WE DID IT! 🏆

We are beyond proud to announce that we won the Relationships and Partnerships Award at Wednesday night’s NUS Awards! The win would not have happened without the unbelievable work of our amazing sabbatical officers, our fantastic staff team and the dedication of our partners in helping improve the LGBTQ+ experience at the University of Salford.

By building solid relationships with different community groups from Salford and the University, we were able to pool our resources and make a huge impact. This came in the form of an immensely successful Transgender Day of Remembrance programme, which not only offered education on the past, but support for the future including Trans Health and Trans Law seminars.

“This award from NUS recognises our culture of commitment to equal partnership with all our stakeholders. We firmly believe that students working together with local community groups and the University enables great things to happen that benefits all of us. I hope that this model of partnership working becomes a template for us to work with other groups and University of Salford students in the future.

I’m incredibly proud of the team that has delivered this and want to thank all the community groups in the Salford LGBT Multi Agency Forum (MAF) as well as colleagues at the University of Salford and, of course, our own staff team at the Students’ Union.”

Ed Moloney, University of Salford Students’ Union (USSU), CEO

We marched alongside the University, and other LGBTQ+ organisations in the Manchester Pride Parade, securing funding for costumes, floats and decorations.

‘The relationships that we’ve been able to foster with the LGBTQ+ society on campus, our University colleagues, and local community partners has allowed us to work on a much broader range of important work. It also means that when we campaign it is authentic, genuine, and embedded in the LGBTQ+ community. Our work is now lead by the community, not the other way round.

Jessica Goldstone, USSU Campaigns Coordinator

We were also able to install two waves of Gender-neutral toilets across campus following on from our ‘Just a Toilet’ campaign.

‘Working with the community in partnership is vital to the work we do within Salford Students’ Union, whether that’s the work around Trans Day of Remembrance or Manchester and Salford Pride. I’m specifically proud of the work we’ve done around Gender Neutral Toilets in partnership with our University and to be recognised nationally for that work is incredible.’

 Jon-Conor Lyons, USSU Arts & Media Officer

We carried out these campaigns to improve inclusion for our students, our staff and our community. Whilst we know there is still a huge amount of work to be done, we are hugely proud that NUS has recognised our energy, and the energy of our partners in campaigning for this vital cause.