Jana Harris-strong nomination – Unsung Hero Awards

Nomination

Award Category:

Admin & Clerical

Individual or Team Nomination?

Individual

Qualifying Qualities

In these challenging times, nominators were asked to show how the nominee had demonstrated the following qualities:

Exceptional work ethic - going above and beyond their job description, especially in the past 12 months.
Outstanding achievement/s in work or outside of the organisation where relevant.
Drive for innovation and proactive leadership in these challenging times.
High level of interpersonal skills, such as kindness, empathy, loyalty and thoughtfulness to staff and patients.
A resilience considering Covid to their role and to the health and wellbeing of their colleagues.

Nominators Answer

Nominee's story :

Jana Harris is the fundraising manager for our Trust charity – EyUp. Jana manages, administers and coordinates all of our charity activity, including fundraising and coordinating the distribution of the charities funds to Trust teams and individuals. Throughout the last year Jana has initiated and managed projects to support staff health and wellbeing, coordinated the spending of funds provided to us by NHS Charities Together, and held safe fundraising activities which has brought in valuable monies to our charity. Jana was instrumental in initiating and managing the purchase and distribution of wellbeing packs for all of our staff and volunteers. This involved procuring branded water bottles, hand cream; and getting donated food and drink from local companies which could be collated up and distributed. Because many staff were working form home Jana organised for the packs to be distributed to wherever people were working, either in wards or their homes. This was a considerable task and saw over 4,500 packs individually addressed and sent out. Feedback from staff was very positive, and helped the Trust to support staff with hydration during the hot weather. Jana was an integral part of the work to utilise the money from NHS Charities Together, which included specific health and wellbeing support for BAME staff, and funding allocated to support the role of carers. Jana coordinated the receipt of the money and was the main link between us and Charites Together for our accountability. Throughout the pandemic Jana has also supported other initiatives to support staff. This includes sending charity funded refreshments to wards and community health centres to support a safe and distanced virtual tea party; and has procured and distributed BeeYou journals to staff that they can use to promote their own personal wellbeing. Over 300 journals were sent out in the first two weeks and have been well received. In addition to all this Jana has continued to manage and promote our existing fundraising activities, including our EyUp lottery, Pennies from Heaven, AmazonSmile etc. This has needed a different focus during the pandemic and Jana has adapted her approach to make sure these are still high profile, a considerable achievement when the focus of many has been on other things. In normal circumstances Jana also organises fundraising activities which not only bring in money but support the involvement of service users, and helps promote the profile of the charity. This includes summer fetes, Christmas markets, bake sales and sports events amongst others. She also supports staff and the public in challenges to raise funds for us, including walks, climbs, runs... Jana is the sole employee of our charity, often working on her own. This has been a challenging year but she has worked without complaint and without any noticeable impact on her contribution or output. She is always smiling, always happy to help and brings positive energy to everything she does. Her role often goes unnoticed so it would be great if she could get recognition for being the staff that she is.