Working with charities
BU collaborates with charities and third sector organisations across research and community activities including public engagement events and student volunteering. This is central to the way in which BU reaches out to communities at a regional, national and international level.
Innovative and creative collaborative research seeks new solutions to societal problems. Our academics exchange expertise and ideas with charities and the third sector to make a difference to these organisations and the communities they serve. This can be a vital resource to charities that have limited access to funding for relevant research. Together, we aim to develop new ways of working and providing services to communities.
As part of this commitment, the Charity Impact Panel at BU provides funding for staff to collaborate with charities in the development of small-scale research to benefit local communities. We illustrate here some of the innovative and exciting projects that have taken place in the past year.
If you’ve got an idea for research areas for our Charity Impact Panel to consider, please email [email protected].
Our collaborative work with charities
Establishing the Dorchester Science Festival
Engaging young learners in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects at the Dorchester Science Festival
This project looked to strengthen BU’s relationship with Dorset charities and Dorchester Town Council by organising the first ever Dorchester Science Festival. The longer-term ambition was to use this event as the basis for a Bournemouth Science Festival led by BU’s Professor Genoveva Esteban. We sought to expand the network of charities working with BU in order to achieve a community-lead science event. We established partnerships with Dorchester Arts, Jurassic Coast Trust and The Institute of Physics.
The Dorchester Science Festival has allowed Dorchester Town Council to develop a relationship with local scientists and science-based local businesses. The partnership between the council and BU, alongside a link to the Thomas Hardye School, has created a really positive dialogue. The council, school and charities involved, have worked with young people raising young people’s knowledge of local employment opportunities and girls’ aspirations in STEM subjects.
Key academic: Professor Genoveva Esteban
Cranborne Chase and Dark Night Skies
Cranborne Chase church at night
Primary school students from a local Cranborne Chase school
Light pollution has a largely unrecognised impact on our lives. Not only is it a waste of energy and carbon emissions, but it can have significant impacts on the natural environment, and human health and well-being. Cranborne Chase is a beautiful area with limited light pollution and beautiful dark night skies.
Dr Sean Beer has been working with the Cranborne Chase Landscape Trust over many years, gaining accreditation for the Cranborne Chase as an International Dark Skies Reserve. Most recently BU and the Trust have been collaborating on a £1.7 million Heritage Lottery Fund Landscape Partnership Scheme.
“Don’t be afraid of the dark” was a one-day workshop held in the autumn of 2019, sponsored by the Charity Impact Fund at BU in association with Cranborne Chase Landscape Trust. The workshop was designed to engage with the local community in explaining about the nature and value of dark skies. Participants included children from the local school, members of the public and interested local organisations. Speakers were Drs Sean Beer, Fabio Silva and Susanna Curtin (from BU) and Bob Mizon from the Commission for Dark Skies, who brought along his pop-up planetarium.
A month after the workshop we were delighted to hear that the Cranborne Chase had been designated the 13th dark skies reserve in the world and the first AONB to receive that designation in the UK. The University is continuing to work with the AONB in exploring the possibility of building an Observatory in Cranborne Chase.
Key academic: Dr Sean Beer
Collaborating with The Anthony Nolan Trust
Members of the marketing campaign teaching team receiving the Excellence in Sustainable Teaching award
BU has been working with the The Anthony Nolan Trust to deliver a level 4 Marketing unit to BU’s undergraduate students. The Anthony Nolan Trust works to save the lives of people with blood cancer and blood disorders by matching people in need of bone marrow transplants with suitable donors. Even with over 700,000 registered donors, there are still people who cannot find a suitable match; the Anthony Nolan Trust aims to recruit 100,000 new donors per year by 2022.
In response to the Anthony Nolan Trust’s recruitment goal, students were challenged to create an integrated marketing campaign to raise awareness of stem cell donations and increase the number of stem cell donors amongst university students. Students developed innovative marketing campaigns for the charity while enhancing their marketing skills and gaining experience of working on a live brief from the charitable sector.
Anthony Nolan Trust pledged to contribute £5,000 to enable the best marketing campaign to become a reality. The teaching team received the ‘Excellence in Sustainable Teaching’ award and presented their collaborative work at the Academy of Marketing Conference at Regents College, London.
Key academic: Maria Musarskaya
The DPIA Data Wheel – Privacy Risk Assessment for charities and SMEs
The DPIA Data Wheel – Privacy Risk Assessment for charities and SMEs
BU aimed to help a local charity that specialises in supporting vulnerable adults overcoming addiction. Together we were looking to implement processes that would ensure that the charity met GDPR demands. Dr Jane Henriksen-Bulmer assessed the charity’s existing data holdings, consent and data processing practices and revised them to comply with GDPR. In collaboration we delivered a series of well received staff training sessions to ensure staff and volunteers were trained on the implications of GDPR compliance for their practice. All participants felt their knowledge of GDPR had improved; 93% felt that their understanding and knowledge of DPIAs had improved as a result of the training session; 80% thought it likely they would use the material in their daily work practices.
Jane created 'the DPIA Data Wheel', a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) framework specifically for charities to assess data protection risks and document and record the outcomes. Using the DPIA Data Wheel, charities can assess privacy risks in a consistent and repeatable manner ensuring they can demonstrate compliance with GDPR.
The case study was shared with other local charities at a local workshop at the end of the project. This workshop was attended by 40 local charities with positive feedback; 85% of participants stating that their GDPR knowledge had improved from the event and two-thirds of participants reported they would feel confident in conducting DPIA for their organisations after the event.
After the workshop a number of these charities requested electronic copies of the DPIA Data Wheel so that they would be able to conduct their own DPIAs using this as their template.
While this framework was created for Charities, it can be equally be used by any SME or larger organisation who wishes to assess their privacy exposure1. One of Dr Henriksen-Bulmer’s final year students will begin work on creating a DPIA Lite version of the framework as part of his final year project. If you would like to find out more contact Jane Henriksen-Bulmer.
1 Henriksen-Bulmer, J., Faily,S., and Jeary, S., 2020. “DPIA in Context: Applying DPIA to Assess Privacy Risks of Cyber Physical Systems” in Future Internet, Special Issue: Future and Emerging topics in Security for Cyber-Physical Systems, 24 May 2020. Available from: https://doi.org/10.3390/fi12050093
Key academic: Jane Henriksen-Bulmer
‘Social Journalism’ amongst Social Work students in Mumbai
Social Journalism amongst Social Work students in Mumbai
Social Work students and paraprofessionals at the Citizen Journalism Workshop
In collaboration with Indian charity Committed Action for Relief and Education (CARE), BU organised a Citizen Journalism Workshop for Social Work students and paraprofessionals in Mumbai, India. The workshop, supported by the Charity Impact Panel, was a success attracting 20 participants despite the heavy rains in Mumbai on the day.
Gloria Khamkar and Mandar Phanse (Senior News Editor at Mirror Now) shared insights on citizen journalism, its importance as a powerful tool of communication and its ability to address the grassroot social issues. The participants then co-created and co-produced audio-visual news stories in small groups, by applying the basic citizen journalism techniques learnt in the workshop. They then watched those stories together. The participants showed interest to continue exploring and using this tool of Citizen Journalism.
This workshop was particularly relevant and important in the changing face of Indian mainstream press and media, which seem to be shifting their focus away from civic engagement journalism towards commercial drivers.
Key academic: Gloria Khamkar
Animating tagged fish movements
BU has been tagging and tracking freshwater fish species in the River Severn Basin over the past five years. The study fish were two anadromous species, the sea lamprey Petromyzon marinus and the twaite shad Alosa fallax, and three freshwater species, the European barbel Barbus barbus, pikeperch Sander lucioperca and Northern pike Esox lucius. Barbel are non-indigenous to western flowing British rivers while pikeperch are non-native to Britain, with both species frequently introduced for angling.
A total of 311 individual fish, across five species have been tagged with acoustic Vemco tags and then tracked using static receivers. Tracking data is displayed a digital map so users can explore the data over space and time. With selectable features based on species, date, temperature and flow we hope this will help all types of people explore the data and understand fish movement within the Severn.
The Unlocking the Severn project is altering and removing weirs to enable fish migrations. For example, The Powick Weir, in the River Teme was altered to enable shad migration, so our project allows us to watch movements before and after the weir was altered.
Key academic: Dr Catherine Gutmann Roberts
Care in the time of Covid-19
Care in the time of Covid19 was designed to offer a series of simple interventions to help our overwhelmed and stressed-out bodies. They were based on research evidence and practitioner expertise, selected to help us stay grounded and to eat, sleep, move and connect a bit better.
After the initial idea came to design a project around different aspects of wellness, Dr. Anna Feigenbaum and movement coach Ian Greaves in collaboration identified key areas of wellness to cover, including aspects of mental health, nutrition, movement and sleep. Community partners and professionals in their networks were contacted to see if they wanted to participate in the project by writing a post about wellness and offering some simple-to-follow while advice for staying at home. Charity Impact Funding allowed collaborators to be solicited by email with a video brief introducing the project concept and sharing how the posts would work on Instagram (sliding between artworks with the caption for detailed text).
The Instagram project account with visuals and text.
Care in the time of Covid19 is a collaboration by:
Anna Feigenbaum (Bournemouth University) Professor in Digital Storytelling and founder of the BU Civic Media Hub.
Ian Greaves (FreeFlow Injury & Performance Clinic) Personal Trainer & Soft Tissue Therapist specialising in injury rehabilitation and exercise therapy for those with chronic health conditions and pain.
Minute Works (Creative studio)
Project Contributors
Ann Luce (BU, expert in mental health communications) Ann Hemingway (BU, Public Health expert) Hannah Fletcher (Yin and Tea) Megan Harvey (RHUL PhD sleep researcher) Ed Magee and Samantha Roberts (Counsellors) Vishwam Heckert (PhD, Heart Of Living Yoga Teacher and Teacher Trainer)
Key academic: Dr Anna Feigenbaum