We're launching an EDI network to develop resources, promote, and implement events, raise awareness of issues that affect students and help create a safe psychological environment in which students feel comfortable in being themselves and able to access the assistance that they may require.
Cardiff Met SU have big plans for all students!
We recognise that we are an essential part of the support network for thousands of students as they embark on studies that will shape not only their futures, but that of the world around them.
University life is full of opportunities, but the reality is that it also represents many challenges to students, some academic and some more personal. Mental health issues, prejudice and discrimination can affect anyone, and it is essential that Cardiff Met SU provides guidance, leadership and support to those students that experience these issues.
Considering this, Cardiff Met SU are launching an EDI network to develop resources, promote, and implement events, raise awareness of issues that affect students and help create a safe psychological environment in which students feel comfortable in being themselves and able to access the assistance that they may require.
Partnership with Dr Sophie Cook
Cardiff Met SU are delighted to announce our partnership with Dr Sophie Cook.
Dr Sophie Cook is a passionate LGBTQIA+ advocate and mental health campaigner and will bring all this experience to play in helping Cardiff Met SU EDI network to develop resources, promote, and implement events, raise awareness of issues that affect students and help create a safe psychological environment in which students feel comfortable in being themselves and able to access any assistance that they may require.
Together we have formulated a plan to build a family identity that nurtures and encourages students to say that “WeAreCardiffMetSU”. The first activity of three, is something we would like you to get involved in, as students and friends of Cardiff Met SU, for a documentary series captured by Dr Sophie Cook.
Our Plan
Activity 1: Who Are We? 25th May 2022
Who are we? Who are you? Why are you here? No, not in the existential “why are any of us here” way. Why are you here, now, at Cardiff Met?
If you can answer these questions, you’re already doing better than most of the population. The answer to these questions forms the basis of our identity, our sense of self.
What makes you, you?
And how does that identity with all its facets, your many intersectionalities, affect your sense of belonging?
Because ultimately being part of Cardiff Met SU is being part of something bigger than ourselves.
It’s about supporting each other to be true to we, it’s about belonging.
This is what the “Who Are We?” Photo Documentary Project is all about. It’s about identity, personal and group, it’s about support and belonging, it’s about capturing that which binds us together while celebrating the diversity that makes us all unique.
If you can answer the question “who are we?” then we’d love to hear from you because we all have a story to tell.
Alongside this and captured concurrently with these photoshoots, participants are to be filmed and interviewed by the SU media team to create multimedia content for distribution via social media, internet, and video installations. Dr Sophie Cook is a renown photographer and has worked with AFC Bournemouth and the indie band, The Libertines. You can find her work here http://www.sophiecook.me.uk/
The content of these interviews can also be transcribed to create a narrative to support the photographic images for use in publications, exhibitions and online.
Timeline
Photography and interviews to be captured on a date arranged between Dr Sophie Cook and Cardiff Met SU. The photography and interviews will take place on the 25th May 2022.
Exhibition to run alongside the launch of the Cardiff Met SU EDI Network. The launch of the network will be on the 6th of October 2022. You are all invited, and we will contact you in due course.
How to Contact us
If you are interested in being involved, then please contact Beverley Bambrough @ BBambrough@cardiffmet.ac.uk or Samuel Harrison @ SMHarrison@cardiffmet.ac.uk and we will provide you with further information.