The Students’ Union – Period Wins 23/24

The Students’ Union at UWE have been running a behaviour change campaign that promotes sustainable period products for the past few years as well as working to address period poverty within the student community.

In this article, we will share some of our ‘period wins’ this year with you!

“Caught Short” provision growth

Following a campaign run by UWE graduate and former Women’s Welfare Officer, Daisy Wakefield, The Students’ Union at UWE provides free organic menstrual products in all our toilets and works in partnership with UWE Bristol to provide products across toilets at every campus site.

This campaign has grown since its launch a few years ago, and this year:

• The Students’ Union partnered with UWE Bristol to extend our period product provision across all campus sites to a further 26 locations.
• In total, with help from the UWE cleaning team and other departments we provide eco-friendly products in 75 locations across the University, including toilets, reception desks, accommodation services and staff rooms.
•  This is an increase of 54% from last year.
• By using products from NatraCare, an eco-friendly, Bristol based disposable period product company we can tackle period poverty whilst also caring for the environment and promoting sustainable products.

The project aims to make UWE a period positive space, where access to period products doesn’t impact our students’ or staff’s ability to study, work or be on campus.

Period Stalls

Between October - December 2023, the Students’ Union held weekly period stalls at Frenchay, Glenside and Bower Ashton. The stalls offered students and staff the opportunity to find out more about the reusable period product trial, learn about using a sustainable period product and pick up free NatraCare disposable products.

• We held our first stalls of the year at our Glenside and Bower Ashton Welcome Fairs. We received a great response from students with lots of people really pleased to see the stall at the welcome fair.
• At the Glenside Welcome Fair we interacted with around 150-200 students and gave out 600 free period products!
• Our stalls ran on a monthly basis from January-April 2024.

The ‘caught short’ provision and our period stalls saw us give out nearly 30,000 free period products from October to May 23/24. Saving our students and staff money and promoting eco-friendly products at the same time!

The Sustainable Period Products Trial

As well as providing free eco-friendly disposable period products to students and staff we also re-ran our ‘Sustainable Period Product Trial’ this year.

• The trial offers students and staff the opportunity to receive a free reusable product and received 453 sign ups this year.
• This is a 74% increase from last year’s sign ups!
• We included a broader range of period pant styles and included menstrual cup sterilising pots for those who owned a cup already.

• On average students and staff rated the reusable products 4.2 out of 5 stars.
• 85% of those who completed our feedback form said they would recommend reusable products to a friend/colleague.