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| Fri 16th May | |||
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In this section...
Your JCR Welfare and Equal Opportunites team
Welfare in DowningIntroductionWelfare 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 Welfare Officer and Men's and Women's Reps, all have at hand a lot of information about where to find the sort of help you are looking for and there is a link to a Welfare poster above; please get yourself a copy for easy reference. 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 Your Welfare OfficersPlease note that this section of the site is out of date. We are working on getting it updated. Downing provides quite substantial man-power for the welfare of its students. First a word from the men’s and women’s officers on their different roles as part of the JCR welfare committee: Steve King: As Mens’ Welfare and Equal Opps, working with Jiexin, Steve will be available for all members of college as a listening ear and a route to take complaints or problems (particularly if they are Welfare or Equal Opportunities related!). With the Women’s Welfare and Equal Opps officer, and the Equal Opps committee, Steve will also be putting on events to raise awareness and to help with welfare in college: look out for de-stress events through exam term. Any member of college is welcome to get in touch with Steve with absolutely any problem at all: he can be contacted completely confidentially at any time by email, or is available for a weekly drop in session in P basement, 5-6 p.m. on Thursdays. As well as your representatives on the JCR, there are many other contacts to be aware of in Downing such as the College Nurse, Sally MacCallum who is a fully qualified counsellor, and the Chaplain, Revd Keith Eyeons, who is here to provide pastoral care and support for students whether they are religious or not. There is also you Tutor and Director of Studies, the Senior Tutor and other fellows, and the MCR Welfare and Equal opportunities Officers. Externally as well, the CUSU Welfare and Graduates Officer can give any help excluding legal advice to students, and the University Counselling Service can be contacted for support at an individual or group level. I also attend the Welfare Network meetings held every other Wednesday where all the college Welfare Officers get toghether to share and swap ideas on how best to tackle Welfare issues in the university. The links at the bottom of this page can also be helpful in dealing with some issues that commonly affect students. Jiexin Zheng: As Women's Officer, I am available to all the female members of Downing JCR to provide a number of services. Firstly, I am able to give any woman at Downing a free preganacy test; just e-mail me, or fill in the 'listening ear' form on the website, and I will place one in your pigeon hole in an enevelope. This is a completely anaonymous service. Also, I have a number of rape alarms, provided by CUSU, which any woman can ask me for. Secondly, I am here to address any discrimination, harassment or represenatation issues which may arise during your time at Cambridge. Thirdly, I take a pro-active role in organising events in college that are of interest to women; self-defence classes, talks by prominent women, and events around 'International Women's Day' are all coming up in the next few terms! Last but not least, I attend regular CUSU Women's Council meetings, headed by the Women's Sabb and attended by all the other college women's officers. Welfare ProvisionDrop in sessions: Jiexin runs a drop-in session on Sunday 3-4pm, and Steve is available 5-6pm on Thursday. Both are in the JCR Office in P basement. Please come along if you need a confidential chat about any welfare related issues you have. Free tea and biscuits are on offer. Our Plan of ActionThe results of the JCR survey will soon be known, and the welfare team aim to target the important issues of room allocation, security inside the college and around college accommodation, and campaigning for Parker’s Piece to be a safer environment with better lighting. We are also planning activities such as a First Aid Course and Self-Defence, 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, not to mention the Nurse, tutors, Chaplain and so forth. 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, Chaplain or whatever. Things to RememberFirst life at Cambridge comes at a cost. It can be the best time of your life but is also 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, 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 missing 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. Second, 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 having 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. Sexual Health Advice Centre http://www.addenbrookes.org.uk/shac/ Student Health http://www.studenthealth.co.uk/ Mental Health http://mindout.clarity.uk.net/ Drugs advice BBC Beeline 01223 333179 Confidential information and support from fully-trained male and female volunteers:
Saturdays and Sundays 3-5pm in term
Page last updated on 9 May 06 (olf21) | ||
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