My experience as a Marketing and Communications Intern | Haranika Victor Nixon

My name is Haranika Victor Nixon and for the past four weeks, I have been a Marketing and Communications Intern at Coin Street. It has truly been a great opportunity and enjoyable experience for me working with the Marketing, Communications and Fundraising team.  

During my time here I have worked with Keith Winestein, Helena Inwood and Cait Saunders who all play crucial roles in the communications team. I was able to participate in numerous activities in the team. This includes: 

• Writing my own press release with Keith for an upcoming event at Oxo Tower Wharf. 

• Proofreading and providing recommendations for our Group Report with Helena. 

• Participating in the activities to help run a successful campaign. 

• Working on a communications plan with Cait for the upcoming 40th anniversary at Coin Street and using Mailchimp, an email marketing platform, to construct a community newsletter for the 40th anniversary. 

• Finding out about how internal communications work at Coin Street with Helena.  

I have been fortunate enough to assist with the filming activities for the amazing Family Support team and the Youth and Community Programmes team with Keith, Helena and a fantastic filmmaker called Jonah Wyn Pugh. I have loved being a part of this, as it has given me a greater insight of the community activities at Coin Street and how it has made a positive impact on our community. 

I have also done some marketing activities with Rachel Byrne and Melody Solaimaninajad, who are the key players in Coin Street’s Marketing team. This includes: 

• Reviewing the various social media channels at Coin Street and presenting an audit with my recommendations.  

• Using Canva, a graphic design platform, to create posters for events for our social media pages.  

• Using Adobe Premiere Pro, a video editing platform, with Melody to edit and produce videos for our social media channels.  

• Learning how Hootsuite can be used to post content on all our social media channels at the same time.  

• Looking at how we use Content Management System (CMS) to create webpages and to manage and monitor the back-end system of our website. 

I also got involved in some great fundraising activities with Leila Hidayat, who is the fundraising lead. This includes: 

• A detailed introduction on the various fundraising activities we do and why it is so important to help support the people at Coin Street  

• Researching about prospective funders, specifically for Trusts, Foundations and Heritage funding, checking if we are eligible and that they meet our criteria.  

• Creating an Excel spreadsheet to present my findings of the potential funders who can be considered for future fundraising activities.  

I was able to participate in several meetings which were a great way of being able to interact and gain a better understanding of the importance of the roles of the other members at Coin Street. This includes:  

• The campaign against the proposed redevelopment of the former ITV London studios at 72 Upper Ground 

• Key Performance Indicators  

• Safeguarding in the team 

• Weekly catch-ups 

I have had a fun and amazing time working at Coin Street, as everyone has been friendly and welcoming, which made it easy for me to settle in. I have made great connections with the team at Coin Street, and I would like to thank everyone for the extensive support that they have given me. I have gained a lot of knowledge and transferrable skills from this internship, which I believe will be crucial for me in the future. I have seen that Coin Street is a wonderful community that is truly devoted to the health and wellbeing of everyone. So, I hope they can continue to do the excellent work they do for the community and gain more recognition for their outstanding accomplishments.