A look at a new centre that makes seeking advocacy simple
Nicole Elsasser
While hopefully your time at university will be an enjoyable few years, there may be a time when you encounter adversity be it a trouble with a landlord, discrimination or financial problems. Being met with any of these problems can quickly make anyone feel powerless but take comfort in the fact that student leaders at the U of G have thought of this and created a Student Help and Advocacy Centre (SHAC) to help students in a fix.
According to Yvonne Su, the coordinator for SHAC, the centre is an amalgamation of three advocacy centres into one designed to make assisting students all the more efficient.
“SHAC provides a safe space for student to ask questions,” said Su. “[It] provides human rights advocacy and legal and financial resources. It is a referral service with connections to on and off campus resources and organizations. SHAC strives to eliminate the discrimination against people facing all forms of oppression as well as the stigma of asking for help.”
Su explained that the centre, located on the second floor of the University Centre, is run by staff and volunteers trained to point all students seeking advocacy in the right direction in a sensitive manner.
“SHAC staff and volunteers will assist students in a confidential and compassionate manner to provide them with the information they need,” said Su. “[The centre] hopes to work in solidarity with others in being proactive and preventative of relevant campus issues. We provide student to student support that is inclusive and equitable for all individuals.”
While the main focus of SHAC is to help students in need of advocacy, Su explained that it also presents an opportunity for students who wish to help others to do so.
“We are completely volunteer run and need a strong team of dedicated volunteers to help deliver our services,” said Su. “There are many opportunities with SHAC including experience working with a team, dealing with student cases, providing financial, legal and human rights resources, running events, doing outreach work, making presentations and many more.”
According to Su, by relying heavily on volunteers, SHAC is able to offer a more personal kind of help to students in need.
“We believe the best kind of support is peer to peer,” she said. “As students, we all take part in the university experiences and we will all have barriers to overcome- but we don’t need to do it alone. There are many students who share the same struggles as you and SHAC is a place for students to go not just to seek help but to also relate- to relate to each other and go through the university experience together.”
Loading ...
