Laura Carpenter

I’m running for VP Welfare and Community as I'm passionate about student welfare and creating an inclusive and supportive community. As the current Welfare Officer for three societies, course rep for two years, and Student Wellbeing Officer, I understand the issues students face and am well-experienced in supporting students.

As a first-generation student from a mixed background, I'm dedicated to ensuring that all students feel represented and supported. I am also deeply invested in ensuring students feel supported in the student community and the wider Southampton community.

My commitment to this goal extends far beyond the duration of my term, as I have a vested interest in the Union as a current second-year student.

Introduce an intersectional abuse campaign

• Introduce intersectional abuse education workshops.
• Establish mandatory support and awareness training for committees and staff (including security and halls staff).
• Work with the police, council, and local organisations to cultivate regulated domestic abuse advice and safe referrals. This guidance will be intersectional with a focus on all survivors (male, LGBT+, etc.), to be used on the Union website, through the Advice team, and extended to University pastoral staff.

Advocating for widening participation

• Continue the social mobility network and encourage the Union to work closely with them
• Establishing a new Social Mobility Officer to gain more student insight into widening participation
• Push the Union to review the costs of products in their shops/services to ensure they are attainable for all students
• Lobby the Union to bring back cash to ensure that products are accessible for all students
• Ensuring all language used by the Union is transparent to be more accessible to all students

I will also lobby the University for:

• Free menstruation products for students across all campuses with a focus on Winchester and Avenue as the two furthest from the Union
• Review of Halls costs considering the cost-of-living crisis

Supporting student innovation to ensure REAL student representation by listening to all students and helping to make the change they want to see.

• Establishing new student officer roles, such as a Men's Officer.
• Working closely with student officers to ensure they are supported in their roles with regular welfare check-ins.
• Ensure all student volunteer work is rewarded in some way, such as through an award ceremony.
• Providing postgraduates, WSA, and NOCS students more opportunities to feel part of the community by hosting regular open forums at each campus
• Encourage the Union to allow VPs to work at least 4 full days a month on other campuses to give students more access.

Evolving the current intersectional and inclusive awareness campaigns, workshops, events, and communications using student feedback to ensure students feel represented and these are all accessible and representative of students.

Implementing the Safer Taxi Scheme to increase student safety. This scheme will aim to cover some of the current gaps with the Safety Bus, as this scheme will run at all hours and be accessible all over Southampton.

You can find more information about my experience and policies here: https://linktr.ee/LauraCarpenter_Welfare