Catch up with… Lisa Torkington

Each week, we’re introducing you to one of our amazing staff members and volunteers who will tell you more about their work and what a typical day is like for them here at Battersea. They’ll even share stories and photos of their favourite Battersea animals.

This week, we caught up (remotely) with Lisa Torkington from the Battersea Academy team at our London Centre.

Tell us a bit about what you do at Battersea

I'm the Programme and Quality Assurance Manager within the Academy team in London. Normally delivered at our London centre, the Battersea Academy is open to any dog and cat rehoming or rescue organisation in any location, from small volunteer-run shelters to established animal rescues. Our programmes are a mix of classroom based learning and hands-on practical work in our kennels and/or cattery.

In my role I work with teams across Battersea to create those professional development programmes and deliver them to staff from other rescue centres across the UK and internationally. I am currently working from home like lots of Battersea staff, and focusing on how we can make our learning accessible and deliverable at a distance. This includes implementing technology to allow us to run Webinars and provide learning online. We recently delivered our first Webinar to a group of rescues from around the world which was incredibly exciting, and will be building on this over the coming weeks and months. We also have our first fully online training day taking place in early July. It's been great to be able to support both rescues outside of Battersea and our teams internally during lockdown, and I very much look forward to this continuing in the future.

Who is your most memorable Battersea animal and why?

It has to be the small, speedy and feisty little kitten Bella. It was love at first sight. So much so that she came home with me!

What is your favourite thing about your work?

Getting to work with and having opportunities to get to know groups of incredible people who come to Battersea either in person or remotely to work with us is very special. I also learn a lot from them, but seeing people take away ideas from Battersea that make a real difference within their own rescues and in the lives of their own animals is incredibly rewarding.

Show us your favourite ever photo of a Battersea animal

Tuppence, without a doubt. She's so full of joy!

Top TV, Book or Film recommendation for lockdown?

The Last Dance (Netflix) is a really good watch!