Welfare at Christ Church: JCR welfare
14th-20th May is Mental Health Awareness Week. University can be stressful at times, but there are plenty of sources of support and advice within college and the wider University that can help to alleviate some of the stress. In this post Nader Raafat (Raafi), the JCR's Male Welfare Rep, talks about the ways in which the college system and the welfare support in college can be helpful during the more stressful parts of the academic year.
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With so much going on in Oxford, academically and (more often than not) extracurricularly, it can get very stressful at times. That said, the collegiate system means that you are one student in a community of 150-450 undergrads rather than 1 in 10,000 across the university, and that sense of community is easily one of the university's biggest strengths, particularly from a welfare perspective! Within college, we have an undergraduate welfare team consisting of a male/female welfare rep, minority group reps (ERM, LGBTQ+, Disabled Students, Gender Equalities, International Students) and peer supporters who have received 30 hours of training with the university counselling service in sensitive communication and supportive listening. Couple that with the lovely college chaplain, Clare, the university nightline, and counselling service, and it means you have plenty of avenues for support should you need it to help you get through the more stressful times of term.
But that's not all, there are also plenty of very fun 'welfare' events that happen across the year at Christ Church to help you relax and wind down! Some of the things we've put on this year include: a chocolate and jazz festival (two chocolate fountains + 10 kg of Thornton's = edible happiness), a childhood marathon (Beyblades, Yu-Gi-Oh, Playdough, and all those gems from the 90s), and my personal favourite, a college-wide sports day with a BBQ, rounders, inflatable sumo wrestling and ZORB FOOTBALL which our uber-cool college dean (sort of like a headmaster), Martyn Percy, joined in with!
So even though Oxford life is stressful, the college community is here for you in a way unlike any other university!
Nader Raafat (Raafi)
JCR Male Welfare Rep
