I am Director of Services at Solace, I lead our amazing service delivery teams and ensure that we deliver the best possible service to the thousands of survivors we work with every year. It is a complex job covering a wide geographical reach and balancing some 60 or so budgets.
I first came to Solace in 2016 to set up a new therapeutic service. You might be familiar with the saying “find a job you enjoy doing and you will never work a day in your life” I had so much fun designing and setting up a new service and seeing the wonderful growth that women and their children benefitted from a holistic offering.
One of the women who attended an employability session was inspired to re-train in a new profession, did her university placement in one of our services and is thriving in her new career.
My next role was leading on delivery of all of our supported accommodation, this was completely different from what I had done at Solace before but I was supported and encouraged all the way. There was lots to learn but so many transferrable skills that I was able to bring as well. I was really lucky to have been encouraged to go for the role in the first place and that’s something I try and do now, support and encourage others to develop and grow and see the potential in themselves.
I then moved onto a deputy director role leading on quality and continuous improvement. This was at the time of the pandemic starting. I was able to quickly jump in and ensure the organisation had a robust plan to continue safely operating during this time. I was extremely proud when my plan became widely adopted by many organisations in London and relieved that my colleagues were able to focus on service delivery.
From there I then moved to my current role. My experience of running different service types at Solace has been invaluable and gives me a great blend of operational experience which underpins more strategic work. Every day I learn new things from the immensely talented women around me at Solace which really inspire me to continue working hard and strive for excellence every day. My top tip is to think about how you can add value to the organisation, it might be something outside of your every day role or experience from outside of work. At times when things have been challenging, it is often these skills that unlock solutions.