Our people

Rebecca

I am currently seconded to the MST New Business Team as a Business Initiatives officer. I am seconded from the position of Refugee Support's Floating Support Team Manager, and part of my current role involves developing Refugee Support services.

What I do now

I work collaboratively with operational teams to respond to tenders and fundraise. This often means a lot of work at short notice, but can be a very satisfying challenge. It certainly gets the adrenalin going!

This is my fourth role at MST and I've been fortunate enough to work in different parts of the business, so have a good understanding of front line and central services.

Where I started

I started back in 2003, working in the Lewisham Mental Health Floating Support Team where I got my first managerial role through another secondment.

I then moved across to work for Refugee Support (then RHA) as Floating Support Team Manager. I managed a team of seven Tenancy Support Officers working in LBHF, Croydon and Bromley to deliver housing related support to vulnerable single refugees and families.

I wanted to use my experience of frontline services to help develop new services and initiatives, so moved to my current role.

What I like about Refugee Support

Refugee Support truly invests in research and new services to meet the needs of our service users. This ensures service users are given opportunities they would not normally have to help them to integrate and be successful in the UK. For example, the Home Learning Project helped our more vulnerable service users who were unable to access English classes.

What I get out of it

Aside from all the secondment opportunities (!), working with refugees is really rewarding. I recommend to anyone who has preconceived ideas (usually due to poor media representation) to take the time to find out more and support refugees and asylum seekers. Our service users are ambitious, dedicated people who are in difficult situations with a history that most of us would not even begin to imagine!

Refugee Support is a specialist organisation, and staff are recruited and trained accordingly. The skill and commitment of my colleagues never fails to impress, and enhances the organisation. You can always get motivated by just talking to your colleagues - either about their personal experiences or the work they are doing with their service users.

What's in store

I am currently completing the final part of an MSc in Health Psychology - the dreaded dissertation. I hope to continue to work in some capacity with vulnerable adults, and perhaps one day complete a PhD in the psychology field.

In my spare time I enjoy going to the beach, and visit the south-west quite often - so hopefully I'll get to do a bit more surfing over the summer.