A day in the life of a member of staff

Name: Jennifer Richardson
Role: Routes Coordinator

What is your role at BHA?
I am the Project Coordinator for two projects: Routes and Sahara. My work entails supervising staff and ensuring that positive outcomes are met for children, families and individuals who are engaging with our services. My work is quite hands on and I maintain a degree of one to one work with service users which allows me to continue to understand what their issues are and how best our services can support them. I am also responsible for identifying and applying for funding to secure the stability of the project and more importantly to meet identified needs within the City of Manchester.

How long have you worked for BHA?
I joined BHA in October 2006. I approached the organisation to do some volunteering work and luckily an Admin post came up within the Routes Project soon after.

What drew you to the role?
When I first approached BHA back in 2006, I was keen to work with refugees and asylum seekers and the work that the Routes Project and Sahara Project were involved with seemed very inspirational. Throughout my time at BHA, I've changed roles several times as opportunites have arisen, and the inspiration that I gain from Routes and Sahara plus BHA as a whole has strengthened. I love coming to work everyday and working with a group of people who are passionate and so focused on improving the wellbeing of children and families.

Why choose to work for BHA?
BHA is a great organisation to work for in many ways. There is a great wealth of knowledge and expertise in BHA that supports you in developing yourself and progressing up the career ladder. There are lots of opportunities to work in an array of areas and scope to move throughout the organisation. Throughout my time at BHA, I have made friends for life- BHA is a great place to work alongside like minded people who really believe in making a difference and who continually motivate you. Finally, knowing that you and your collegues are making a big impact on many individuals lives makes it a lot easier to get out of bed in the morning!

What are the challenges you meet?
Uncertainty regarding funding can be very unsettling and demoralising, especially when there is clear rationale for work to continue. Other challenges can occur on a day to day basis, such as difficulty in obtaining a school place for a child or a individual becoming destitute because their application for asylum has been refused.

What keeps you motivated?
Knowing that the work that we do is much needed and knowing that our service is valued by service users and services throughout Manchester. It feels good when another organisations says that they don't know what they would do without the Routes Project!
My colleagues in Routes and Sahara and throughout BHA keep me motivated- I work with so many inspirational people and I continually strive to learn from them.

What has been your proudest moment?
Hard question.... I thing my time so far has been filled with so many moments that I find it difficult to pinpout one! Obtaining funding and job securing security for staff has been a proud moment. Other proud moments tend to be more about what has happened in the lives of service users rather than something I have done specifically. We often have whoops of joy in the office when we hear of families been granted leave to remain or when someone in the team has been successful in obtaining a school place for a child with special needs who has been out of school for 12 months.