1st October 2024

October celebrates Black History Month. This month is a reminder to the contributions of Black heritage communities in the UK and how they have strengthened and enriched society. This year’s theme is all about ‘Reclaiming Narratives.’ This marks a significant shift towards recognising and correcting the narratives of Black history and culture. This month, we we're sharing events happening across our organisation, staff profiles, and more. 

We sat down with Sharon, co-Chair of Stronger Together, our internal network for staff members from ethnically diverse communities to feel represented, to discuss her journey at Hestia and Stronger Together's plans for Black History Month.

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Hi, my name is Sharon, and I am the Together Network Manager at Hestia and also the co-Chair of Stronger Together, an internal network for staff members from ethnically diverse communities to feel represented, heard and to hold the organisation to account.

I’ve been working at Hestia for about 11 years. At first, I was employed as a Children and Families worker in one of our refuges, supporting mothers and their children in rebuilding their lives. After a few years I became deputy manager of a refuge going on to eventually taking on the role as Service Manager in the Tower Hamlets services, consisting of both refuges and floating support. I felt like the insight that I gained in these roles gave me the skills and perspective to then go on to work in a role that focused on enhancing our services and engaging service users in their support.

After a while, I wanted to do something different and I saw the role for Together Network manager, a role within the Volunteering team. The Together Network seeks to empower services users by building on their strengths and aspirations. Working together with the people who use our services is essential to deliver high quality and effective services when working with people to build a life beyond crisis. 

Service users have lived experience and insights and talents and strengths which enrich our services. By sharing their experiences and listening to them and their feedback, it enables us as an organisation to design and deliver services which are centred on what people really need. Working with service users, staff and volunteering champions gives them hope and safety on their journey to recovery building.

"We want everyone to feel part of their service, their support and a part of Hestia - it’s about working together to ensure that service users are able to have a voice."

I’ve been in this role now for just over a year and every day is different. We visit services and speak with service users about their goals and aspirations, and we support them in making the steps to get there. This can include providing opportunities for service users to integrate with each other and build connections, volunteering opportunities so that they can expand their skillset and be provided with a reference for future employment or supporting them to be involved with internal interviews and be a part of the hiring panel for future staff members.

One service user that we supported with volunteering is now in full-time employment within Hestia. We also encourage service users to become network champions within their service and other services to feedback to us if there are any improvements needed. We want everyone to feel part of their service, their support and a part of Hestia - it’s about working together to ensure that service users are able to have a voice.

Alongside my role, I am also the Co-Chair of Stronger Together, an internal network in Hestia which is for staff members from ethnically diverse communities and is part of the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion and the Anti-Racism strategy. As a network we hold meetings where the aim is to discuss any changes that members feel should be made and we can then take that up to directorate to hold Hestia accountable to the strategy. We also want to create a space where members of staff can come to talk about their feelings, their experiences and be able to say something in an environment where it’s not going to be judged and they’re going to be listened to and supported.

"Whether it’s engaging staff members, empowering service users, talking to stakeholders – it’s about working together to ensure the best outcome for our service users."

We also hold events and this month for Black History Month we have lots planned. We’re going to have a Black Literature Library where members of staff can bring their books in and do a swap so you can borrow a book and bring it back. Then we want to do two workshops lead by an Equity, Diversity and Inclusion trainer. One will be for staff from ethnically diverse communities and the other will be for all staff and they’ll focus on the theme of ‘Reclaiming Narratives’ especially in relation to Black history and educating on microaggressions – what is a microaggression and making people aware of what they are doing or what they could be doing and how it can affect others. Then we will also have a celebration event at the end of the month with African and Caribbean food, speakers and African drummers!

Working across different roles in Hestia over the past 11 years has given me the skills to approach situations with a unique perspective. Whether it’s engaging staff members, empowering service users, talking to stakeholders – it’s about working together to ensure the best outcome for our service users.