Read: Opening up opportunity through sport, the Cardiff Met way
As an anchor institution, Cardiff Metropolitan University has a long tradition of making a positive impact on its students and the communities it serves, far beyond its own campuses.
Through its partnership with the Purpose Coalition, the University has demonstrated its commitment to breaking down the barriers that prevent true equality of opportunity. The 14 Purpose Goals developed by the Coalition provide a framework against which an organisation’s social impact can be measured. They cover life stages such as successful school years or positive destinations post-16+ or the obstacles that people encounter such as the digital divide or access to savings and credit.
Goal 8 relates to good health and wellbeing, an essential factor if a person is to access the opportunity that will allow them to reach their full potential. In a post-pandemic world and an on-going cost-of-living crisis, those from the most disadvantaged backgrounds have been hit the hardest and there is increasing evidence that it is young people who are experiencing the greatest challenges in maintaining good mental and physical health. It is also the Goal that many young people align with the most closely and believe is one of the most important benchmarks when looking at prospective employers and an organisation’s social impact offering.
So Cardiff Met’s successful initiative, Open Campus, is important for its students and for its communities. Its focus is on helping more people access sport, physical activity and health support by providing learning opportunities for the local community. So far, almost 10,000 schoolchildren and members of the community have attended events. Over 1,000 Cardiff Met students have delivered the activities, engaging with 41 schools across Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan.
In collaboration with their teaching staff, students deliver sessions as part of their undergraduate degrees which include Sport Coaching, Sport Media & Management, Sport PE & Health, Sport Performance Analysis & Sport Conditioning, Rehabilitation and Massage. So far, they’ve participated in over 320 on-campus placements and over 250 community placement opportunities. Activities range from coaching children’s sport to researching the impact of cardiovascular health, supporting the delivery of falls prevention courses with the elderly community to supporting performance athletes and running elite level sporting events to doing market research for National Governing Bodies (NGBs).
The achievements of Open Campus were celebrated recently at an event at Cardiff Met’s Cyncoed Campus with 120 students leading over 400 people in a range of sport and health activities, including primary and secondary school students, cardiac patients and neurodiverse children. The success of the initiative has led the University to expand the programme to help even more people access sport, physical activity and health support, extending it to groups including those in the youth justice system and refugees. It also intends to offer support to cardiac rehabilitation centres and offer health hubs for frail people.
The Open Campus initiative is just one way in which Cardiff Met is working with purpose to enhance the learning experience for its students in a real-world setting, while making a difference to those living in its communities. Good health and wellbeing are fundamental to being able to thrive at every stage of life. Giving a whole range of people, from children to the elderly, the chance to access teaching and sports facilities they may not otherwise have had makes a significant contribution to a healthier and happier community.
