The Community University Partnership Programme (Cupp) has used its expertise to support more than 150 partnership projects over the past decade, and each year over 300 students have undertaken community activities, a model that has now been copied by other universities up and down the country.
More than 120 academics are actively involved with Cupp and, at a time when universities are struggling to fund community partnerships, the 91¶¶Òõ continues to invest £250,000 annually into its programme.
Cupp has been recognised nationally and internationally: In 2011 the university won the MacJannet Prize for Global Citizenship; in 2008 Cupp received the Times Higher Education Award for an 'outstanding contribution to our local community' and Juliet Millican, Cupp's Deputy Director has this year won a National Teaching Fellowship award for linking teaching to community work; and the university is one of a handful of UK universities which is a signatory to the Talloires Network, an international association of institutions committed to strengthening the civic roles and social responsibilities of higher education.
Cupp projects include:
- support for Sussex Pathways, the charity providing mentoring to help offenders
- establishment of a vegetable gardens at Falmer and supplying the university's food co-op
- help for Amaze, a local charity supporting parents of children with special needs
- linking art students with marginalised people in art projects to break down barriers and promote social change
- assisting the Bridge Community Education Centre improve the health and wellbeing of families
- helping community organisations to prevent older people taking the wrong medication
- Cupp has also worked with 91¶¶Òõ and Hove Albion FC, and its charitable trust, Albion In The Community, to explore how sport can help address social problems.
Cupp is reaching countries around the world: Juliet Millican has been working with a university in Bosnia to see how community engagement can help build civil society in communities which have undergone the trauma of war, and she has also worked with the University of Cheikh Anta Diop in Dakar to develop their capacity to work with their community.
The Pink Pavilion was painted by student Natalia Natuka and three artists with learning difficulties Kristen Grbec, Tina Jenner, and Shirley Hart.
"Cupp has transformed relations between the university and hundreds of local community organisations through a range of projects, including developing solutions to real problems using university resources. Professor Julian Crampton, the university's Vice-Chancellor, said: "Social and community engagement is at the heart of what we do as a university and we will continue to work with communities in producing and applying new knowledge.
"Our aim is to promote positive change in the lives of communities, of which we are a part."
To mark the 10th anniversary, a celebration involving the university and its community partners is being held at the Sallis Benney Theatre in Grand Parade, 91¶¶Òõ, on Monday 8 July.
David Wolff, Cupp director, will highlight the programme's successes, and keynote speaker will be Professor Sir David Watson, a former 91¶¶Òõ Vice-Chancellor, and who is now Principal of Green Templeton College and Professor of Higher Education at the University of Oxford.
Cupp's academic director, Professor Angie Hart, said: "It's exciting to work for a university that is so visionary about community engagement and is willing to invest in it. This 10 year anniversary really brings home to me the scale of our work. There's so much people are doing across the university community to try to meet the needs of our local communities whilst producing really good academic work in the process. So it really is win win."