My role
October 2019 - Present

Project Manager / Organisational Administrator / Trainee Editor, Writer, & Producer

~ I acquired the role after word got out that there was a new words person in town. Founder and artistic director of Living Words Susanna Howard and I got chatting at various events and meetings, before she invited me to pop into the office to get a feel of what Living Words do. The rest is history!
~ Under Living Words, I work on everything from film/song/book distribution, marketing and copywriting, event managing and producing, to day-to-day office running and creating podcasts. Ultimately, my work under the arts & literature charity falls into 3 sections - administration, organisational development, and projects/events. Most notably, my work has interwoven with creating 7 'Living Warriors' films published across the BBC for World Suicide Prevention Day/National Day of Persons with Disabilities; a podcast venture for Normal? Festival of the Brain 2020/21 (https://www.normalfest.co.uk/) and the delivery of the festival which took place mostly online; the Southbank Centre’s first in-care-home project in which Living Words were commissioned to run; whilst working with the LW team on the national publishing/release of a celebrity-endorsed book 'Bringing The Inside Out', which archives the words of those living with late-stage dementia, their carers, and relatives in care homes UK-wide through the COVID-19 pandemic.
~ I assist in producing, organising, and participating as an actor in events; like theatre pieces, happenings within festivals, and online presentations.
~ I am also training to become an in-house writer for Living Words, whereby I will work with project members within care homes/safe space settings, with the aim of actively practicing how Living Words work, via their communicative method 'Listen Out Methodology.'
~ As a brand representative, I accompany the charity at conferences, presentations and events.
~ I support with social media copywriting and posting, as well as maintain the website for both Living Words and Normal? Festival of the Brain 2020/21 (second of which I created myself via Squarespace) from time to time. ~ Additionally, I am part of the process of putting together, editing, and publishing our in-house books.
~ Over the past two years, Living Words have greatly expanded their work in Mental Health, through which in 2022, I led a Kent-wide, cross-sector (initiative entitled Flux (partners involved include: lead partner - Living Words, Gulbenkian, Ideas Test, Community Art Kent, plus more) through which I greatly developed my project managing skills and portfolio. Flux is a year-long project featuring this collective of cultural organisations across Kent and Medway, together with the social care and public health sectors. Through the use of creativity, we aim to give specific groups of marginalised young people tools to express themselves in new ways. Flux culminated in a takeover of Folkestone Quarterhouse in December 2022, which saw Flux project members bravely share what they had been doing in each project, for project leads and stakeholders to discuss the future of Flux, and for all to witness its impact.
~ The COVID-19 pandemic has also made us adapt to expand our mission of getting the 'Listen Out Loud' Methodology out into the world as much as it should be. Over the coming months, I will be part of the process of creating online training courses for professional carers who work with those living with a dementia. This work will also cover the development of Living Words’ first-ever downloadable app.
~ In increasing my time with the charity throughout this year especially, I am also now the lead copywriter for Living Words' information packs, editorial material and press releases that are shared internally and externally, through which I have to refine the Living Words language/tone through our strict brand guidelines. I also lead on communication lines with internal stakeholders. Additionally, I am developing my skills in fundraising writing, editing Living Words self-published books, through tv/film commissions (most recent achievement being our film ‘Overcoming self-harm’ commissioned and released across BBC Ideas in Jan 2023), event planning, and generally, through fully equipping myself with the experience in how to run an arts organisation alongside our artistic director in having to consider the full picture, whilst actively embedding our mission and ethics into everything I do.