College Wins Social Responsibility Award

Walsall College’s Students’ Union were recently presented with a Civic Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Award for their Big S&R Guide.

SU President Ashley Lovell and Director of Student Journey, June Morrow were officially presented with the award by Mayor of Walsall, Cllr. Gary Clarke during an awards ceremony held at Walsall Town Hall on 23rd February.

The Civic CSR Awards celebrate the success of organisations working with local communities to identify issues or areas of need. Winners must have effectively demonstrated how they have developed sustainable programmes that make a lasting impact on the organisations that they are collaborating with, and the community that they are working in.

The Big S&R Guide is a sexual health and relationship directory created by learners at Walsall College to raise awareness of sexual health, relationships and services for young people in Walsall, funded by the Terrence Higgins Trust.

The project was inspired by the College’s Contraception & Sexual Health Nurse (CASH), Helen Lathe, who made the College aware of the Terrence Higgins Trust grant scheme and used her extensive experience within Walsall Community Health services to support staff and students from Walsall College to secure the funding.

The Big S&R Guides provided an innovative approach to develop a handy holistic support and information resource for young people. The final result was a concise handbook, which highlighted support both around the College and help available through local support agencies.

June Morrow commented: “We are delighted to have won this award for our work with young people to address local and national health issues. The College is always working to identify areas of need and develop responses which support and have a long lasting impact on our students and members of the local community”.