Vice President Activities

Katie Sandison

I came to UCLan in 2017 and studied sport and exercise science for 3 years at undergraduate level followed by psychology at postgraduate level. During my time as a student I was involved in the Students’ Union through sports. I played women’s football for 2 years where I was social secretary, followed by 2 years of women’s rugby where I also became social secretary. My involvement with the Students’ Union helped me develop as a person, make friends and build my confidence. When I first came to Preston, I didn’t know anyone, but though my participation within the Students’ Union I was able to find somewhere to develop relationships with people with similar interests to me.

Being part of the Students’ Union made my university experience 100% better. It gave me that breathing space I needed when my studies got too stressful. I’m passionate about individuals getting involved in sport. I aim to support all activities to make their clubs the best they can be and support all students to find the best activity for them to make their time at UCLan the best it can be.

Contact

@UCLanSU_Activ

uclansu_officers

What I'm working on

Inclusion in Activity

Fri 18 Feb 2022

Inclusion in Activity

Starting to plan an Inclusion Week which will invole a range of different activities, also in disucssion with the University on how we can make our sporting facilities more accessible for all students.

"At UCLan Students Union we want all our students to be able to get involved in a safe and inclusive enviroment."

On 20^th April, I ran an Inclusion Sports Day supported by various members of our sports teams to run activities throughout the day. This year a big focus of mine has been around inclusion, I’ve been working with various students and staff looking at what barriers there are to students getting involved in activity, what we need to do to break these down and what more we can do to ensure there is something for everyone to get involved with.

On the day we had a 2-hour session of wheelchair fencing which was ran by the chair of the Fencing Club, followed by a mixed touch charity rugby tournament which was ran by the Committees of both Men and Women's Rugby Union. This event had a massive turn out and raised money for SafeNet and Alzheimer’s society. Later on in the day we also had a goalball session ran by a few students from Sports and PE course.

This event was successful and had lots of interest and positive feedback from many students.

If you missed out there will be more inclusion events next academic year, I'll let you know when they're happening!

Photo of me participating in wheelchair fencing Photo from the touch rugby tournament

Supporting Trans* Students in Sport

Thu 27 Jan 2022

Supporting Trans* Students in Sport

I currently have a Your Big Idea which can still be voted on. If the Idea passes, it will mandate the Students' Union to lobby the University to conduct a review of all current University buildings to ensure gender neutral facilities across campus are put in place where possible and that all future building plans include at least one gender neutral toilet.

This will link into work I'll be doing with the University about Sports Facilities and I'll also be looking into how we can support Trans* Students who want to particpate in sports and get a better understanding of their experiences.

“As Vice President Activities I want to ensure that we better represent our Trans* and Gender-fluid students within our sport and activity. We want our activity to be a positive safe environment which is inclusive for all students.”

As part of this work, we will:

Educate our Sports Club Committees, members and coaches to ensure they are inclusive and understand how important equality, diversity and inclusion is.
Educate students involved in any of our activity around inclusive language and normalise and encourage the use of pronouns.
Increase the number of non-gender specific/mixed gender activities and ensure students are aware of them.
Ensure students are aware of how they can report discrimination or any hate crime and ensure they are aware of the support they can receive if they ever witness or experience it.

I'll have more information I'll be able to share in a few weeks!

New and exciting volunteering projects

Tue 16 Nov 2021

New and exciting volunteering projects

Katie Cares at Christmas

Crisps Collection

Did you know that the number of people sleeping rough in Preston has increased by 300%? This winter we are collecting empty crisp packets to help out the most in need. Myself and Justine have been working on a project which involves collecting crisp packets to donate to iron man survivor blankets. so far we have had over 300 crips packers donated from students and staff and are 92% of the way to enough packets to create 3 blankets.

Update - January 2022: Thanks to all the amazing students and staff, we managed to collect nearly 1500 crisps packets and we've started creating the blankets. At one of our One Off Wednesday events we had lots of great volunteers who helped us sort the packets out. I can't wait to show you when they're finished!

Domestic Violence Gift Donation

A great volunteering opportunity this Christmas!

For many of us Christmas brings us joys with Christmas parties, families gathered around the Christmas tree, presents under the tree and smiles all round. But for others Christmas is the most feared time of the year. Statistic show that domestic violence rises significantly over the festive period. When survivors and their families escape domestic abuse, they often escape with nothing. This Christmas we are collecting donations for safenet to help survivors and their families. Donate a gift because everyone deserves a present on Christmas.

Update - January 2022: Just before Christmas the charity we collected donations for came into the Students' Union to collect everything. They were overwhelmed with how many gifts, toiletries and clothes students had donated. Lots of our Sports Clubs and Societies donated too, thank you to everybody who got involved. Every gift has made a difference and lots of families would have been so appreciative.

Photo of Katie and representative from Safe Net

Increase student engagement in activities

Thu 01 Jul 2021

Increase student engagement in activities

Fight to End mental health stigma

Thu 01 Jul 2021

Fight to End mental health stigma

Delivered mental health session at the volunteer development programme providing students with knowledge regarding what mental health is, what emotional intelligence is, signs and symptoms to look for in themselves and friends and what resources there are to support themselves and friends.

Got student groups and volunteers to write pledges about what they pledge to do to support there own mental health and to support their friends and club members.

Currently working with the university to create a day of activities for university mental health day (3rd March), aswell as working in colloboration with the university to complete the BRIT challenge. We aim to walk 2022 miles in February to improve mental health and fitmess whilst raising funds for BRIT and Lanchasire minds.

Mental Health Awareness week 2022

The theme for mental health awareness week this year is Loneliness. During the week we will be running various sessions for students to come chill out, have a chat, take part in some activities, make friends and take a break away from their studies.

I've recently written a blog about mental health, loneliness and how we can tackle it. Read it below in my latest news.

mental health awareness week timetable