Working with Universities

Cultivating Minds UK has developed working relationships with a number of Universities and Colleges across the UK.

With experience working in both UK institutions as well as within the College and University  system in the United States, Cultivating Minds is able to support the development of responses which can help address bullying, domestic violence, all forms of sexual violence as well as supporting mental health.  The training provided helps the provision of safe and supportive learning environments which support successful outcomes.

Making use of the ‘Bystander approach’ the focus on personal leadership supports conversations amongst staff, student leaders as well as the general student population.A number of other issues can be included in trainings.  These include: problematic social media use, domestic violence, sexual harassment and language.

Graham has been working with us here at the University of Edinburgh for over a year, and he has recently trained 600 student leaders in leadership and the bystander approach. This is a crucial element of our learning and development programme, which in itself forms a central part of our strategy to tackle gender-based violence and sexual violence within the University community. Graham has many skills- he has the ability to inspire and engage participants in this incredibly important subject area, and he is able to make this personal for us so that we can see clearly our own role in being part of the change. Feedback from student leaders on Graham’s training has been overwhelmingly positive- he is helping us to develop confident student leaders, and to build a strong platform for facilitating significant culture change. We are looking forward to Graham returning in 2019 to support the training of 1000 students form clubs and societies as well as Residents Assistants.

Andy Shanks, Director of Student well-being, University of Edinburgh

Graham has been a hugely valuable and engaged partner in the development and delivery of the University of Stirling and Stirling Students’ Union’s joint strategy on Preventing & Tackling Sexual Violence & Misconduct. He has primarily supported us in the development of a comprehensive, multi-faceted training programme aimed at: (i) raising awareness amongst our staff population of issues relating to sexual violence, disclosures, support and leadership; (ii) training a pool of student leaders to facilitate peer workshops on sexual violence, consent, bystander intervention and the importance of student leadership in tackling these issues and (iii) raising awareness of the issues and the importance of leadership with our Senior Management Team. We now have over 100 staff trained, and a pool of approximately 20 students who are mid-way through their workshop training, and we hope to roll out a programme of facilitated workshops led by these student champions in the coming months.

I have no doubt that Graham’s work is significantly raising awareness of why this is such an important issue for all universities, and that he is helping to positively enhance the culture here at Stirling

Graham has not only been the driving force behind this training programme, he has also provided valuable support to me and my colleagues as we continue to develop our thinking and our approach to this work. He’s been a great sounding board and a supportive, collaborative partner. The University and Students’ Union recently won the Herald HE Partnership Award in recognition of the development of our strategy and campaign, and I fully agree that the partnership approach we have taken to this work has been critical in ensuring such great progress. Graham has been one of our most dedicated and enthusiastic partners on this project, and I am delighted that we are able to continue to work in partnership with him as we continue to deliver our strategy. It’s only a shame that he wasn’t able to attend the awards ceremony earlier this summer…next time though!

Jill Stevenson, Head of Student Support, University of Stirling.