Rachel's story

Hello, my name is Rachel and I'm a Domestic Violence Safety Planner at Hestia. I first began volunteering for Hestia in a Covid-19 Crisis role, dropping off food and medication to shielding service users. As lockdown eased, I was asked to volunteer for the Hestia Summer Play scheme, helping to create fun filled memories for children in our domestic abuse refuges across London.

I was soon employed as a Refuge Support Worker, providing person centered support in relation to homelessness, mental health, employment, benefits, training and education. I also ran my own summer play scheme and supervised volunteers with the Family Support worker keeping children engaged, helping them to develop their relationships and make friends.

For one event, we took the children to the seaside, had fish and chips and ice-cream on the beach, and took them to play in the arcade. It was quite different from the intense day-to-day work that we usually do, but amazing to see such a positive impact so quickly.

My current role is so rewarding; it requires ‘all hands on deck’ to run smoothly, and it really is wonderful to be part of the services that entwine with one another behind the scenes to support service users.

Hestia has propelled me into a career I would never have thought of otherwise - you work alongside like-minded, beautiful souls, who work towards the goal of helping others, where everyone tries to lift one another up.

Management are also keen to support personal progression, and I’ve attended some additional training preparing me for a more senior role. I’m really looking forward to the new opportunities that present themselves.

---

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”.