#TeamGlos – How the Live Smart Community theme made a difference!
10th April 2019
Hello, readers!
It’s easy to get caught up in our own busy lives sometimes, and when you raise your head to look at the community around you, it turns out there’s a fair bit going on. That’s what Live Smart’s been all about the past couple of months- looking into the world outside of your own and asking, “well how do I make it better?”
With your help, we’ve been pretty productive on that front. Let’s take a look, shall we?
And They’re off! The Theme Begins
It was early February, the frost was thawing, and the January blues and early sunsets had been going on far too long. The stage was to bring some joy to the community by making it a better place with a host of sustainable Global Goals.
Think back, and you may recall that we released 8 unique challenges out into the wild- or at least onto our social media- all geared to let you lend your skills to a part of the community that needed them, and all featuring the allure of a £300 prize for the busiest bees. Better still, you could submit just about anything with our open brief! Just Live Smart’s little nudge of incentive for you to fight for what you believe in.
Fresh Faces at the Refresher’s Fayre
We fished out the ever-popular global goals wheel, ready to greet some new students joining mid-year. Whilst some of you were there for the freebies, it was great to see interested students getting excited about some of our causes beyond just the environment. Always a pleasure!
(I’m talking about you, anonymous student who literally jumped with joy because you saw the term “Gender Equality”)
Challenges off to a Great Start
The UoG Women’s Volley Ball Team, the UoG Green Team, and the weather itself all came together for one of our earliest challenges- Plastic Free Cheltenham’s litter pick. True to the nature of our challenges, the groups mucked in and had a laugh for a couple hours, showing some top-notch community spirit. And they managed to collect 5000 pieces of litter from the streets of Cheltenham!
Our Halls Visits
You may remember our lovely faces, or at least our rather striking Live Smart shirts. As always, the team and I enjoyed your much-appreciated (and downright insightful) suggestions for our next theme on wellbeing.
The Event was Announced!
Oh, the suspense! We presented you with chance to showcase (or showboat, depending on your style) your widespread community volunteer work at our long-awaited event. With everyone welcome, many of you heard “free food down the road” and signed yourselves up to see what we’re all about, which is all we ask.
What a Send-off
For those of you who couldn’t make it, our event was everything it cracked up to be, with some amazing entries, doing everything from reducing inequalities to clearing up litter in the name of sustainability.
- The highly commended Uni E Sports Games took home £100 for their contributions by raising over £1000 for Special Effects, who design video game controllers for the disabled- a great effort for equality.
- The UoG Green Team found themselves the winners of the people’s vote and another £100 at the event for their work with Plastic Free Cheltenham,
- And last but not least, our winners the LGBT society who raised some stunning awareness throughout local community bodies to reduce hate speech, educate others on the LGBT community, and increase gender equality, earning themselves a well-deserved £300 from the judges.
Competition aside, it was a great day of incredible food, unique entertainment and unlikely conversation.
Until Next Time!
It’s almost nostalgic, looking back through our community theme’s progress now that it’s all done. That’s if you can develop nostalgia within the span of two months. Either way, it’s been a blast working with you all, and I’m amazed at some of the things you’ve put together.
Coming up next is our Wellbeing theme- focusing on both physical and mental health. Just the thing you need to help you through deadline season. Stay tuned, readers!
Dan from Live Smart