Students join forces with community groups to help tackle issues

Community groups are joining forces with students and staff at the University of Essex to see how they can together make positive changes in the Colchester area.

The University’s Community Action Clinic is a new initiative which provides a platform where community partners and students and staff can together explore the changes they want to see happen in the community and how they can work together to achieve these changes.

The key aim of the Clinic is to complement the work already being carried out by Democracy in Action – an award-winning course which supports students to work together on important issues their feel passionate about.

Director of Democracy in Action, Dr Rebecca Warren, said: “We have launched the Community Action Clinic on the back of the successful Democracy in Action, which developed a transformative education experience for our students, enhanced the work that we do with communities and saw success on several social justice campaigns.

“The Community Action Clinic helps students develop the knowledge and skills needed to initiate societal change. Since launching the Clinic, many of our external community partners have shared with us the value of the work we are doing, but also what they think the Clinic should look like and the opportunities we can do together.

“We are really excited about the many challenges we can work together on to shape the future of the university, our civic role and our collaborations with the local community, including local schools and colleges.

“My hopes for the future are that we can innovatively shape the way that we come together as a community, making change on issues of social inequality and injustice.”

Working in partnership with Citizens UK and Citizens Essex, students on the Democracy in Action module have worked on campaigns with several organisations including Colchester Foodbank, Essex Police, the Salvation Army and YMCA Essex.

Pictured: Dr Rebecca Warren and Katie Hood, Lead Organiser at Colchester Foodbank, at the official launch of the Community Action Clinic.