Blog: South Lanarkshire College Students’ Association on Tackling Student Poverty
South Lanarkshire College & SLC Students’ Association include ‘student poverty’ as a key focus area within their Student Mental Health Agreement. Below they share an update on the work they’ve been taking forward throughout academic year 2023-2024.
“We’re firmly committed to tackling student poverty. With the current cost-of-living crisis majorly impacting our students, the Students’ Association have many initiatives in place to support our students who are struggling due to student poverty.
We have been providing a free healthy breakfast and free soup and sandwich, on a weekly rotation, throughout the academic year for all students. Breakfast consists of a slice of toast, fruit porridge, or cereal. We rotate the day each week to make sure that all our students have access to this initiative. We have also recently increased our breakfast provision to two times per week and will be reviewing regularly to see if there is a possibility of increasing further.
In addition to this, we run a food larder directly from our office where students can take what they need at any time. This is stocked with non-perishable foods, hygiene products, sanitary products, and stationery. This is replenished when needed and it is very much used by our students. We have been reaching out to local companies and supermarkets to try to bolster our supply for our food larder. We have received further funding from the SLC Foundation to continue these initiatives allowing us to provide this support to our students over the next two years. We are extremely grateful to receive this funding.
Before every holiday the Students’ Association makes up sanitary product holiday packs containing pads and tampons, this is in addition to free sanitary products located in the toilets throughout the College. We do this to make sure that our students have access to the products when they are not on campus. We regularly host stalls where we give these holiday packs out as well as reusable sanitary products, such as menstrual cups and reusable pads. We also provide ‘Pads4Dads’ via Hey Girls, these contain sanitary products and information that may help single dads with daughters who are starting their periods. Alongside the on-campus provision outlined above we work in partnership with Hey Girls to provide a free home delivery service of products that students can order directly.
Over the colder months we understand that our students struggle to afford warm clothing and the cost of heating bills. To try and help with this we purchase hoodies before these months with Students’ Association branding on them and we sell these to our students at a subsidised cost of £5. We allow students to choose the colours that we order through social media polls.
Our Learning Development Department have also opened the College Way Market as a permanent addition to our college campus. This is a free clothing shop open to all staff and students located on the Ground Floor Atrium. For the grand opening of this the college held a Fashion Show to display items that can be found in the Way Market.
At SLC our Student Services team also work hard to support students facing financial difficulty by providing crisis support and assisting with Discretionary Hardship applications. While this funding is limited, it is available to all students who may need it. Students can also access assistance in relation to housing support, liaising with energy companies, or budgeting support. These services are promoted in our fortnightly student newsletter and social media channels. Our Advice Centre operates on a drop-in basis with staff available throughout the day to assist.
We believe that it is our duty to support all our students especially those who are suffering due to student poverty to our best ability. To find out more then please visit South Lanarkshire College Students’ Association website.”
