Design students contribute to a haven for the homeless

Many of the students at University College Falmouth have close ties with the local community during their time in Cornwall. More than 100 of them each year use their invaluable knowledge and skills to help others through FXU Community Action, the student union’s volunteering service.

One such example is a group of undergraduates who became involved in refurbishing a hostel for the St Petroc’s Society - a charity based in Truro which works, with boundless dedication, in assisting the growing number of single homeless people in Cornwall.

St Petroc’s provides temporary accommodation and social care services at their hostels in Truro, Newquay and Bodmin and at their Resource Centre in Penzance. The hostels enable service users to be supported and encouraged while they tackle their particular problems, search for work and organise permanent accommodation. However, more places are always needed.

The debilitating cost of property, refurbishment, materials, labour and on-going running costs had meant that it had been over 12 years since the charity had added a new hostel to its resources. It was therefore a significant achievement for St Petroc’s to negotiate a collaboration between North Cornwall District Council (NCDC), Cornwall County Council, the Cornwall Partnership Trust and The Drug and Alcohol Team to fund a cottage in Bodmin for use as an additional hostel.

The property, leased to St Petroc’s by NCDC, required rebuilding and full refurbishment before it could be used. Jane Howard, who runs the Arts for Health charity and has close links to St Petroc’s, suggested utilising the skills and ingenuity of University College Falmouth students as volunteers for the task, and contacted FXU. FXU’s Community Action service was able to find and support the student volunteers, most crucially by covering costs and expenses such as travelling. These types of costs might otherwise have prevented the volunteers from being able to get involved.

Steve Ellis, Project Worker for St Petroc’s, comments, “The idea was inspired- all the student volunteers involved had a significant impact on everyone working on the project. Tristan, the Garden Design student in particular has been exceptional. His plans were of the highest standard and we were all bowled over by his suggestions. He fully understood the brief and the need for a pleasant setting which would flourish over time. He even gave us ideas for recycling and maintenance and has personally planted the gardens in his spare time”.

Design students contributed their expertise by planning a practical and inspiring interior for the hostel using customised colour schemes and furnishings which complemented the charity’s holistic approach.

Having a record of the project was equally valuable for the charity, as awareness is imperative to its fundraising activities. For this, a group of students from the Broadcasting degree course became involved; filming and interviewing staff, service users and officials. As part of their coursework the students used the footage to investigate the plight of the homeless in Cornwall- championing the outstanding work of St Petroc’s Society in a moving documentary entitled “Cornwall’s Hidden Homeless”.

Commenting on the contribution of everyone involved Steve Ellis said, “This just goes to show how it has to be a collaborative approach for it to work. We hope we will have a continuing relationship with the university and would definitely go back to FXU and University College Falmouth for their expertise on any other project in the future”.

He concludes, ” Thanks to the commitment of the local organisations, student volunteers, fundraisers and our very gifted management board, six local people will be able to live in the cottage from Christmas, find a new future and start to contribute to the community which has given them a second chance.”

For more details about St Petroc’s Society go to www.stpetrocs.org.uk

For more details about FXU Community Action go to www.fxu.org.uk

For further information about BA(Hons) Garden Design at University College Falmouth, please visit www.falmouth.ac.uk/gardendesign ,
email admissions@falmouth.ac.uk or contact Admissions on 01326 214382 (for the full-time option) or 01326 214383 (for the part-time route).

For further information about BA(Hons) Spatial Design at University College Falmouth , please visit www.falmouth.ac.uk/spatialdesign ,
email admissions@falmouth.ac.uk or contact Admissions on 01326 214371.

For further information about design courses at University College Falmouth, please visit www.falmouth.ac.uk/design

For further information about BA(Hons) Broadcasting at University College Falmouth, please visit www.falmouth.ac.uk/broadcasting,
email admissions@falmouth.ac.uk or telephone Admissions on 01326 214355.

University College Falmouth is a founding partner in the Combined Universities in Cornwall, a unique initiative to promote regional economic regeneration through higher education. The CUC is funded mainly by the European Union (Objective One), the South West Regional Development Agency, and the Higher Education Funding Council for England, with support from Cornwall County Council.

Images provided courtesy of Karen Pritchard BA(Hons) Spatial Design.

Ends

For further information about this press release, please contact Jilly Easterby, Head of Public Affairs, University College Falmouth, Woodlane, Falmouth, Cornwall TR11 4RH, Telephone: 01326 213792 or
email: jilly.easterby@falmouth.ac.uk

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