When did you join ELBA?
I joined ELBA two years ago as a temporary Project Administrator for Mentoring Works. As my contract was about to end, a Project Coordinator role came up at ELBA’s satellite project in Islington, BIG Alliance, and I’ve been here since February 2021.

What is your role and what does it involve?
As a Community Engagement Project Manager at BIG Alliance, my focus is business skills volunteering. I coordinate strategic and operational support where volunteers use their professional skills – such as Finance, Marketing, HR, Business Development and Comms – to help Islington’s community organisations. We provide ad hoc, one-off support as well as some long-term programmes, such as our six-month capacity-building programme CoRe, and our 10-month coaching programme Leaders in Partnership.

In addition to my role, I’m also Chair of ELBA’s Inclusion Group (EIG). It’s an internal group where we run sessions for fellow ELBA staff to educate each other about different minority groups and discuss how ELBA can be a more inclusive workplace. Some of the previous topics have been on race and ethnicity, LGBTQ+ and allyship. We also have a November session focusing on disability as it is UK Disability History Month. We have an external speaker from London Borough of Hackney Council’s Supported Employment Service to inform us about how they provide employment support to people with a disability or health conditions.

Three words to describe yourself
Committed, driven and bubbly.

Tell us one thing that people may not know about you
I’m a self-proclaimed amateur linguist! When I dropped out of university at 19, I knew I was going to go back and get a degree in English, which I did a few years ago. What I didn’t know is that it would be during those three years that I would figure out what I wanted to do ‘when I grew up’, which was charity work, so I consider it a double win!

Tell us the best thing about working for ELBA
As cliché as it sounds, it’s being surrounded by people who want to make a difference. I meet amazing people every day: my wonderful colleagues, the fantastic charity partners who are so passionate about their communities, and the fabulous volunteers who want to support these organisations and their service users. 90% of my job is about building relationships with stakeholders, and I’m so lucky to work with such lovely, genuine people.

Name your favourite place in East London and why
I have two: Wapping and Crossharbour, where the ELBA office is based. I love the docks around these areas, the Victorian warehouses and the river views. I feel like these two areas are hidden gems where you can find some calm and quiet away from London’s busy traffic and footfall.

Complete this sentence ‘The absolute best thing about volunteering is…’,
…learning something new while helping others.