Innovative social impact in a remote world

How do you create real-world impact in a world in lockdown? 

This is the challenge the Centre for Social Justice & Inclusion is addressing in 2021. Trialling a range of strategies and activities to keep people connected, foster student growth and have positive impact in the community has kept us busy during a year of uncertainty and strained social support systems. 

In June 2021 this goal led one of our programs, the UTS SOUL Award, to partner with online experiential learning platform Practera to have students support community organisations, and gain experience of remote volunteering. 

The project, Opportunity Accelerator, involved 14 Australian not-for-profit organisations to provide a real-world challenge to student teams. Each student spent 25 hours over two weeks researching and identifying opportunities to improve the organisation's services, understanding their clients and service users, analysing their communications, and completing a report with recommendations. With the overall goal for the organisations to increase their social impact. 

‘It was a very enriching experience for me. I had the opportunity to work on a real project, with a real client. I learnt a lot about the charity sector in Australia and it made me want to volunteer more. This experience allowed me to develop my global skills, gain hands-on experience and expand my network,’ says Stephanie Lilin, Bachelor of Science in IT.

Eighty-three students from Engineering and IT, Law, Design Architecture and Building, Science and the Social Sciences teamed up in cross-disciplinary groups of five. Teams were blended across undergraduate, postgraduate, domestic and international students, lending each challenge a broad range of specialty and experience. Operating remotely meant the program was even available to students offshore, with three students participating from overseas. 

‘It's a fantastic opportunity to not only apply your practical knowledge and skills to a real business problem but also an enjoyable experience where you get to meet and work with new people from different backgrounds and faculties,’ says UTS student Debbie. 

Aman Singh Sehmbey, Masters of Business Administration saw the project as an opportunity to get ‘a glimpse of the industry, and that is valuable experience. The resources provided help in learning concepts that may not be taught in an individual's course program. It is a great opportunity to learn and grow.’  

In the end they volunteered 1,560 hours to Australian for-purpose organisations.

When students work with organisations, real impact is created; 86% of the reports produced were rated as ‘high quality’ or ‘outstanding’ in survey results after the project completion. 

‘The whole experience was efficient, effective and enjoyable. The project saved us a lot of time and brought new thinking into the process,’ says the project team from Stronger Brains, student cognitive and social health organisation.  

Megan O'Shannessy, Chief Executive Officer at Rural Medical Education Australia described their report as ‘excellent comprehensive analysis with innovative recommendations. I will implement each recommendation, Before this report I was floundering to find a way forward.'

It wasn’t only the organisations who benefitted. Eighty-two per cent of students reported increased employability, specifically sighting increase skills in collaboration, cultural consciousness, leadership and problem solving. 

While COVID and lockdowns have placed barriers on long standing volunteering programs, innovative approaches including the Opportunity Accelerator allow students and not-for-profits to continue vital collaborations and support social impact. 

We also know that work integrated learning which engages students in social impact delivers greater student and community outcomes than standard industry-based work integrated learning. 

This program was undertaken by the UTS Social Impact team at the UTS Centre for Social Justice & Inclusion. Their work specialises in ensuring UTS actively contributes to resolving the social challenges that affect communities. This is achieved through empowering students to act and helping community organisations increase their capacity to achieve their missions. 

If you’re a community organisation looking for support for your mission, contact UTS SOUL at soul.award@uts.edu.au. 

If you’re a UTS student looking to develop your leadership skills and ability to have impact, register for SOUL today at soul.uts.edu.au.