BECOMINGX
STUDENT RESOURCE
Gatsby Benchmarks 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
SABRINA COHEN-HATTON : From homeless teenager to chief fire officer
VIDEO
T oday , Sabrina Cohen-Hatton is one of only six women fire chiefs in the country and a doctor of behavioural neuroscience ; at 15 , she was living rough on the streets of Newport . In this write-up from an exclusive video interview with BecomingX , she explains how she turned her life around to forge an exceptional career .
“ Your circumstances don ’ t define you ; they don ’ t determine where you end up , only where you start from ,” asserts Sabrina Cohen-Hatton .
“ I ’ ve gone from living in abject poverty and sleeping rough at 15 to achieving the most senior rank in the fire service at 36 .”
Cohen-Hatton ’ s father died of a brain tumour when she was nine years old , bringing her childhood to a swift end .
“ He and my mum were blissfully in love ; they were great parents ,” she explains . “ And then when my dad got sick , his business failed , and what we saw over a period of time was the cognitive degeneration that was associated with it .
“ Things got really difficult ; my mum had a breakdown . We were constantly cold ; we were constantly hungry . It was a struggle day to day just to survive . We broke down as a family completely , and I ended up sleeping rough .”
As a 15- and 16-year-old , Cohen-Hatton would often spend the night in shop doorways or in subway tunnels on the streets of Newport , Wales . “ I ’ ve been beaten up more times than I care to remember ,” she recalls . “ I ’ ve woken up with drunk people urinating on my sleeping bag . I was attacked once for being Jewish .
“ There were times in my life that I was forced to eat out of bins in order to survive . You feel so humiliated ; it ’ s the most dehumanising experience . When you ’ re sitting at the side of the street , people walk past you like a ghost , like you ’ re not even there . One teacher crossed the street to avoid me . It was at that point that I knew that nobody cared .”
One teacher crossed the street to avoid me . It was at that point that I knew that nobody cared
Determining to change her circumstances herself , Cohen-Hatton continued to pursue her education .
“ My choice was to work as hard as I could for as long as it took to be able to change that situation ,” she explains . “ I ’ d stuff my uniform in a bag … and get changed in the bus station toilets . So I still went to school and I still did my GCSEs .”
Becoming a Big Issue seller helped her to work her way out of poverty , giving her some much-needed “ stability and control ”; but she describes it as an uphill battle .
“ Getting off the streets isn ’ t as easy as getting a roof over your head and that ’ s it . It took me three attempts to escape that life , where I could start afresh , just as me , without baggage or history .”
Becoming a fire fighter
“ I never had a childhood dream of being a firefighter ,” admits Cohen-Hatton . “ It wasn ’ t something that occurred to me when I was growing up . But when I was experiencing homelessness , it really felt as if every day was the worst day of my life . I know how it feels to be at rock bottom .
“ The amazing thing about the fire service is that people trust us to know what to do when they are experiencing the worst day of their lives . I think in a funny kind of way I wanted to rescue people in a way that nobody had been able to rescue me .”
Her first job was as a part-time , on-call firefighter in the South Wales Valleys , where there were 1,700 men to seven women ; she suffered sexual harassment and stereotyping .
“ I was the first woman at my station and in my division and , initially , not everyone knew how to respond to that ,” she says . “ People would regularly say things like ‘ no offence to you , Sab , we just don ’ t agree with women in the job . Women will get firefighters killed ’. That kind of idea that the package you come in somehow defines what you ’ re capable of and how good you ’ ll be is very frustrating .”
However , this was balanced by “ some amazing experiences . I ’ ve been able to push myself to do things I never thought I was capable of and that ’ s the most important thing ,” she says .
That kind of idea that the package you come in somehow defines what you ’ re capable of and how good you ’ ll be is very frustrating
Applying behavioural neuroscience to firefighting
Cohen-Hatton ’ s defining career moment came when she was called to an incident in which a firefighter at a neighbouring station had been severely burned ; there was a one-in-four chance that the victim was her own husband .
Finding him safe and well , she experienced an “ overwhelming sense of relief ” combined with “ an overwhelming sense of guilt ; I felt that , by so badly wishing it not to be Mike , I was wishing it on someone else ,” she explains .
“ To find a way of coping with it , I started to look at what we could do about firefighter injuries . What I found really shocked me : 80 % of accidents across all industries happen because of human error .”
She began studying psychology , doing a degree followed by a PhD in behavioural neuroscience , “ looking at the mechanisms that might bias the decisions that we make , to learn more about how we can try to reduce human error ”; people laughed at her plans to apply her learning to the fire service , but she “ carried on anyway ”.
“ As I ’ ve progressed in my career — through to a command role — I think the ability to get there takes the ability to fail repeatedly and still get back up and carry on and try again and again ,” she says . “ There are going to be people who tell you you ’ re never going to achieve it . But if you know you can , and if you have a passion to do something , do it anyway .
“ I don ’ t think I would be who I am , doing what I ’ m doing , if it hadn ’ t been for those experiences . It ’ s my history , regardless of how palatable it is . Being open about that , being honest about being vulnerable and owning those vulnerabilities has been incredibly powerful . So although I don ’ t want anyone else to go through it , I don ’ t think I ’ d change a thing now .”
ABOUT BECOMINGX
BecomingX is a learning and development organisation that aims to create a world where everyone can realise their potential . becomingx . com