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A week in the life of… a press and external affairs assistant

Mariam Colley works at housing association Abri. She talks through her week of training workshops, catching up with colleagues online and creating newsletters

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Mariam took part in virtual training
Mariam took part in virtual training
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A week in the life of Mariam Colley, a press and external affairs assistant at @abrigroup #UKhousing

Monday

New week, new start. Just like every other morning, I start my day by reading and reviewing both national and local headlines and political alerts to share with people around the organisation.

My daily news review usually covers topics relevant to housing:

  • Development
  • Homelessness
  • Communities
  • Employment
  • Domestic abuse
  • Fire safety

I then jump on our weekly scheduled video call – it’s always good fun as I catch up with my whole team in one place, which I think is very important now that we all work remotely.

Following this week’s call, I took part in a virtual in-house training workshop for the Abri communications team and learned a few more tricks to our trade.

On a busy day like this, I always make sure to dedicate time for my own well-being. On my hour break from training I went out for some fresh air and had a quick bite to eat.


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Tuesday

Tuesdays tend to be a quieter day, which is welcome as I can get my head down and work through some purchase orders and on-going projects, such as Abri’s annual report and our stakeholder newsletter.

In the afternoon I tune into a live backbench parliamentary debate on the future of work, which gave me food for thought on the future of our work at Abri.

Wednesday

I spend most of my day preparing a briefing document ahead of an upcoming meeting that our executive team has with a local authority in one of our operating areas. I create these documents often; not only are they helpful but they summarise key topics to discuss and be aware of when meeting with stakeholders.

I can definitely say that I enjoy doing the research for the briefing documents – it means that I get a better understanding of the partnerships that we have with communities across the South of England.

Thursday

I attended an external virtual training course on parliament and public affairs, delivered by an accredited communications association. The course was really interesting and it presented a great opportunity for me to widen my knowledge of public affairs and network with people from other industries.

After such an insightful morning, I took a little time out to meditate before spending my afternoon working with our community safety team on a blog to raise awareness of domestic abuse.

Friday

And just like that it’s Friday. After a fun and busy week, I start my day by getting a free flu jab – every year Abri offers these to colleagues and I wasn’t going to miss out on that.

Later, I catch up with my colleagues on Teams over a cuppa, before proof-reading letters for residents and drafting a press release on a new site that we recently secured.

Then it’s the weekend.

A week in the life series

A week in the life series

Our ‘A week in the life’ series features housing professionals talking through what they do in their job on a day-to-day basis.

Find out about the different challenges housing workers in a variety of roles face in a given week. 

We aim to feature staff from housing associations, ALMOs, local authorities and more.

Click here to nominate yourself or a colleague for inclusion

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