Commonweal Housing bursaries are helping students researching housing issues
Ashley Horsey of Commonweal Housing meets with two bursary students
Commonweal Housing is enabling students to investigate social injustice.
Commonweal Housing is supporting students from the School of Social Policy, in memory of the charity’s late trustee, Jane Slowey CBE (BA 1974, DUniv 2014).
Every year, several students receive a bursary of £2,500 each to support their final year dissertation research, as well as informal mentoring and support from Commonweal throughout their last year of undergraduate study. 11 students have been supported up to 2021.
Since 2018, the Jane Slowey Memorial Bursary has been granted to students at Jane’s alma mater in memory of her dedication to helping others. Jane’s influence on Commonweal’s ethos and mission, and her visionary approach to tackling social injustice, have continued to be felt throughout the organisation since her passing in 2017.
The financial support means students don’t have to work part-time during their studies to afford their own living costs, so they can focus on research that will help others with housing difficulties.
The bursary embodies what mattered most to alumna Jane Slowey, whose passion for social justice as a Trustee at Commonweal Housing inspired the charity to create a bursary in her name. Commonweal chose to work with Birmingham’s School of Social Policy to understand and change issues around housing – homelessness, Generation Rent, housing supply shortages, social exclusion and more.
Michelle, a Criminology undergraduate, is one of the students supported by Commonweal Housing. She is researching the disproportionate effects of COVID-19 on young people with poor housing situations. Michelle says, ‘This is not just about financial assistance for my final year but a real opportunity to honour the memory of Jane Slowey.’
‘As an aspiring social worker and someone who has struggled with housing as a young independent woman, this award and Commonweal mentoring will assist my research to a higher calibre. I hope I can make an impact not just for the Commonweal panel but also to the wider field and into my career as I look to help young individuals just as Jane Slowey did.’
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