Students support local charity CFINE with innovative ideas
Sixty RGU students cross collaborated, created and pitched their innovative solutions to support Community Food Initiatives North East (CFINE) in our Innovation Award Level 2 workshop last November.
The Entrepreneurship and Innovation team (EIG) at RGU organised a dynamic afternoon where students undertaking the Innovation Award Level 2 were tasked to help local charity CFINE enhance their volunteer impact. CFINE is a large North East charity with over 300 volunteers working to tackle poverty, a massively important mission during this cost-of-living crisis.
In just four hours, the creative students worked together to come up with innovative solutions that could help CFINE in the long term. The local charity awarded prizes at the end of the workshop to some of the best innovative concepts.
RGU students share their experience of the afternoon:
“It was a fantastic workshop. The second RGU Innovation Award made me feel adrenaline and enthusiasm as we compete on something invaluable. On top of that, the atmosphere was full of professionalism, collaboration, and love despite the diversity of backgrounds and the competition itself.
"The pitch on finding innovative solutions to support CFINE to attract and retain volunteers splendidly taught participants how to solve critical business problems in a structured manner. Many great applicable contemporary ideas were generated within four hours only. Tons of thanks to all, and special thanks to EIG.” - Ma'in Alhaqash
"The innovation award is a great scheme to take part in. I was fortunate to gain my Level 1 Award through completing an applicable module and couldn't miss the opportunity to progress it further. I was looking forward to the Level 2 workshop and it did not disappoint.
"Through attending I was able to meet and work with students from a range of courses, and experience first-hand how to navigate working in a team towards a common goal. The day was fast-paced and challenging, but I learned that I was capable of more than I gave myself credit for and went away with ideas of what I can do better next time I'm in a similar situation". - Kimberly Freeland
"I attended the Innovation Award sessions because I love coming up with innovative ideas and I'm genuinely curious about how I can implement them. I have to say that I am very satisfied after participating in the second innovation award where I got hands-on experience in applying design thinking principles in the creative problem-solving process.
"It was such an insightful session where we had the opportunity to find solutions for CFINE in collaboration with a multidisciplinary team. I am grateful to the RGU Entrepreneurship and Innovation Group for giving us such an opportunity." - Palika Vithana
Students who pitched the winning idea are currently developing it with the CFINE team. Their innovative solution consisted of creating a sport and wellbeing app to better engage with the 300+ volunteers and create a sense of community. The charity shares their positive feedback of the workshop:
“CFINE is delighted to have worked with the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Group on the recent Innovation Award Level 2 workshop. It was fantastic that participants were able to create innovative solutions relating to some of our core values and we are currently planning for how we can take some of those ideas forward. We would like to thank Chris Moule, Aisha Kasim, and the rest of the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Group for their partnership with CFINE on this project.”
In the future, EIG will continue to develop their relationship with CFINE. With their previous Innovation Award Level 2 Workshop with VSA, the EIG team were able to link up students who participated on the day with the charity even several months after. One of them is even about to start an internship with VSA this month!
