Campaigns

University is a massively exciting experience, yet it does come with its' challenges that can leave many students feeling overwhelmed and isolated.

As your Students'Union, we've launched a campaign to tackle student loneliness and help more students make connections and have a fun year!

We're working hard with our clubs and societies to offer opportunities for you to get involved in our community.

Contact your Vice-president Communities (communities.union@stir.ac.uk) or our Activities & Volunteer Coordinator, Jordyn Austin (jordyn.austin@stir.ac.uk) to find out more details.

Community Fridge and Pantry

"Take when you need, give when you can."

The Students’ Union 2022/23 Union President, Tash Miller, and Vice-president Communities, Jess Reid, launched the Community Food Initiative in November 2022 with the Community Fridge and Pantry! The Community Fridge and Pantry is available to students and staff, and is currently located next to the Union Green and Blue space. Generously supported by Stirling Alumni through The Stirling Fund, the Community Food Initiative aims to alleviate food poverty and financial stress, whilst encouraging food sustainability and reducing waste.

To donate to the Initiative, please deliver food donations to the Green and Blue space or the Students' Union, ensuring donations are in date and sealed.

Following a period of engagement and consultation with the University community, including staff, students and victims/survivors of GBV, the University and Students' Union launched our revised strategy for the 2021-24 period.

The strategy builds on the achievements of the original strategy launched in 2016, continuing to focus on four key areas of work around preventing and responding to GBV. These are:

• fostering a culture where GBV is actively challenged and in which people experiencing GBV are respected, support and empowered;
• responding robustly and effectively to incidents of gender-based misconduct when they occur in our community;
• ensuring our staff and students are clear about their options and receive appropriate support if they have experienced GBV, and are clear about how to appropriately respond to and support those who have experienced GBV;

• improving our knowledge and understanding about the prevalence of and impact of our work to prevent and tackle GBV.

Some of our achievements from our last strategy include; developing First Responder Guidelines and offering training sessions in this area; training 17 specialist Sexual Violence and Misconduct Liaison Officers (SVMLOs) to support staff and students; developing strong partnerships with local support providers including Forth Valley Rape Crisis, Stirling and District Women’s Aid, Police Scotland and The Meadows; a comprehensive GBV website within formation and support; providing staff and student bystander training sessions; and the roll out of an online bystander module for students and GBV module for staff.

You can find out more information on our Gender Based Violence webpages.

Our revised Gender Based Violence Strategy 2021-24 was approved by University Court in June 2021. The strategy is owned jointly by the University and the Students' Union.

Following work from the fantastic student-led campaign, Help Not Harm, and in February 2021,a motion was passed to request the Students’ Union supply harm-reduction materials to students. These include; drug safety booklets, testing kits for drugs, and spiking prevention resources.

As of November 2022, these resources are available in the Students' Union offices and bar. The Students' Union will work will Help Not Harm to engage in positive conversations with the University to develop a modern harm-reductionist drug policy for Stirling.