Carolina's story

Hello, my name is Carolina, and I am a Caseworker Advocate at Hestia’s Modern Slavery Response Team. I am originally from Spain where I studied my degree in Psychology specialising in Social Psychology. I have done many investigations in the areas of ethnic prejudices, witness memory and the influence of stereotypes on the attribution of crimes, which were published in several journals and presented in different Criminal Psychology Congresses. 

When I moved to London, I completed a MSc in Forensic Psychology and oriented my work on victims of trauma, torture and PTSD. 

As a child, I was raised with a strong understanding and gravitation towards “justice”. I always worked in the area of Human Rights and being an advocate for survivors of Modern Slavery is a great part of my vocational professional journey. 

As advocates we provide support to people who have been or still are in exploitation. Not one day is the same. We work with people with so many different backgrounds, stories, experiences, and sensitivities. With different needs that can range from encouragement and accompaniment during their journey, to assisting with criminal proceedings, immigration cases, evictions, medical appointments, referrals to specialised services, counselling, community support, education, children support, donations, opening bank accounts, assisting with obtaining ID documents, arranging Embassy appointments, liaising with social services, provide interpreters when needed, and much more. 

I love working as a frontline worker and getting an understanding of the many different realities of our service users. Witnessing how, even coming from the hardest and most challenging situation, with the right support, people can flourish, move on, and start again, and build a life free of abuse and pain. 

I love having the opportunity of giving a voice, accompany, protect, and dignify the most vulnerable members of our society, those who have been tortured and marginalised. Some may not even have a right to work or study or even being recognised as citizens (like it is the case of many of our service users who are asylum seekers). 

I would recommend this job to anyone who is truly passionate about advocating for human rights and are looking forward to learning how to navigate the system (and challenge it) but overall, who is willing to support and fight a lot for our service users’ needs.  

There is a lot of responsibility in our role, which can’t be taken lightly. I love the team and the support we provide amongst each other, the flexibility of the job, and the trust I receive always from management. I have been in this service since September 2019, and I hope to carry on learning and getting more specialised knowledge to prepare for a Doctorate. 

---

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”.