A day in the life
Today we meet Mary Horesh , the Acton Market, Reduce and Recycle Hub Manager at Action West London.
Mary , tell us about your role and how long have you been with the charity
I have been working at Action West London for almost 2 and half years. I joined to set up the Reduce and Recycle hub at Acton Market. This is a monthly event, were a group of volunteers, organisations and charities all come together and promote to the people of Acton how they can reduce their waste and recycle more. So my time is spent networking with groups and getting more people and organisations joining the hub. I also promote what we do to others to get more people to get involved and help make Acton a better place.
How did you get into your current role?
I have been interested in the environment and have campaigned and got involved with many local groups and projects. I set and volunteer for Ealing Repair café, where we teach people to mend their clothes. I was so happy to be given the opportunity to do what I am passionate about with the work at Acton Reduce and Recycle hub. Previously I was working in Marketing for a food laboratory company, so something very different!
When you were younger, what did you want to be when you grew up?
When I was very young, I remember I would like to be a telephone operator, the one who sat at the desk of wires and connected calls, which of course is no longer a job. If I told my children, they would have no idea what I was talking about! As I got older, I always wanted to go into working for environmental charities but it was highly competitive. So its great I finally got this job!
What kind of education and/or training did your career require?
When I was working in an office after I had finished my university degree, a company director saw that I had a flair for Marketing and they encouraged me to consider marketing as a career. I found a marketing course and my company funded and supported me through the course and I qualified while working. It was hard combining work and study but definitely worth it as that qualification helped me get several jobs.
What is it like working for the Action West London charity?
Its very busy for me as we are a small team working on this project and so we do the marketing, promotion and the event set up. This means that we do have the freedom to make the hub what we want it to be. The only issue is that we are always reliant on the next funding. I wish there was a magic pot of money that would keep our project going forever. Hopefully the value of our project, will mean we will have another funder involved very soon.
What does a typical day look like for you from start to finish?
Its difficult to describe a typical day, as its more like the average month! When its coming up to the hub weekend, we are planning activities and checking which organisations are coming and when. We then promote these on our socials. Then on the day of the hub, we are talking a lot to the public and monitoring our success. The week after the hub we evaluate how it went and how many people we spoke to and the amount of things we collected for recycling. Then the week after we are planning for the next hub and inviting groups and then we go back to promoting the hub and planning.
What do you love the most about your job?
I think there are two main things I love about the job, is seeing the public come along and engage with the hub and mention how inspiring and grateful they are to have a place to come and find out more what they can do. The other aspect is speaking to other organisations and sharing advice. We all feel stronger as together we can really make an impact on peoples lives and the environment.
Give us some useful links that have helped you with your professional development
I find Media Trust does some great training courses. Recently I went on a online course with them on marketing climate change. You can join their mailing list to keep up to date.
If you could give someone career advice, what would it be?
I would always advice to get experience or qualifications that you are interested or good at. When I was at university, I had always been good at computers such as word processing and spreadsheets. I decided to take a course, and I learnt touch typing. This qualification in typing and word processing was what I got my first job with. Then taking the marketing course, really helped developed my career. Now with all the volunteering I have done outside my employment really helped getting my current role. So thinking about what you are interested and good at and try to find work experience, volunteer roles or qualifications that will demonstrate this.
You can find out more about the Reduce and Recycle Hub at