Hannah Norgate

I’m Hannah! I’m the Networks Manager at London Plus.

I used to work in the toy industry and have a Sylvanian Families toy named after me. It’s a little rabbit called Hannah Periwinkle!

I look after two of our core networks – the Councils for Voluntary Services (CVS) Network, and the Volunteer Centre (VC) Network. I bring people together so that they can collaborate, share information, and support each other.

Sure, CVSs support and represent the voluntary and community sector in their given borough. Most London boroughs have one.

They’re almost like umbrella organisations that help the sector to grow and develop, find funding and build capacity.

They bring networks together, and connect organisations to each other, funders, and local stakeholders.

VCs are the go-to place for local volunteering. Prospective volunteers can go to their VC, and the VC will give advice and link them up with volunteering opportunities in their region.

They promote volunteering locally and also give organisations advice and guidance around volunteering and related policies, that sort of thing.

After university, I got a job at a toy company. It was fun but surprisingly stressful, especially in the lead-up to Christmas. I figured that if I’m going to have a stressful job, I’d rather it be something that I think is important to society.

I went on to work for a local authority in housing and homelessness, and studied for an accompanying Masters degree, but I had always wanted to work for a charity. So after some years I decided to apply my experience in homelessness and domestic abuse work for a charity and went on to manage pan-London advice/support teams at Victim Support and then Shelter.

It was a great experience but after several years I was ready to move away from managing large teams and overseeing many short-term projects. Due to the nature of short-term project funding, there were always one or two projects coming to an end.

I found supporting teams through that process repeatedly personally difficult. I knew I wanted to stay in the charity sector, but needed a change. That’s when the London Plus opportunity came along.

I like that, even if it’s just in a small way, you’re contributing to the greater good. This sector also seems to attract like-minded people who are passionate about doing the same thing.

I appreciate the working culture here. Everyone works hard, we’re all really passionate, but wellbeing is also a priority.

Wellbeing in this sector is so important because you can easily burn out. I also really like working in a small organisation. We’re all involved in important decisions.

There’s a restaurant in Soho called St Moritz… they do amazing fondue! It’s all wood-panelled, really small and cosy inside. The food is delicious!