Hallam students point the way - by Mark Copping

Students from Sheffield Hallam University have been working to draw attention to the distinctive and hidden aspects of the Sharrow area.

The project has been run by Hallam Volunteering and local community architect Julia Udall. Thanks to funding from Hallam University's Faculty of Development and Society, students studying in the fields of Architecture and Urban Planning have created a set of signposts with an artistic difference to brighten up Sharrow.

Signposts have been designed, painted and constructed by students with the aim of creating an art trail to advertise all that Sharrow has to offer. This includes places of interest, which are perhaps unrecognised by people unfamiliar with the area, such as the Portland Works - once working as the backbone of Sheffield's steel industry and is now unfortunately under threat of closure as has been reported upon before in Sharrow Today.

Members of the Distinctive Sharrow Action Group have also been supporting and assisting the project. The group has been actively taking an interest in the built environment in Sharrow for a few years, running a number of projects that aims to empower local people to be able to change their environment or how it is perceived. Volunteers from the group have been showing students around the area and contributed in putting the signs together.

The success of the projects means that the signs should soon be seen out and about around Sharrow. Plans have also already been made for another joint Hallam Volunteering and Distinctive Sharrow project, so watch this space! Anyone interested in becoming involved with the scheme can contact Sarah Mcgillivray file:///C:/Webcache/Temporary%20Internet%20Files/Content.IE5/HHP5Q4IF/uussm3@exchange.shu.ac.uk

Reeling Ahead with Longley Park! by Ashleigh Withall-Prince

The ‘Showreel’ project is in full flow working alongside local college students to produce a film, highlighting all that’s brilliant about Hallam Volunteering, and the achievements of the volunteers and local college students. It has offered a fantastic opportunity to develop film – making and editing skills to the team and students to produce a high quality film due to be premiered at a celebratory evening for volunteering, ‘The Event’ on March 24th.
Hallam volunteers are currently working with Longley Park Sixth Form students. The students from the college have all got some previous media experience, and are having a great time, building on their skills and forming a rapport with the volunteers.

Project Leader Matthew Voyse, who was once a student at Longley Park said: “We have a positive environment when filming and we try to make sure we have fun. The students are easy to work with, because they all do media, so they pretty much know what they are doing. They are really enthusiastic about working on the project.”

Shooting for the film began on 10th February, and is set to continue at least once a week, possibly more, in the weeks leading up to The Event. Initially, Showreel had 8 spots available for the students however, due to popular demand they have taken on 12, and it’s easy to understand why the project is so popular. You could say the sessions have bee somewhat of a ‘sell-out’!

The concept of the filming is based loosely in the style of TV programmes. The filming for the volunteer project ‘Season It’ was done in the style of Gordon Ramsey’s ‘F Word’. One of the students was pretending to cook like Gordon whilst conducting interviews, although they had to restrain from Gordon’s infamous swearing and fiery temper!

Matthew is extremely happy with the progression of the project at present, he said: “Luckily everything is running smoothly so far, I have a bunch of enthusiastic students and a great bunch of volunteers, which is all a project leader could ask for.” Well done to the Showreel team, we cannot wait to see this blockbuster!!

'Nothing Beats Word Of Mouth' by Dean Robinson

Despite February 16th being an extremely cold evening in our little town of Sheffield, it didn’t stop those making their way to the hubs for the third ‘Language Exchange’ event. The word certainly seemed to have spread making the first episode of 2010 be one of the biggest turn outs since it began at the beginning of the academic year. The Hubs seemed as lively as ever attracting a mix of both students and older people and it was also nice to see that. Again, there were plenty of worldly delicacies on offer to taste.

If you’ve never been before or not heard about this event then the Language Exchange programme has been put together by the people of Hallam Volunteering and by those of Language in Sheffield. They have created a great way to allow people of all ages and backgrounds to get together and share their different language skills.

There are about 15 to 20 tables set up with a variation of different languages from all over the world for example; Spanish, German, French, Dutch, Chinese, Japanese, Nigerian, Arabic, Swedish... the list is endless. Each table then had a representative that was fluent in both the selected language and English; some tables even had few traditional language games to add to the festivities.

If you fancy joining in with a Language Exchange Extravaganza then pop down to the A pod of the Hubs on the following dates:

Tuesday, March 9th 6pm-8pm

Tuesday, April 27th 6pm-8pm

It certainly is a great relaxed way to share and develop any language skills you may have or even to learn some new ones.

"We are Gold!" by Martha Brown

Day after day volunteers throughout Hallam union work tirelessly for their projects. So, every year to recognise this dedication the union present four volunteers with the Gold Awards.
These are recognised achievements with volunteering England and have been honoured for a very long time. They are the only student awards of its kind that acknowledge qualities in further and higher education in relation to volunteering.

There are three categories associated with the awards; leadership, dedication and achievement. Anyone can nominate, project leaders and group members can vote for one another.
Once the votes have been cast a panel of judges will decide who they believe should be given the awards. On the panel this year is Laura Stafford, the Hallam Volunteering manager, Alison McHale who works in the University with Work Based Learning and a trustee elected by the students.

The awards will be handed out on Thursday 22nd April at the end of year party, where internal awards will also honoured.

Voting opens at the beginning of March, so if you have a perfect candidate in mind someone who you think deserves to be recognised for their contribution to volunteering, or if they have been exceptionally dedicated or if they have shown outstanding leadership skills, don’t hesitate, Vote! And Let them receive the exceptional gold award.