Partner with community champions to embed real-world social impact projects in your teaching

Community Engaged Learning is a form of experiential learning where faculty, students and external partners work together on collaborative projects that enable students to make connections between people, research and the wider world. ​

UCL’s Community Engaged Learning Service (CELS) has been working with three community partners in Camden to develop ideas for collaborative teaching projects that have a real-world outcome.

This is an exciting opportunity to co-produce a project that gives your students the opportunity to apply theory to practice and build positive impact for more sustainable communities.  

About Camden Community Champions

Community Champions is a three year programme funded by the Camden Council that is currently running in Regent’s Park Estate, Kentish Town and Kilburn. Each area has a coordinator that recruits, trains and empowers its volunteer Champions to set up projects and events that improve their community’s health and well-being. The projects are volunteer-led; these Champions shape all the work and decide how time and money is spent for their own community.

Find out more about each of the Community Champions projects:

• Regents Park Community Champions  
• Kentish Town Community Champions  
• Kilburn Community Champions 

Project ideas 

CELS and the Community Champions have identified several ideas to help you think about where you might focus a potential teaching project. These are a starting off point for co-designing a project that meets your students’ learning outcomes and the partners’ real-world needs.

1. Develop area maps (garden maps, walkability maps, digital maps, wellbeing walks) with communities in Camden. Focus on accessibility and community stories.  
2. Develop podcasts and storytelling with communities in Camden.  
3. Design portable basketballs and alternative playgrounds with communities in Camden. 
4. Develop an upcycling project with communities in Camden. 
5. Monitor air quality in Camden and develop campaigns with communities in Camden.   
6. Design innovative bins for dog poo and recycling with communities in Camden.   
7. Health and wellbeing projects:  

• Develop training and resources on wellbeing (blood pressure, weight control, stress, sleep, dental hygiene etc) with communities in Camden. 
• Design what a health drop-in might look like with communities in Camden. 
• Deliver health drop-ins and diabetes checks with communities in Camden. 
• Develop awareness campaigns about people who lose their sight and hearing with communities in Camden. 

Get in touch

To discuss any of these project ideas, explore how your students can work with the community partners and how you can embed them in your teaching, email communityengagedlearning@ucl.ac.uk.  

More about Community Engaged Learning

The CEL for UCL  staff webpages give more information on the benefits of community engaged learning and how to go about embedding experiential learning into education through partnership.