Social movers – Oxford's graduate students use research skills to boost local community projects

The Community Impact Lab links the research talent of Oxford University graduates with local community organisations tackling environmental, economic and social inequality across Oxfordshire. Impact Lab fellows outline what it's like to be involved

The Community Impact Lab is one of four programmes set up by Oxford SDG Impact Lab to harness the skills and knowledge of the University's graduate students to advance the UN sustainable development goals. 'We recognised a gap in graduate students' experience,’ says Alex Betts, Co-founder of SDG Impact Lab and Pro Vice-Chancellor for External Engagement, Sport and Community at Oxford University. ‘They get an amazing academic education when they come to Oxford. We wanted to complement this by offering them the opportunity to use their talents to make a difference to society and the planet.'

Some of this year’s 14 Community Impact Lab Fellows outline how they feel they have made a difference to the communities and organisations they have supported – and to themselves.  

Breaking down barriers

Sana Shah is completing a DPhil in History at Somerville College and has been part of the Impact Lab team supporting Oxfordshire Football Association. Her task has been to understand how football can promote better health, equality and community cohesion across the county. 

‘I chose this project because I felt it echoed my own research as an historian and my love of stories. It was about bringing people together and really listening to them – particularly to voices often left out of formal consultation.’

Sana teamed up with her research partner Ciao Anchi, a member of Wolfson College who is taking an MPhil in Global and Area Studies. They conducted in-person interviews and community engagement sessions with people from diverse backgrounds across Oxfordshire.

‘We also attended local matches, training sessions, and community events, where we spoke informally with parents, players, coaches, and volunteers. We reached upwards of 50-60 individuals.’

They found a massive enthusiasm for the beautiful game but also financial and cultural barriers to taking part, from the cost of kit to the pub culture among some adult teams.

Sana wants the FA to do ‘more listening’ to players and the people running local football groups, when it comes to allocating resources. She also suggests that Oxford colleges could get more involved in community football – perhaps sponsoring local teams. ‘Working on this project has completely changed how I see football – I now understand it not just as a sport, but as a community lifeline for many people.’

Promoting social justice

Arden Jaeger is pursuing an MSt in History of Art and Visual Culture and is a member of Wadham College. As a Community Impact Fellow, he has been working with the Tap Social Movement, which offers employment and training to people with convictions via the brewery, bakery, café and tap bars it runs across Oxfordshire.

‘I came to Oxford with the attitude that I would say yes to opportunities that came my way. I wanted to find a more measurable way of making a social impact.’

Arden particularly appreciates the interdisciplinary nature of being a member of the impact Lab. ‘It felt slightly strange at first. I was surrounded by scientists and social scientists tackling big problems while I was looking at pictures of whales.

‘But I have been able to demonstrate that the visual arts can have a huge impact, for example as a means of communicating the complexity or urgency of an issue.’

Tap Social has worked with around 60 prisoners or prison leavers and nearly a third of its staff have prison experience. Arden’s task has been to find out what impact secure employment has on people with convictions, their families and their friends. He also needed to consider how the Tap Social Movement could be scaled for broader social impact.

With his research partner, Diya Ramful – a DPhil Environmental Research student, also at Wadham College – Arden reached out to local arts organisations and criminal justice charities working with marginalised groups as well as Tap Social staff and customers. ‘There is huge support for Tap Social’s mission. Among staff with prison experience, a secure job is more than an income. It affects their housing, social connections and their mental health.

‘This project showed me just how interlinked problems of social justice can be. Tap Social is a positive case study that should be used to inspire other employers.’

Supporting local growers

Ali Elhassan and Clara Cecil already had an interest in sustainable food systems when they opted to work on a project with OxFarm2Fork, which links the county’s institutions, including 18 Oxford colleges, with 20 local agroecological food producers.

Clara, an MSc student in Sustainability, Enterprise and the Environment and a member of Mansfield College, has worked with a small start-up looking at funding and technology investment in regenerative farming. Developing measurement frameworks was very theoretical and I wanted to be more involved at a community level,’ she says.

Ali is an experienced civil and environmental engineer and is taking an MSc in Water Science, Policy and Management and is a member of Hertford College. Before joining the Impact Lab he carried out his own research into food waste in Oxford and wanted to do more. ‘The OxFarm2Fork project has been a good counterbalance to my academic work, although I found it hard fitting it all in at first.’

The pair agree that it was fun too. ‘We didn’t know each other before but have become good friends,’ Ali says.

OxFarm2Fork was set up by Good Food Oxfordshire which hopes to use Ali and Clara’s findings to help extend the Farm2Fork collaboration to other institutions.

Clara and Ali visited four local farms, identified more than 80 plant and insect species and tested the nutrient content of more than 20 different crops.

‘Some crops definitely have a much higher nutrient density than supermarket equivalent,’ Ali says. ‘But it is not a consistent picture and ideally we need to find a more detailed means of measuring nutrient content.’

Clara and Ali also interviewed farmers and students and chefs in participating Oxford colleges. They think there is more mileage to be had from partnerships with Oxford colleges such as piloting contracted growing around particular crops – possibly more unusual crops that cannot be sourced elsewhere.

They certainly feel that the inspirational growers they met have the commitment and work ethic to rise to the challenge. ‘The farmers were awesome,’ Clara says.

The Community Impact Lab is supported by the University of Oxford’s ESRC Impact Acceleration Account.