UWL student volunteers at a Social Hackathon event at the Westmont Enterprise Hub
UWL student volunteers at a Social Hackathon event at the Westmont Enterprise Hub

UWL’s Westmont Enterprise Hub hosts first ever Social Hackathon with the Volunteering team

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Students gathered in Westmont Enterprise Hub at the University of West London’s first ever Social Hackathon event, working collaboratively to find solutions to problems faced by community organisations. 

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UWL’s volunteering team invited Friends of Grove Farm to gain valuable insights from our students. Friends of Grove Farm is an entirely volunteer-based group in North Ealing whose aim is bringing people who love Grove Farm Nature Reserve together and preserving a green space where both local wildlife and the community can flourish. 

As part of Green Careers Week at UWL, this group problem-solving exercise gave students the opportunity to consider issues faced by conservation and sustainability-focused charities and discuss potential solutions.

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Mustafa, an Applied Project Management student, said why he was interested in the event:

I think I will get a lot of information on how young people can impact and do their bit for sustainability.” 

Friends of Grove Farm representative Anna highlighted some specific challenges that the charity faced, including interest from younger age groups, fundraising and volunteer working hours. The students were then split into groups to come up with ideas for Friends of Grove Farm to appeal to their target audiences and help the organisation meet their aims.

UWL student volunteers at a Social Hackathon event at the Westmont Enterprise Hub

When asked what she gained from the event, student Shreeya said, 

We got to improve our skills, and we can put this on our CV. We also know more about what businesses are actually facing in the real world, and we got to know other people’s points of view and other skills which we didn’t even think of.” 

Another student, Talitha, added, 

We gained experience as well as working as part of a team and contributing ideas altogether.” 

Given the students’ varied academic backgrounds and skillsets, they were able to present different solutions in their groups. 

Anna was grateful for the students’ contributions, commenting, 

I was really impressed by the engagement of the students. They all came up with different ideas but ones that are complimentary are going to be really useful for us to take forward, so it was nice to have this time to connect and tap into their creativity!”

UWL student volunteers at a Social Hackathon event at the Westmont Enterprise Hub

Ollie from the Volunteering team at UWL said, 

We wanted to focus on skill development and students having real life opportunities to apply their skills. In terms of giving back, lots of students are time-poor so we wanted to do something on campus that’s meaningful for a charity. We’re also there developing and facilitating teamwork and problem-solving.” 

Angela, the Hub’s Development Manager, continued, 

Westmont Hub is an ideation space, engaging students to think about effective strategies and entrepreneurial thinking. The Social Hackathon encourages students to contribute to social enterprises and charities that desperately need certain challenges addressed, which, unlike other companies, don’t necessarily have the resources. It’s a win-win.” 

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