Celebrating International Women’s Day with Director, Emma Digance

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of our charity, our 40 Faces of Brendoncare on International Women’s Day today is Emma Digance, our Director of Brand & Customer Experience.

Having worked at Brendoncare for nearly 20 years, Emma is one of the organisation’s longest-serving colleagues.

In her role, Emma’s oversees customer-facing activities. These include services such as wellbeing and hospitality in our care homes, sales, communications, brand, marketing and public relations. She is also a member of our Senior Leadership Team.

Balance

She balances her busy career with raising her children. But Emma says thanks to Brendoncare, she can fulfil both roles.

“Brendoncare has been a really good employer, so I have not had to choose between being a full-time parent and having a career. I have flexibility in this role. With a term time contract, I work 39 weeks a year full time and three day weeks during the school holidays when I enjoy lots of quality time with my two children,” Emma explains.

Starting with Brendoncare as its Fundraising and Volunteer Coordinator, Emma later became Head of Fundraising. One of her proudest achievements was leading the capital fundraising campaign for Brendoncare Otterbourne Hill which opened in 2018.

She is also immensely proud that Otterbourne Hill was the first of its kind in the country to offer accommodation enabling couples living with dementia to stay together.

“It was a real privilege to be able to see this new service through from conception to opening. It was around that time that my role began to evolve, and I became responsible for communications and marketing, as well as our sales activities.”

Opportunities

“Brendoncare has given me so many opportunities. Each time in my career when I thought ‘What’s next for me?’ the organisation has presented another opportunity. In my director role, I have really grown and developed my skills – all alongside maintaining my work life balance.”

Emma is an enthusiastic advocate of Brendoncare. “We are a small organisation that likes to think big, while always focusing on individuals!” she says.

Society

“As a charity, Brendoncare really focuses on what is right for every person. With our vision of creating a society that is kind and values age, we are reminded to challenge ourselves about how we, and society as a whole, considers ageing, and how we can care to best support every individual’s needs.”

Emma continues: “More than anything, I enjoy working with colleagues all across Brendoncare in our community services and homes. The people who work and volunteer with us are kind and dedicated. There is a shared commitment to delivering the best services we can – to empower people to live well. I love hearing stories that show me how much our people care.

“Because of the opportunities presented to me, I feel passionately about giving others the chance to grow their careers with us. The compassion and commitment our colleagues show to the extraordinary people we have the privilege to care for and support is inspirational.”