Campus Unicef
Today we’re diving into the infamous Campus Unicef, a student group formed on campus back more than 10 years ago! Campus Unicef is a student group consisting of three main committees: Events, Advocacy and Sponsorship/Finance! They recruit new committee members every semester, and are always on the lookout for casual volunteers as well! Campus Unicef is the student-version of “Unicef Canada”, it’s a chance for students to get involved with volunteering for Unicef, and learning about the UN’s sustainable development goals. Each year, the executive team picks 4 main SDGs to focus on, from the global UN list of 13. This year, they’re focusing on quality education, reduced inequalities, no poverty, and sustainable communities.
Campus Unicef’s ongoing commitment has been to the sustainable development goal of education for all, given Unicef’s original mission statement. In recent years, they have focused more heavily on homelessness and poverty locally, but they regularly explore global issues pertaining to the SDGS as well. As Unicef states: “no child left behind”, campus unicef seeks to follow. “Poverty, inequality, and poor access to education are problems that children in Canada and around the world face on a daily basis. Campus UNICEF is a student-run group at the University of Alberta dedicated to raising awareness about these issues, and striving to achieve a world where no child is be left behind”
Each year, the events committee, along with the executive team, holds multiple events with profits going towards Unicef Canada, and funding future events for students! So far this year, they’ve held a Writing Competition, a Food Truck-Fundraiser (Truck Yeah!), and plan to hold many more traditional events: such as Campus Unicef’s Fall into Fun (also seen as March into Fun), an exciting winter fundraiser, and more!
All of their fundraisers feature opportunities for students to get involved, and of course, incentives or rewards for doing so! A bonus - many of their events center around food, everyone’s favourite incentive ;)
On the Advocacy Committee, the team brings in valuable speakers (Doctors, Advocates for non profit organizations, etc.) to discuss the importance of committing to the sustainable development goals, as well as, their own realm of work. Advocacy committee members focus on content creation, producing monthly blogs, working with the communications team to curate social media content, and helping run the website! They recently created a podcast as well, which can be found here!
This could be you! The team volunteering for fall into fun, an elementary school initiative back in 2018.
The team regularly recruits for general (casual) volunteers, and you can apply to be a general volunteer, by filling out this form! These volunteers have much less of a commitment and can leave any time…
But with a team this great, why would you want to? The team is currently led by Co-Presidents, Amber and Michelle, two women who love academia, advocacy, and getting involved. From here, we see more VPs on the team leading each committee, and from personal experience we know they care about their team members! With a diverse group of different ethnicities, each pursuing a different faculty but brought together by one common goal - helping others, what’s not to love?
You can learn more about campus unicef, by visiting their website here! You can also follow them on Instagram or Facebook to keep up to date with content, and apply here to be a general volunteer. Some committees are still recruiting for their team members too - and you can get involved by emailing caunicefalberta@ualberta.ca! Thanks for reading :)