Stirling Students’ Union has launched a support scheme to tackle isolation among students during the pandemic.
‘Pandemic Pals’ will see students matched together in groups of twos and threes loosely based around year of study, degree, and common interests to create a mutually supportive peer to peer relationship.
This comes after a recent survey carried out by the union identified a greater demand for peer to peer interaction amongst the student community.
Already, Pandemic Pals has 19 trained ‘Captains’ who support 37 ‘Crew’ which have matched 150 Pandemic Pals from all year groups, locations, ages and faculties.
Commenting on the new scheme Vice President Communities Josh Muirhead said:
“I’m overjoyed at the successful launch and up-take of our new programme Pandemic Pals! Since the outbreak of the pandemic and return to study this semester.
“We’ve identified an increased need and demand from among students for more peer-to-peer interaction.
“Pandemic Pals will now sit alongside the STEER programme and with over 150 Pandemic Pals already matched I have no doubt that it will be a continued success and incredibly proud of it so far.”
Pandemic Pals will work alongside the on-going and long-running STEER- Peer Support programme which Captains are matched up with first year ‘Crew’ to ensure that the transition to university is smooth and as easy as possible.
Image credit: Brig Newspaper
