Apologies were received from Alice Newman and Brooke Newman.

Sam gave an introduction to the committee and explained its history. He described he wanted to ensure the committee was empowered and more effective than they had been in previous years.

Wellbeing officer Mark Davidge gave an update on his ambitions for the year. He described his intentions to extend previous campaigns and build upon the findings of the #TimeToChange Mental Health Survey. He would like to further promote existing support services such as peer support.

 

Freya suggested that as part of our campaign we have a way for people to people to share their experiences of mental health.

 

VP Welfare Sam Bailey outlined his goal of enabling more people to be able to signpost people to appropriate services e.g. Peer Support, Nightline or Counselling. This will be done through reaching out to students through as many networks as possible by working with Hall Committees and student groups.

 

Sexual Health Coordinator Freya Jeffries said her priority for the year was sexual harassment. She said she wanted students to be safe from harassment in all SUSU outlets and use all platforms available to end sexual harassment on campus. She said she wanted to improve the training offered to student groups and sports teams.

VP Welfare informed the committee about the University’s wellbeing week and the activities that were planned such as the campus Nature Walk.

 

Ideas were then taken from the room on ideas for wellbeing Wednesdays throughout the year. There was enthusiasm for the “pee for a pint” chlamydia testing campaign where people are tested for chlamydia in exchange for a pint which could be run in conjunction with The Stags. VP Welfare gave an update on the plans of LGBT Society to do chlamydia and HIV testing on Thursday 26^th November.

 

Another idea discussed by the committee was a programme of “Treat Yourself” activities to encourage people to look after themselves for their wellbeing. This could be included into Stress Less Fest events and could be informed by other events such as the upcoming JollyDay being organised by the E & D committee.

 

VP Welfare informed the committee about ongoing work around the new campaign to introduce consent education to students. VP Welfare plans on having an open meeting this term to talk to students about how they want consent education to be done by SUSU. Discussion followed on others Unions’ approaches to consent education such as Bristol SU’s consent quiz that is a mandatory part of their online enrolment procedure for new students. The “enthusiastic yes” approach was also discussed. It was also noted that there should be pizza at the open meeting to encourage student attendance.

VP Welfare gave an update on the plans to have the SUSU elephant travel across campuses. Discussion followed about how to make the most of the elephant and whether it might be possible to broaden the remit of the elephant from mental health to wellbeing generally. Wellbeing Officer Mark Davidge suggested that the elephant could be used in informational videos on mental health and wellbeing e.g. “Trunky’s Time To Talk”. It was decided that strong messaging would be needed to accompany the elephant to ensure that the elephant did provoke conversation wherever it went and that it provided a great opportunity.

 

VP Welfare gave background on the work that is being done with the University’s new doctoral college to improve representation and support for PGR students. He went on to discuss how Stress Less Fest to be more inclusive for PGR students with specifically targeted events and campaigns.

Discussion was had on how to fill the empty positions on the committee - Substances coordinator and finance coordinator. It was agreed that efforts should be made to promote the committee to find interested people to fill the positions.

The date of the next meeting will be organised by email as some committee members are not present.