Welfare at John's

Hello and welcome to the Welfare Pages! The Welfare team in John’s exists to try and make your time as a Johnian as happy, healthy and smooth running as possible. Hopefully these pages will assist you in finding out about the many and varied support services that are provided throughout the University and within College. If you would like more information on anything you find feel free to email johns.welfare@durham.ac.uk. As a team we do the following things: 

• Raise awareness of issues affecting students from alcohol awareness to student finance, stress-less to sexual health.
• Provide a safe, confidential and non judgemental listening space. 
• Signpost services both within College and the University which can provide support to students; for example the University Health Centre and the Counselling Service.
• Distribute travel bursaries on a termly basis.
• Organise events coinciding with welfare campaigns. 

The St John’s College Welfare Team is comprised of the following people:

JCR Welfare Officer - Charlotte Armstrong

Hi!

I’m Lottie, your Welfare Officer. I co-ordinate the welfare committee, which provides a range of services such as living out and careers info, sexual health supplies, a space to talk in confidence, and a range of services beyond college. 

Here’s a little more about what I do…

Talk: Please feel free to approach me for a confidential chat at any time about anything. You can get in touch with me via email or phone, where we can arrange a meeting. Alternatively you can pop in during my office hours, which are publicized on the Welfare notice board. I am here to listen in a confidential, non-judgemental capacity at all times.

Student Support Network: I co-ordinate the Student2Student supporters, who conduct a daily drop-in service from 5.15-6.15pm in the Welfare Room (just off Cranmer Vac). During this time, you can collect welfare supplies, seek information on welfare issues or just chat. All Student2Student supporters are welfare trained and offer a strictly confidential, non-judgemental listening space.

Campaigns: Welcomm and myself come up with campaign ideas to raise awareness of particular welfare issues, and to provide relevant and up to date information where and when to seek advice.

Exec: I am a part of Exec as a student body representative. Primarily, I ensure that all discussions are sensitive to potentially welfare related issues.

Supplies: I provide lots and lots of freebies! Condoms, lube, attack alarms, pregnancy tests and Chlamydia tests are all available to collect from me, and can be arranged to be collected completely confidentially through the anonymous emailing system on the welfare website.

Signposting: I have pages and pages of contacts at my disposal. So if you need pointing in the direction of advice on a specific matter. This includes welfare contacts in college, as well as university wide and nationwide.

DSU: I also sit on the DSU Welfare Committee, where we discuss the welfare systems in place in each college, university-wide campaigns and receive details of signposting materials and contacts.

The welfare system is here for you. You can use it as little or as often as you like. Please feel free to email, text of call me any time (07730581653)

See you around!

Lottie

Assistant Female Welfare Officer

This position is currently vacant. If you are interested in standing for the position contact johns.chair@durham.ac.uk

The Assistant Female Welfare Officer is an integral part of the welfare team, working in close contact with the Welfare Officer, Assistant Male Welfare Officer and the rest of the Welfare Committee (WelComm). She conducts weekly office hours in which she acts as a point of contact for students who wish to speak in a non-judgemental, confidential environment or those who wish to pick up welfare supplies. In addition to this role the Female Assistant Officer holds the position of Welfare Room and office hours organiser.

Assistant Male Welfare Officer

This position is currently vacant. If you are interested in standing for the position contact johns.chair@durham.ac.uk

The Assistant Male Welfare Officer is an integral part of the welfare team, working in close contact with the Welfare Officer, Assistant Female Welfare Officer and the rest of the Welfare Committee (WelComm). He conducts weekly office hours in which he acts as a point of contact for students who wish to speak in a non-judgemental, confidential environment or those who wish to pick up welfare supplies. In addition to this he meets with the JCR Welfare Officer on a weekly basis to help plan forthcoming welfare campaigns and distribute posters and welfare information around college.

Students with Disabilities Officers - Octavia Lewis & Hannah Worth

Hello ! I’m Hannah a 2^nd year psychology student. My hobbies include coxing for Johns, singing in the choir, drinking tea and playing the flute. And I’m Octavia a 2^nd year music student, my hobbies are: loving people and hobnobbing in general; starting fights with other college mascots; a healthy mix of Flight of the Conchords and Bach and general musicing; and fabulijuice John’s. We’re your disabled reps for the year. We’re here to support you and offer you advice if you have a disability or suspect you might have one. 

The Students with Disabilities Officer (SWDofficer) represents John’s students on the DSU committee for students with disabilities.  They act as a point of contact within college for Students with disabilities and as such will be very well acquainted with the DUSSD  (Durham University Services for Students with Disabilities), knowing how it works and easily able to signpost services they offer. They will also help to publicise any relevant DSU Campaigns that highlight issues relating to disabilities.

 Livers-Out Officer - Matthew Funnell

Hi I’m Matt, I’m in my third year studying Geophysics. I’m here to help with anything welfare related, especially things to do with living out! You can get in touch with me by emailing at livers-out@johnsjcr.org.uk

The livers out officer is there to answer any questions raised specifically on livers-out matters. It is college policy that all second years should live out of college for that year, and many third-years also live out. Because of the difficult (and exciting!) nature of living out, ranging from organising payment of bills, cleaning, cooking, security, maintenance, dealings with landlords, neighbours and even sometimes (but not often) burglaries, the livers-out officerexists to signpost information on these matters. The livers-out officer represents all those members of college who live out of college (not only second years but also those third and fourth years who choose to live away from college). They signpost information on matters that arise for livers-out such as liaising with landlords and protecting tenant deposits. They produce the livers-out handbook, which contains practical advice on living out at the end of their term of office and can also organise livers-out socials to encourage people to come back to college to socialise. They also liaise with the DSU, sitting on a committee with livers-out officers from other colleges and assist first years with house hunting usually at the end of Michaelmas term and the beginning of Epiphany term.

LGBTa Rep (Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) rep- Hannah Deaves