Hello, my name is Nathaniel and I’m a Team Manager in Hestia’s Modern Slavery Response Team (MSRT). Out team focuses on supporting potential survivors of modern slavery and human trafficking in accessing services that facilitate their recovery journey, following their modern slavery experience.
Those we support have faced some of the most challenging circumstances imaginable, yet what is striking is how resilient and optimistic many are. Our role as an organisation, centres around facilitating our service users to find the confidence and therefore independence in traversing through the extremely complicated systems we have created in the UK.
Our incredible Outreach Advocates travel to see our service users face to face in their local environment to assist them in accessing their local services and feel a part of the local community. My role involves supporting a team of Outreach Advocates in assisting their service users.
On a day-to-day level, this may involve assisting clients accessing their local GP, sourcing clothing donations, or accompanying service users to solicitor’s appointments. We aim to build our service users’ self-assurance, so that when their journey with Hestia has been completed, they feel confident to access these services themselves and self-advocate.
I joined Hestia’s MSRT as an Outreach Advocate out of university having studied Politics and International Relations. However, I had experience within this sector having completed a placement at the Refugee Council Children’s Section. Having completed my degree, I knew I wanted to continue working in this fulfilling sector because our society does not adequately recognise the challenges our service users face or their human value.
What makes Hestia’s MSRT so appealing as a team to work within is the variety of areas we can empower our service users with: ranging from signposting to mental health services to sourcing volunteer opportunities. It’s a great opportunity to see how our system works in the UK and help service users overcome the barriers it presents.
