17 April 2024

Meet Vianney, Team Manager in the Modern Slavery Response Team at Hestia. She started out as an advocate in March 2020 and from there has been able to support and advocate for her clients to help them live a #LifeBeyondCrisis.

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Hi, my name is Vianney and I’ve been at Hestia for almost four years now – I started as an advocate in the Modern Slavery Response Team in March 2020 just two weeks before the lockdown began. Before this role, I worked as an interpreter often helping advocates with their clients. On one occasion an advocate I was working with told me about Hestia – I had always wanted to work with people and to make a difference in any way that I could, so I was curious. They encouraged me to apply and here I am, four years later, helping to support survivors of modern slavery. I have also recently been promoted to Team Manager. 

I love my job, interacting with people and knowing that I’m making an impact is extremely important to me.

I love my job, interacting with people and knowing that I’m making an impact is extremely important to me. I support my clients both mentally and practically; I signpost them to the right services, I listen to them in our face-to-face meetings, and I advocate for them so that their needs can be met. Ultimately, I want to empower them so that they can move towards independence. For example, one of my clients who I’ve been supporting over the last three years was really shy and spoke limited English when we first met. Now, they have a job and are also using their experiences to help other survivors. It makes me happy to see such a huge transformation despite all the challenges they faced.

Another amazing example of this is the annual Art is Freedom exhibition which features artwork and photography created by survivors of modern slavery. The exhibition really demonstrates their inner determination and resolve to overcome adversity and it’s great to see this expressed in their artwork and displayed around iconic locations throughout London – this year it was shown on the Piccadilly Lights!

Hestia’s values of dedication and collaboration are key qualities in the Modern Slavery Response Team.

Whilst this job can be extremely rewarding it also has its challenges, particularly finding the right support and being able to access it quickly for our clients who have already gone through so much. Despite this, I think everyone on the team really applies themselves and supports each other which definitely helps. Hestia’s values of dedication and collaboration are key qualities in the Modern Slavery Response Team.

When I was younger, I always wanted to work somewhere like the United Nations or an embassy, representing people to help them succeed in life. In this role I am so close to that dream, at Hestia I can help people find a life beyond crisis and it feels like supporting our service users is a core goal shared by everyone in the organisation.

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When you join Hestia you make a difference every day, helping people live a life beyond crisis.

We are a charity, and our work is challenging. We work hard, it's busy and demanding. We are strong and resilient. We are passionate about changing people's lives for the better. We know that together, there is life beyond crisis.

For more information on how to join visit our Careers page.

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