Welfare and Equal Opportunities

In this section...

• Emergency Taxi Scheme - new scheme introduced to aid student safety
• Listening Ear - confidentially contact the welfare team.
• College Nurse - appointment times
• Chapel - Pastoral care and support, whatever your beliefs.
• Babysitters - students who can look after your children

Your JCR Welfare and Equal Opportunites team

• Women's Welfare Officer: Chloe Fletcher -
• Men's Welfare Officer: Tim Hillel -
• LBGT Officer: Ashley Smaje -
• International Officers: Caroline Fitzner & Antonio Ferraz-de-Oliveira -

Welfare in Downing

• Introduction
• Your Officers
• Welfare Provision
• The Plan of Action
• Things to Remember
• Useful Links

Introduction

Welfare covers any aspect of your life that contributes to your happiness, which essentially means that the welfare team should get involved in trying to solve any college affair that is giving you problems. Our aim is to take a preventative stance and make the College a supportive and nurturing environment so that fewer issues arise in the first place.

One of the key ways to do this is to tell people what is available. Awareness is a central concept to welfare, both for people to know themselves and to know others. There are vast resources available to make our lives better; knowing they are there is the first step. 'The Women's, Men's and LGBT reps all have a lot of information about where to find the sort of help you are looking for, so please email or talk to us, or have a look at the posters dotted around college.

Of course, the next step is to use these resources. This is harder than might be imagined. There is no line to show those who need a little help from those who don’t. You don’t have to be 65% depressed before you should talk to someone. We all have different tolerances for stresses on body, mind and soul. We all have a right to help. It is available, so use it. (Use it early as well. If something worries you, ask someone sooner. It cuts out the pain in the middle when things are only getting worse.)

The more information is open and available, the more it will hopefully be talked about and discussed. Then finally some of the silly hang-ups will go. The welfare system is not to be feared or its users ostracized.

Your Welfare Officers

Chloe Fletcher
As Women's Officer my job is to offer you important assistance to help you through your time at Downing. Currently Downing offers a number of Welfare services:

Free pregnancy tests: Email me, or use the Listening Ear service, and a free pregnancy test will be placed in your pigeonhole in an envelope. This service is completely confidential.

Free rape alarms: Again, drop me an email if you would like a free rape alarm and I will place one in your pigeonhole. Alternatively, come to P Cellar during the Welfare drop-in sessions and pick one up in person.

Free chlamydia tests: Send me an email if you would like a chlamydia test. They will be placed in your pigeonhole, with instructions, in an envelope. People tend to underestimate just how widespread chlamydia has become. If left too long, it can cause joint inflammation, abdominal pains and infertility. Chlamydia has few symptoms and official surveys suggest that if you are under 25 and sexually active - regardless if you have used the correct contraception – you should think about getting tested.

Ashley Smaje
As LBGT officer, I'm here to provide help and support to anyone with issues relating to homosexuality, bisexuality, or transgender. I run regular drop-in sessions in the basement of P staircase on Mondays from 5-6pm, when I will be available to chat about any problems or issues, or I can be contacted at any time by email.

Besides this, I also organise social events such as formal swaps throughout the year, which can be a great way to get to know other LBGT students in and out of college. I send out details of these events via the LBGT mailing list. If you would like to be added, just send me an email to let me know.

Finally, I also work to raise awareness of sexuality and related issues in college, and to try and combat homophobia. Anyone with issues or questions relating to this should feel free to come to me.

Welfare Provision

Welfare teatime: Sundays 3-4pm Please come along if you need a confidential chat about any welfare related issues. Free tea and biscuits are on offer. If a drop-in session gets cancelled then we will do our best to re-arrange it for another time. If you would like to meet with us on an individual basis, please email us and we can sort out a time and place that is mutually convenient.

Our Plan of Action

We are also planning activities such as a First Aid Course and a Self-Defence course run by one of the ever-friendly porters, as well as making arrangements for exam term and planning fun activities so that people have a break from revision. We will be working alongside welfare officers of other colleges and running CUSU campaigns to target specific physical and mental health issues, as well as publicising the provisions made for welfare by the university.

In the meantime what happens if you have a problem? The Welfare Officer, Men's Officer and Women's Reps are all available. However, it should be remembered that however willing these officers are, their expertise is limited. They will help in whatever ways they can, but may have to advise you as to better sources of support such as College Nurse, Tutors, University Counselling service, the Chaplain and so on.

Things to Remember

Life at Cambridge comes at a cost. It can be the best time of your life but it can also be very draining. Most people need to find a way to cope with the fast pace of life here for the full 9 or so weeks. As a general rule this will involve taking some time for yourself every day. Music, sport, outdoors time and quiet reflection seems to do the trick. Don’t regard it as time spent not working, but as time spent on yourself: time you deserve. It is no good getting the essay in on time only to collapse or get ill for two weeks and miss many more. It may sound odd, or obvious, but it is hard to realize sometimes when you’re in the thick of it and a supervisor is breathing down your neck.

Cambridge is sadly often a result-orientated place. Don’t let your grade, or your desire for it, define who you are. There are very few professions in the world that want people with no personalities but excellent staying power in a library. Don’t confuse studying for a degree with having a life.

A very useful website is run by CUSU and is recommended for information on welfare: www.cusu.cam.ac.uk/support/welfare.

If you still have any questions, ask a member of the Welfare Committee. We will do whatever we can to help. There will be more links up here soon too. Should you want anything else up here, contact the Welfare Officer.

Other useful Welfare Links:

Sexual Health Advice Centre

http://www.cuh.org.uk/addenbrookes/services/clinical/shac/shac_index.html

Student Health

http://www.studenthealth.co.uk/

Mental Health

http://www.mind.org.uk

Drugs advice

http://www.talktofrank.com/

BBC

http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/

Page last updated on 01 Mar 11 (jsh63)