Community

Wadham has let Aristotle House, located by the canal in North Oxford, to Makespace Oxford since 2018 whilst its plans for re-developing the site are on hold. Makespace Oxford manage and make the building available to a variety of social enterprises, charities and other small businesses. In the 6000 sq ft building there are 24 hot desks, 18 private offices and shared access to kitchen, meeting and event space. The activities have been making very positive contributions to the local community.

The College has been pleased to work with Oxford City Council to provide self-contained accommodation to 2 refugee households arriving in Oxford. One household found alternative accommodation after 6 months to fit with their plans and the other household is continuing to reside in College accommodation since December 2021.

The College’s Staff Entertainment Committee organises Easter and Christmas raffles every year to raise funds for charities. We are grateful to our many suppliers who sponsor the events by offering raffle prizes. Over £500 is raised annually for good causes. The College also contributes funds to local charities and non-profit organisations to support projects to help the local community.

We are currently setting up a new partnership with Food Rescuers, a student run organisation that has been set up to tackle food insecurity and poverty on the streets of Oxford. We donate our leftover food to their volunteers to collect and distribute to people experiencing homelessness on the streets.

Wadham continues to work with the Oxford Food Hub to collect leftover food supplies from students at the end of each term to avoid it going in the waste. The Oxford Food Hub collect the food and it is redistributed to support the local community. The initiative also helps to reduce the environmental impact of throwing away edible food.

Since 2012 Wadham has partnered with the BHF by collecting goods unwanted by departing students. The BHF raise money with these items through their network of shops and this is used to fund research into all heart and circulatory diseases and their risk factors. The donation of these unwanted items also diverts them from the waste stream, reducing carbon emissions.

Wadham has been pleased to provide a home for Mansfield Road Juniors Under 16s team to play football on a Saturday morning. The team practice and play league football matches at Wadham’s sports ground located in North Oxford. This arrangement has been in place since 2017. We are aware that this arrangement has made a significant difference to the club, as they continue to struggle to find sports grounds for their club to play league matches on.