Building a rocket launch pad, fundraising for schools in Kenya and providing a befriending service for elderly people were among the huge array of voluntary activities undertaken by Cambridge students and staff this year, according to the Committee on Community Activities annual report.

The report states that 8,250 staff and students gave up 370,000 hours of their time for voluntary work in 2006/7.

Over the past five years, the committee has made 192 grants from the Active Community Grant. Most went to student societies, museums, colleges and departments and other community projects based in the university. Just under a third went to organisations based outside the University.

In 2007, one grant went to the new Cambridge branch of the student society, The Triple Helix. It organised a series of lectures which aim to promote discussion on current scientific issues. One focused on the controversial topic of “Why women are no good at science (and how science stops them from being good)”.

The committee has worked closely with university organisations to try to develop more links with the local community and to make research more accessible to the public. Its Rising Stars scheme, which offers communications workshops to up and coming academics, has held outreach events in schools, for instance. The committee also runs the Cambridge Business Community Action Network which puts voluntary organisations in contact with local companies.

The committee also works with public bodies to promote social inclusion. For instance, volunteers from Cambridge Hands on Science and the CU Juggling Society organised a family day with Cambridge Women's Resource Centre which included bead making, rocket launching and encouraging women into higher education.

Staff from the communications and staff development offices also volunteered to paint murals for a local primary school. This was part of a wider project to see how volunteering can help staff development.

In addition the committee runs the Community Giveaway Board which helps university departments and colleges to give away unwanted items to voluntary organisations. The Isaac Newton Institute, for instance, is currently offering a Chubb safe.

Other work done over the last year includes training volunteers and organising the Community Engagement Survey. This found that university staff and students raised around £1million for charity and that more than a million people benefited from voluntary activities carried out by students and staff.

The University made the final 12 of the Higher Education Funding Council for England/Wellcome Trust ‘Beacon for Public Engagement' in 2007 and the Cambridge Science Festival which it supports won the Directory of Social Change Public Body Award.

Over the coming year it plans to increase its outreach work. For instance, it is piloting a brokerage service to match students and academics with public engagement initiatives. It is also looking to set up a ‘Science Shop' to promote the university's research knowledge in the community and is organising the UK's first Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Festival in October.

The committee oversees the Bridge the Gap charity walk around Cambridge colleges. This year it is planning to invite university drama and music organisations to entertain walkers en route. It also plans to capitalise on the forthcoming 800th anniversary celebrations to extend its work with the community.

Penny Wilson, Head of Community Affairs, said: “Cambridge staff and students are extremely active in the community are extremely active in the community and the Committee on Community Activities supports a very wide range of activities between the University and the community.”

“The beauty of these activities is that they are beneficial to all concerned - the individual volunteers, the participants, the University and the community."

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