School of Health & Wellbeing

Case studies

A unique space for research and community collaboration

Byres Community Hub is a unique space for research and community collaboration in the heart of Glasgow’s west end. The Hub is located on the ground floor of the Clarice Pears Building, home to the University’s School of Health and Wellbeing.

Our ever-growing Hub community includes local residents, grassroots voluntary organisations, charities, community interest companies, alumni and statutory services – all with an interest in improving health and wellbeing in Glasgow and beyond.

In 2023/24 we had over 8,500 public visits, held 72 public engagement events, gave 42 tours of the Hub/Clarice Pears building, hosted 13 temporary exhibitions, and welcomed 162 not-for-profit groups.

Examples of Hub activities

• Byres Hub developed a relationship with Maryhill Integration Network after hosting their Rights to Action exhibition with The Poverty Alliance for the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival. They then approached us to host ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) classes in the Hub in partnership with the University’s Widening Participation programme. We ran the first blocks in 2023-24 for introductory ESOL, and now Tutor Steve is running two second blocks of weekly classes with 20 new Scots who are migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers wishing to learn English.

• Every two weeks, our Hub Mondays networking events are an opportunity for people to visit the Hub, meet our volunteers, and find out more about a health-related topic presented by a researcher or community partner.

• Every third Friday of the month, Weekday Wow Factor members and student volunteers are in the Hub for community drop-in sessions where people can try ALISS (A Local Information System for Scotland). This is a free service which helps communities work together to find and share information about local groups, activities and resources to support health and wellbeing.