Cosimo's story

Hello, my name is Cosimo Matteini and I am the Digital Inclusion Coordinator at Hestia. My background is in mental health and I joined Hestia just under ten years ago, when Hestia won a contract to integrate existing service in Kensington and Chelsea. I started as an outreach worker, then I then held the roles of volunteer and befriending coordinator and outreach team leader.  

In 2020, whilst the country was in lockdown, I joined a lottery-funded project to strengthen our delivery of safe and effective mental health services digitally. I was seconded into this role, and because of my experience working with volunteers, I was tasked to recruit volunteers to support the work of the project. Within the pilot, we were able to provide devices to some service users who did not have one. I recruited some volunteers as remote digital champion, to support service users setting up and using their first device.  

The support from the first three digital champions was well received, and it achieved significant impact in developing digital skills and confidence. Because of its success, it was expanded to the rest of the organisation and more volunteers were recruited. After having spent some time revieing the process, analysing needs and impact and strengthening the team, the service has recently been relaunched, with a team of 12 volunteers.  

Volunteers in my team support service users on day-to-day skills like sending emails, downloading apps, joining or starting a videocall, booking a taxi, shopping online and stay safe. These skills help service users participating more fully into society, keep in touch with others, accessing services and preparing for work.  

My next step will be working with partner organisation to increase access to devices and data, as many service uses still haven’t got access to internet. Unfortunately, the cost-of-living crisis will make things worse, and this is going to be the next challenge.  

I am grateful that Hestia gave me the opportunity to move from an operational role to a central service. I am also so proud that Hestia recognised the impact of my work and the importance of digital inclusion and has made this role permanent.

---

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”.