I promise to blog about it soon.

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Schools Eco-Day – 30 March

Posted on April 1, 2011 by gbache

Been a while since I blogged and some really exciting things on in our world of public and community involvement at the University.

Earlier this week, 30 March, we hosted 270 local school children, 30 parents and neighbourhood wardens from across the City and Toller district in a schools eco learning day.

This came about from a partnership formed with Kate Armitstead, Area Co-ordinator for BMDC, the Community Partnerships team, our Access and Widening Participation team and the local wardens. The 4 schools (Princeville, Farnham, Horton Grange, and Copthorne Primary) all undertook workshops that had a theme of sustainable development, aimed to develop the learning they had already undertaken with the wardens within their schools eco programmes. We also had an eco story teller, a green artist canvas and a tour of our Ecoversity Campus.

As the University of Bradford is renowned for our eco credentials, winning The Times Higher ‘Outstanding contribution to Sustainable Development’ award 2009 & 2010, this event was a great opportunity to share some of our learning and knowledge with our local communities.

In another event on the 30th (busy day!) we heard Sarfraz Manzoor, Journalist, Broadcaster and author speak as part of the Faith and the City series on his own experience of being ‘Between two worlds’ as a British Pakistani. As with most lectures in this series, Sarfraz was thought provoking, challenging and created much debate with those who attended which included staff, students and members of the public.

Earlier this month the University in partnership with The British Council hosted a visit of Vice Chancellor’s from across Pakistan. Nadira Mirza, Director of Community Partnerships and Eleanor Clyde Evans, Head of Community Engagement at the University presented our portfolio of partnership activities to much interest and enthusiasm from the VC’s who will look to apply some of the learning in their institutions on their return. This visit saw the VC’s attend and present in a Symposium of investing in education and skills, followed by an exhibition highlighting the work of UK-Pakistan partnerships in education and the community. 

We have also seen a Bradford Achievement Forum conference on the Changing Landscape of Education and a Professional Muslim Institute networking event.

So all in all that’s around 650 of our local, national and international community members engaging with the University and its knowledge and expertise over the last 2 weeks.

Next week sees a Positive Bradford involvement day at the Midland Hotel and we are all keen to see how we can contribute to this private sector led initiative on celebrating all that is good in Bradford.

We are also getting more and more excited about the British Science Festival coming to Bradford from 10-15 September and are doing lots of work to make sure our local communities are involved.

I’ll write again soon but for now I’ll sign off and get ready to put my feet up for the weekend.

Georgie

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Exciting web developments

Posted on January 28, 2011 by gbache

Morning and Happy Friday!

I am excited today as a new area of our Community Partnerships website has gone live. Over the past 12 months my colleague Eleanor Clyde-Evans and I have been scoping the partnership activities that go on across the University. We have pulled this information together and displayed it on our site entitled Key Contacts. We hope this will help our local communities and organisations understand the range of partnerships and encourage them to think of ways they may wish to work with us. We will develop this as we find out more and if anyone has any feedback that would be appreciated.

Will blog again soon.

Georgie

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Happy New Year from Community Partnerships

Posted on January 12, 2011 by gbache

Happy New Year to you all!

We are back in the swing of things here on the Community Partnerships team and are looking forward to the year ahead which looks to be an exciting one for Community Partnerships.

Coming up this month is the deadline for applications for The Community Partnerships Award a new category at the 2011 Excellence in Knowledge Transfer Awards at the University of Bradford. We are really excited to see this new category recognising the importance of community/university partnerships as a method of knowledge transfer.

We will also have a series of 4 public lectures coming up over the first half of the year which will be entitled Bradford Debates… with each one addressing challenges relevant to the district.

We are particularly excited that the British Science Festival is coming to Bradford in September 2011 and we are looking at ways to ensure our communities are engaged with the programme.

Lots to look forward to and we will keep you posted on how they develop throughout the year.

2011 will certainly be an interesting time in Higher Education it will be interesting to see how the sector has changed at this time next year!

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Hello from Georgie Bache

Posted on November 17, 2010 by gbache

Hi my name is Georgie Bache and this is my first blog as Community Partnerships Officer at the University of Bradford. 

I thought I would start with a bit of background as to what I do so sorry if this blog is a bit formal!

My role is to find out as much as I can about community partnerships activities going on at the University so we get a clear understanding of how we are collaborating with our local communities to support the development of the City and District. I am then exploring ways to communicate this understanding both internally and externally. I am also looking at ways to match University staff and knowledge with our communities and explore as many new partnership opportunities as possible.

Since I started the role in June it has been really exciting finding out all the ways in which University staff are applying their work and/or skills to support the District. From the Programme for a Peaceful City to Bradford Robotic Telescope to Born in Bradford and UCAN Student Volunteering Centre the nature of these partnerships is massively varied.

I’m really excited about the future of CP and we have some great projects coming up, including a new lecture/discussion series tackling issues that affect Bradford, so why not follow this blog to be the first to hear about them…

Bye for now

Georgie

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Community Partnerships Launch – Hello from Nadira!

Posted on October 22, 2010 by gbache

Hello and welcome to the first Community Partnerships blog. I’m Nadira Mirza, the Dean of the School of Lifelong Education at the University of Bradford and Director of Community Partnerships. I will be one of a number of contributors to this blog and will bring news and updates on some of the interesting work I’m involved in and the progress of Community Partnerships within the institution.

Yesterday ( 21 October  2010) we held our Community Partnerships Launch Event which was our first event aimed at communicating the new strategy for our Community Partnerships, launching or website www.bradford.ac.uk/community-partnerships  and showcasing some ways we are already working successfully in partnership. We also heard from Miles Scott, Chief Executive of Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust about the importance of working in partnership especially in these uncertain times.

The event was well attended by over 80 University staff, Bradford District organisations and community members which showed partnership working is of importance to all interested in supporting and developing a more sustainable Bradford District.

Nadira speaking at event.

Me, opening the launch event.

I look forward to reading future blog contributions from staff working across the institution and hope you do too!

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