Kim's Shadow Day

Our Rising Stars programme was introduced in 2023 with the aim to provide opportunity for people who have been identified as or have identified themselves as having potential to progress and who are willing to commit to the programme. This will provide them with a means to plan, prepare and upskill ready for progression.

Kim Burke, Shared Lives worker, was successful in becoming one of our first rising stars and as part of her journey in the programme, she wanted to shadow our Communications Team (comms) for a day to get a bit more knowledge of what a working day consists of for the team. 

What made you choose comms as your shadow day?
I chose comms for my shadow day as I have been doing case studies for Shared Lives with questions from Fiona, communications officer, and wanted to know what a typical day would be like as I know the comms team do many different things but wasn’t sure exactly what they did.

What were your perceptions of comms before you came for the day?
I knew the comms team managed the Persona social media accounts, case studies and the website along with the other things they do, but I didn’t know what actually went on behind the scenes and all the work that goes into it.

What did you learn about comms?
I learnt that the team works with the Persona strategy as they are promoting all the services we have, this gets the word about Persona out there and will increase the number of people we support using the services. They ask people to share information on what services are doing so they can use this to promote Persona, along with sharing any activities and events that are going on across the services. This gives different centres a chance to try something new and mix with other people, and it gives the services a chance to put the work they do out there too.

Did anything surprise you about what we actually do?
Yes!!! I didn’t realise the different systems you have to use to manage and update the website along with all the topics you have to consider to put in the newsletter.

What was your favourite part of the day?
I enjoyed designing the poster with Olivia, communications officer, and the dates for your diary as she explained different things you have to consider when selecting easy read images and that you have to break things down when looking for them. I also enjoyed the first meeting for the comms daily huddle because I think it’s a good idea for teams to discuss or share anything they need to, especially when people work from home and aren’t with their team in person every day.

If you had to sum up the Persona comms team and what we do in a line or two, what would you say?
I would say that the comms team manage the image of Persona in terms of advertising and Persona's presence online and that they also do internal communication like emails for internal jobs and information on the staff intranet.