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17 March 2020

IoPPN students win King's Civic Challenge funding

Local projects co-created by students from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience have received funding to make their ideas a reality at the final of King’s first ever Civic Challenge.

IoPPN students win King's Civic Challenge funding

The event, which took place in the Chamber of City Hall, was officially supported by the Mayor of London and his volunteering programme, Team London.

Welcoming guests, Baroness Deborah Bull, Vice President & Vice Principal (London), emphasised the university’s commitment to working in partnership with London and our home boroughs.

We’ve worked with our boroughs to identify where local needs could best be supported by King’s strengths and expertise. King’s Civic Challenge exemplifies all of this. It recognises that by working together we can do even more to address local challenges and opportunities.

Baroness Deborah Bull, Vice President & Vice Principal (London)

At the event, finalists presented ideas developed in response to challenges identified by each team’s local charity to a panel that included representatives from Team London, Lambeth Council, Southwark Council and Westminster City Council.

Three winning teams included students from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience and were awarded prizes for their civic contributions. They receive up to £5,000 of project funding for the charity and ongoing support and coaching to make their idea a reality.

Cardinal Hume Centre

The Cardinal Hume Centre in Westminster won the award for health and wellbeing having asked to find new ways to connect with young adults in the borough at risk of homelessness.

The team explained in their pitch that young people don’t queue up at for housing advice but look to their phones and social media instead.

Their solution was to co-produce a short film with young people to highlight issues that might lead to homelessness, how to tackle them and where to get help. Following their win, the group will now work with young people in Westminster with lived experience of homelessness to create the film, partnering with schools, youth centres and places of worship.

Councillor Mark Shearer, Deputy Cabinet Member for Community Services & Digital at Westminster City Council, presented the health and wellbeing award. He explained that the judges recognised that the hidden homelessness challenge addressed by the Cardinal Hume Centre project is one that needs to be highlighted and tackled.

TEAM: Jemila Macauley, Hilary Nightingale and Gemma Silke from Cardinal Hume Centre with Quisha Bustamante (BSc Biomedical Sciences), Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine; Shayni Geffen (MSc Global Mental Health) and Betuel Sahin (MSc Mental Health Studies), Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience; Haruka Ikai (BSc Economics), King’s Business School; Maria Barragan (English Law & Spanish Law LLB), The Dickson Poon School of Law
TEAM: Jemila Macauley, Hilary Nightingale and Gemma Silke from Cardinal Hume Centre with Quisha Bustamante (BSc Biomedical Sciences), Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine; Shayni Geffen (MSc Global Mental Health) and Betuel Sahin (MSc Mental Health Studies), Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience; Haruka Ikai (BSc Economics), King’s Business School; Maria Barragan (English Law & Spanish Law LLB), The Dickson Poon School of Law

Rathbone

The team behind Rathbone Community Outreach received the award for community resilience.  Recognising that loneliness can impact people with disabilities disproportionally, the team will set up tailored volunteering opportunities with local charities in Lambeth to tackle social isolation among adults with learning disabilities. In doing so they aim to reduce loneliness, improve mental health and establish stronger community ties among participants.

Councillor Jack Hopkins, Leader of Lambeth Council, who presented the team with their award, said: 'I want to congratulate the Rathbone Community Outreach team on winning this award and commend them for their commitment to the important task of tackle social isolation among adults with learning disabilities.

'This project will help build resilience in our communities and tackle health inequalities, both of which are a key priorities for Lambeth Council.'  

TEAM: Georgia Harvey and Charline King from Rathbone with Ella Jalba (Public Health MPH), Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine; Mouktika Ayyagari (MSC Mental Health Studies), Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience and Melissa Fitzpatrick (BA History), Faculty of Arts & Humanities
TEAM: Georgia Harvey and Charline King from Rathbone with Ella Jalba (Public Health MPH), Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine; Mouktika Ayyagari (MSC Mental Health Studies), Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience and Melissa Fitzpatrick (BA History), Faculty of Arts & Humanities

Southwark Pensioners’ Centre

The Southwark Pensioners’ Centre team won the business and enterprise award for their unique response to the challenge of isolation among elderly people in the borough. It will support them to create a cookbook to reduce ‘barriers to belonging’ among Black, Asian and minority ethnic pensioners in Southwark. The project promises to bring together people young and old from the borough’s BAME community to create tasty, healthy, cultural food while researching heritage, art and culture and sharing stories across the generations. The team hope to eventually sell the cookbook in local and, potentially, national retailers.

Councillor Johnson Situ, Cabinet Member for Growth, Development & Planning at Southwark Council, presented the award. ‘The panel were really impressed by this unique idea which brought together different parts of our community,’ he said. ‘This is one that champions diversity and can also be scaled as well.’

TEAM: Lydia Ango and Cathy Deplessis, Southwark Pensioners’ Centre with Melissa Co (PhD in Health Services & Population Research), Elyse Couch (PhD in Health Services Research) and Harriet Yayra (MSc Global Mental Health), Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience; Ahlam Mutahar Muthanna (MSc Clinical Dermatology), Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine
TEAM: Lydia Ango and Cathy Deplessis, Southwark Pensioners’ Centre with Melissa Co (PhD in Health Services & Population Research), Elyse Couch (PhD in Health Services Research) and Harriet Yayra (MSc Global Mental Health), Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience; Ahlam Mutahar Muthanna (MSc Clinical Dermatology), Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine

The Civic Challenge was designed in collaboration with King’s staff, partners across our home boroughs and Team London.

The ten finalist teams were supported by King’s alumni mentors and co-developed their ideas with charities across Lambeth, Southwark and Westminster: Cardinal Hume Centre, Carers’ Hub Lambeth, Friends of Windmill Gardens, Girls United, GlobalGirl Media UK, London Youth, Mousetrap Theatre Projects, Rathbone Society, Southwark Pensioners’ Centre and Theatre Peckham.

Every team will now be supported by King’s to find their next step, through connections with relevant expertise or signposting to alternative funding.

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