Green Gown Awards 2019 - University of the West of England - Highly Commended

The UWE Bristol Community Fund awards grants of up to £3,000 for new projects which connect UWE staff and students with local communities around Bristol. The projects we fund create rich, practical learning opportunities for UWE students and provide positive social, environmental and cultural benefit for communities. 

In 2018-19, the Community Fund supported 14 projects with £33,629 of funding, providing opportunities for 200 UWE students from all four of our faculties. These projects have included: 

• A citizen science challenge, collecting and recording biodiversity data in the city. 
• Using photography to understand barriers faced by BME communities in engaging with environmental issues. 
• A filmed debate about women in engineering, based on a theatre production about Sarah Guppy. 
• Engaging people in a Bristol neighbourhood in conversations about air quality. 
• Creating an educational resource for secondary school students about refugee and asylum issues. 

Top 3 learnings:

• We developed clear aims and criteria for applications to the Fund. 
• We found it hard to get good feedback from completed projects, including images and quotes, so have made this a clearer condition of funding. 
• We support UWE students to apply to the Fund on the same terms as staff.