What is your professional background and expertise?
I joined Edelman’s marketing team in early spring as the first Associate Marketing Director focusing on Employer Brand and EVP. I specialise in Employer Brand and Employee Communications strategies. My professional experience spans communications, content planning and creative ideation. I have worked across a broad spectrum of sectors including legal, professional services, government security, charities, energy and healthcare.
What were you hoping to gain from volunteering with your team through Media Trust?
One of the primary reasons I joined Edelman was because it’s a purpose-driven agency. At our core is the collective desire to effect positive change in business and society. From a personal perspective, I wanted to gain first-hand experience of an Edelman charity partnership and to challenge my mind with a task and activity that falls outside of the daily work I do. It was also a fantastic opportunity for me to work alongside new and talented Edelman colleagues who I don’t get a chance to work with regularly.
But most importantly, I wanted to contribute to a worthwhile cause and charity. And ultimately use my expertise to help to solve their communication challenges.
Tell us about your experience and the charity you worked with.
My experience was nothing short of incredible. I spent a day working with Taban Shoresh and Anna Pointer from the charity The Lotus Flower. The Lotus Flower was born out of Taban’s passion, personal experience and a response to the humanitarian crises of Kurdistan, northern Iraq in 2014. The Lotus Flower is a non-profit that provides women and girls impacted by conflict and displacement with the tools and opportunities they need to rebuild their lives. They run safe community centres inside refugee camps for displaced women and girls, where their programmes help them heal, learn, and grow. They aim to sustainably serve vulnerable displaced women and girls in all camps around the world.
Watch to find out more about The Lotus Flower’s purpose and work:
(Viewer warning: this video features some upsetting images and themes)
Our day started with Taban reciting her very personal and harrowing story of narrowly escaping Genocide as a young child, which was incredibly moving and emotional. From there, we unpacked the communication challenges that The Lotus Flower has. As a smaller lesser-known charity, the Lotus Flower can often find it difficult to secure long-term partnerships and funding. We spent the day looking at specific activities and projects that they do, and we discussed brands to prospectively target to partner with. It was a collective and collaborative effort between the Edelman team and Taban and Anna.
At the end of the day, we captured our ideas and guidance into a short presentation for The Lotus Flower to takeaway with them.
How might/will your support impact the charity you worked with?
The day saw us provide the Lotus Flower with lots of new and innovative ideas. Taban and Anna were incredible to work with and were grateful for Edelman’s time, expertise and enthusiasm. The session gave the Lotus Flower the opportunity to tap into the vast Edelman network which will hopefully open up potential partnership opportunities in the future.
Additionally, off the back of our session, I arranged for Taban to speak at an internal webinar in partnership with our Global Women's Equality Network (GWEN) across EMEA. In this session, chaired by Katy Evans (who was a fellow colleague at the Media Trust Day), Taban was able to tell her inspiring story to a wider employee audience. Not only did this serve as an inspiration session for our employees, but also gave the charity a meaningful opportunity to be front of mind for potential client partnerships. This session was also made into an external podcast to further promote and amplify their cause. You can listen the session here.
What was the impact that volunteering had on you?
I felt a real personal impact off the back of the volunteering day. For one, I felt inspired by Taban’s moving story and humbled by the work that the Lotus Flower do day in and day out. It was a good opportunity to take stock and consider what’s important in one’s work and life. I also felt proud to work for an agency that understands the importance of giving back to wider society. Moving forward, I am determined to drive and continue to champion endeavours that put citizenship and charity at its core.
Edelman supports its employees to give back. In December, the London office will be closed for a whole day where all employees will be taking part in different charitable activities. I am really excited to see the impact of this and look forward to giving back.