Civic Engagement: working with our community

In 2022, the Community Board was established. The Board replaces the former Bangor University Liaison Group (BULG), and includes representatives from a broad range of organisations, institutions and public services partners within Bangor and across north west Wales. The Board is an important way of connecting the University with our communities, to discuss areas for collaboration and to work together on issues of common interest

Scientists from Bangor University initially developed the process of testing wastewater for COVID-19, and this work, carried out in partnership with the Welsh Government, Cardiff University, Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water and Hafren Dyfrdwy was used in the early detection of the Omicron wave across Wales. The team at Bangor have now added communicable diseases and hospitals to its capabilities.

The programme provides vital data on the prevalence of coronavirus in the community and adding these key sites and additional communicable diseases to the monitoring already in place across Welsh health boards and local authorities will deepen the insight and localised knowledge required in public health decision-making. A more recent study has investigated whether wastewater testing could be used as a way of monitoring the general health of passengers on flights coming into the country in future.

The MA in Social Work programme was established in 2012 to ensure a supply of bilingual social workers, who mainly meet the needs of the local social-work workforce. This is done in partnership with Anglesey, Gwynedd and Conwy Councils who provide work placements for students and this accounts for around 50% of their professional training.

By educating the local population to serve the local population the programme works with individuals to establish their well-being outcomes and collaborates with agencies and other professionals such as the police, health-workers, the education sector and the housing sector, to provide services that improve quality of life, protect against harm and abuse, and improve people’s prospects so that they can live as full a life as possible.

The University supports people living with dementia, their partners, families and carers in a number of ways, including the Caban Group, the North Wales Dementia Network, and working towards becoming a Dementia Friendly University. Research is developed alongside people affected by dementia.

The University led on new research in 2021 to explore the influence of media messaging on people’s mask-wearing choices during the Covid-19 pandemic.

In 2020, a map showcasing Llandudno’s Jewish history was completed. The map celebrates the presence of Jews in Llandudno from the late nineteenth century until the present day. It accompanies the earlier map of Bangor’s Jewish history

The project is designed and run by researchers at the School of Psychology, and the Miles Dyslexia Centre at the University. It comprises a short language and literacy programme for Key Stage 2 children, and was launched in response to the Covid-19 pandemic and resulting national lockdown in April 2020. The mission is to ensure that children can continue to receive the best possible literacy tuition during interrupted schooling and to facilitate literacy gains now that children are back in school

A campaign started in order to encourage people who’ve moved out of Wales to return to live and work. So far five people have returned, one now based at M-SParc, and coming from as far afield as Liverpool, London, and Texas! The campaign is run in partnership with the North Wales Economic Ambition Board, Llwyddo’n Lleol, and others.

In a unique collaboration with the NHS, Bangor University MSc Counselling students are providing approximately 1500 hours of counselling to over 200 clients per year within Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (BCUHB)’s Primary Mental Health Service. This type of placement collaboration is unique to Bangor University and was the result of higher public demand for the NHS service, and a lack of ‘client ready’ students coming out of university.

The North & Mid Wales Law Clinic is a partnership of seven Local Citizen Advice branches and the University’s School of History, Law and Social Sciences which provides a service to support Litigants in Person at every stage of their journey. Bangor University students are trained in key areas such as family law, community care and employment law and are offered the opportunity to develop and use their legal knowledge in a real-life setting.

Student Volunteering Bangor organises a plethora of activities aimed at local residents and includes tea parties (which have been running since 1952), day trips for older people, afternoon tea outings and even visits to the popular Snowdonia Donkey Sanctuary. Students regularly volunteer at local care homes and help to organise a host of activities as well as providing a much-needed ear to those residents who simply ‘want to chat’. Likewise, the Hafan Café in Bangor City Centre provides an opportunity for students to volunteer at a community hub which promotes wellbeing, independent living and offers a place for members of the local community to visit for a ‘panad’ and to socialise.