João's story

Hello, my name is João, and I have been working at Hestia for 2 years. At first as a Mental Health Recovery Worker, and now as a Team Manager at a Mental Health Crisis service called the Folkestone Haven. I joined the Folkestone Haven’s team after completing a degree in Psychology with Counselling and whilst studying a masters in Therapeutic Counselling. When I found the Folkestone Haven, I was surprised yet very happy I that would get to use the skills I had learnt during my studies.  

At The Folkestone Haven, I have been able to meet and support the most extraordinary people. I have met people from different walks of life and being able to support them from crisis to recovery has been very gratifying.   

I have been particularly interested in working co-productively alongside our service users – they call themselves Haveners – to imagine, design and re-design a service that meets their needs. At the Haven we started with service users engaging in 1:1s with our members of staff to now also being able to join art sessions, peer support groups and our Men’s Group. I feel extremely lucky that I have been able to be part of designing these different sessions with our service users and honoured that they trusted me to share their skills and knowledge with me and our service.   

As the team manager, I lead a team of 5 mental health recovery workers that support our service users. I must thank my managers for giving me the skills and the encouragement to step into this new role. I did not imagine myself where I am now 5 years ago, however, I am glad that Hestia has seen my potential and has allowed me to develop this much in just 2 years.  

I would not hesitate to recommend working at Hestia, especially if you have a passion for supporting individuals finding their way to recovery. 

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Career opportunities

We're looking for people with a passion to change lives, and who identify with our values: respectful, genuine, dedicated, collaborative, courageous. If Hestia sounds like your dream employer, then click here to see our current opportunities.

The Hestia Approach

The Hestia Approach represents our commitment to making the most effective interventions possible in the lives of those who use our services.

Our approach is based on a single principle: in order to add real value to people’s lives it is essential that we work with them as equals. Our expertise and experience of working with people on their recovery journeys is valuable, and we believe this gives us a great deal to contribute, but we never impose our ideas.

Read more about the Hestia Approach

Equality and Diversity

Hestia is proud to be a Disability Confident employer and offers a lot of support to candidates who may require extra help with their disability. To ensure we can support you to the best of our ability, please ensure you complete our Equality and Diversity form as accurate as possible.

We will only highlight any potential disability to our hiring managers so they are aware they may need to offer reasonable adjustments, not only for the interview process but during your employment with Hestia as well. All other information from the Equal Opportunities form is strictly confidential and only available to our HR department.

Samantha Uwadiae, Head of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion at Hestia said:

“What excites me about joining Hestia is the organisation’s genuine commitment towards creating a more equitable, diverse and inclusive organisation. I appreciate their dedication towards wanting to build an inclusive culture, courage to challenge themselves and admit more needs to be done and willingness to work in collaboration with staff, volunteers, and service users to identify, understand and address inequities. So, their people feel respected and more able to bring their authentic and full selves to work, free of discrimination and barriers”.