Our Community Projects

Aberdeen is known as the ‘Granite City’ due to its abundance of grey buildings – but our Aberdeen team’s project has a green focus. The team has taken the simple idea of litter-picking and turned it into a city-wide collaborative project, working with students, Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen City Council and the city’s other PBSA providers to pick litter across five sites.  

The project  led to 80 large bags of litter being removed from Aberdeen’s green areas in 2023, with 16 students volunteering. A clean-up of Seaton Park, one of the city’s largest parks, is planned to become an annual event. 

The team is also pushing to do more around the city, including charity toy drives for a local children’s home and delivering Christmas cards to families experiencing hardship through Cyrenians, a Scottish homelessness charity. 

Gary McLennan, Student Experience Manager, says, “My favourite part has been showing our residents how beautiful our city is. Some of the areas that we litter pick aren’t places that students would typically visit, but it shows Aberdeen’s green spaces at their best. The project helps to feed that community spirit that we want our residents to feel while staying with us, and integrates us into our local community by giving back.”

Three of our Bristol-based support teams – Insight, Risk and Procurement – banded together to support Young Bristol, a local youth charity. Although the charity works across Bristol, our three teams decided to focus their efforts in Hartcliffe, an area to the south of the city which includes some of Bristol’s most deprived neighbourhoods. 

For 2023, the teams conducted research to investigate the needs of the local community – a great use of their existing skill sets. This research would help the charity to allocate funds to where they’d have the most impact, as well as identify opportunities for potential partnerships in the area. 

The teams surveyed members of the community to understand what the community needed from the youth club. Film and game nights were the most-requested services by respondents, with evenings the most popular choice for when these should take place. The survey was supplemented by visits to community stakeholders such as local councillors, the police and community officers to understand some of the challenges and opportunities in the area in more depth. 

Team members who wanted to get more hands-on had an opportunity to support some light refurbishment at the youth centre. With the centre’s wellbeing garden and car park being in need of maintenance, the Procurement team used a volunteering day to tidy up the garden and plant some new seeds.  

“All three teams showed exceptional dedication – everyone contributed to the project, and the active involvement of senior leadership was instrumental,” says Compliance & Assurance Manager Furqan Zafar. “Hearing stories from young people and their parents about how the youth clubs have positively influenced their lives and the community as a whole was so impactful.” 

The next stage of the project will see the teams run sessions on CV writing and interview preparation to support the young people who use the youth club, to help them to succeed in future. 

Meanwhile, our Bristol-based IT team’s ‘TechBridge’ project is really three projects rolled into one. Each project uses the team’s technical wizardry to create a positive social impact. 

The first involved collecting old IT equipment, refurbishing suitable equipment and donating it to non-profit organisations. So far, 20 donations have been made through Socialbox, a community interest company which donates tech to refugees, elderly people in isolation and people experiencing homelessness as they prepare to move from shelters to permanent accommodation. 

The second was supporting the Unite Foundation – an independent charity set up by Unite Students which provides accommodation scholarships for care leavers and estranged young people – to improve their software and use of technology. The team made significant improvements to their Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, allowing the Foundation to track communications, student applications and the progression of Foundation students through their course. 

Training was also delivered to help the team make the most of the tech available. “We’re already seeing the benefits, which will further streamline our 2024/25 scholarship cycle,” says the Foundation’s Head of Operations, Helen Arber. “We now have improved efficiency, effectiveness and reporting capacity – win win!” 

Finally, the team set up an IT professional development network to support young people who wanted to get into IT careers. So far, this has seen 11 members of the team complete mentorship training, and six online training modules have been developed – which will be available to Unite Foundation students from early 2024. 

“Being part of a program that delivers sustainable, real-world benefits to the community has been immensely satisfying,” says Jack Templeman, Application Support Analyst. “This opportunity has not only allowed us to demonstrate our skills, but also give back to the community in a significant way. It’s a privilege to be part of a programme that aligns our professional goals with social impact, creating a sense of purpose and connection beyond the usual work environment.” 

In addition, the team also have a separate close working relationship with local charity, Ronald McDonald House (RMH).

RMH is a home away from home – providing the families of sick children who are hospitalised, a space to be close to their loved ones. It plays a major part in many lives and has a constant demand from service users.

The team are working closely with residents and local Higher Education partners to raise essential funds for the charity to allow them to continue their amazing work.

Our team in Leeds have volunteered over 100 hours to help create and maintain the woodland space with support from our student volunteers.

With hedgehog homes, bird boxes and bug hotels, the site really is enjoyed by residents, employees and the local community.

As part of the project, we’ve also had some local schools visit the site to complete habitat assessments.

With evidence that spending time in nature has a great impact on our mental and physical health, the Well Wood project is a fantastic space for everyone to enjoy.

Our Sheffield team began supporting Sheffield Children’s Hospital in 2022, with gift donations at Christmas and Easter as well as a charity abseil at Sheffield Hallam University – but their project really came into its own in 2023.  

To welcome them to their new home, the team gave each Sheffield resident a pin badge featuring Theo, the hospital’s bear mascot. Donation buckets on the reception front desk raised more than £700, with international students often donating any leftover change before heading home for the summer. The team also recreated the previous year’s holiday gift drives and charity abseil, which raised just shy of £4,000 with the charity match scheme – almost double the previous year’s total. 

All donations from 2023 have gone towards the hospital’s fundraising for the construction of a National Centre for Child Health Technology, a world-class research and technology centre to be built in Sheffield.

But the team wanted to do even more – and so they also struck up a relationship with Bluebell Wood Children’s Hospice. Using their volunteering hours, the team tidied up the hospice garden by weeding flowerbeds in April, before a second volunteering day saw them sorting the hospice’s fundraising cupboard and organising items for a charity tombola. 

“The project is one of my favourite parts about working for Unite Students,” says Hollie Street, General Manager for Sheffield. “Not only do we get to make a difference to the local community, but it brings the team together as one – the volunteering days are so positive for morale.” 

Her favourite part of the project is the annual abseil. “It’s now a tradition within our team, and team members will talk about it throughout the year,” she says. “We’ve even had team members take part despite a fear of heights!”