Hannah Harrison
With a successful 12-year career in retail, Hannah Harrison had always had it in the back of her mind that one day she would like a role that helped improve the lives of others.
After completing an Applied Health and Social Care top up degree at the University, she is now using her skills to run a community support centre.
“I wanted to do something with my life that would try and make things better in supporting people who were vulnerable to have their own voice and be heard and considered,” she said.
A temporary role as a deputy hub leader at the Oasis Community Hub Warndon evolved into a family support worker role there. When this ended, she explored further study.
Originally joining the University for a two-year foundation degree in Health and Social Care in 2021, she continued on to the Applied Health and Social Care top-up course to get the full degree, graduating in 2024. She then completed a Master’s in Management and Leadership in Health and Social Care.
As a mature student, returning to education was daunting, but Hannah said she felt that the University understood her other commitments and provided flexibility.
On the top-up degree, she added: “The lecturers were absolutely outstanding all the way through. What really held the most value to me was they were all experts in their own field, so they were able to bring with them the understanding of the reality of the sectors, but also overlay it with the evidence.”
“The variety of assessments was helpful and the really wide variety of modules meant that we gained a really wide breadth of knowledge,” she said, adding that the cohort’s range of backgrounds, from paramedics to social care, meant they could all share valuable insights.
Hannah, who is also Chair of the Board for Warndon Pride in Place, a 10-year £20m government funded community project, is now community leader at the Oasis Community Hub Warndon.
The Hub supports the community in a variety of ways, from youth groups to adult education opportunities. Working alongside a Physiotherapy graduate from the University, Hannah has set up a physiotherapy clinic to run in tandem with a community supper club, helping to build relationships between community members and health workers in a relaxed environment.
Hannah said: “I’m not a trained mental health specialist, but after the course I feel more equipped to support the community members and enable them to find that support and know a little bit around how we can help them. It’s definitely widened my understanding.”
She added: “The course has really improved my confidence in my understanding and my ability to do my job. It’s definitely made me able to represent my community better and ensure that the work that my team do is rooted in these fundamentals: prioritising relational approaches, having a trauma informed approach, and actually giving person-centred care. Also the confidence that I gained from being in a multi-disciplinary cohort has helped when I’ve come to create partnerships with other organisations. I have gained a small insight which can move that forward.”