Spartans Community Foundation is a charity and social enterprise in North Edinburgh. We aspire to be a valued organisation that helps to improve the quality of people’s lives in a meaningful way, with love, compassion and dignity at the heart of our approach. We change lives through the power of sport and people.

We are “here for good”.

You can find our more at spartanscf.com

The Spartans Community Foundation operates from a £1.4 million purpose-built Education & Youth Work space, creating exciting opportunities to expand our impact and support even more children and young people across North Edinburgh.

We are seeking to recruit an enthusiastic, experienced, and motivated individual with a strong range of youth work skills and experience to join our vibrant and dedicated Senior Alternative School and Youth Work team where the successful candidate will support young people within our Junior Alternative School.

Key Objective:

Deliver and develop a high-quality face-to-face youth work service aimed at meeting the needs of children and young people through informal activity-based youth work sessions in an alternative education setting.

Responsibilities

• Develop relationships with young people based on mutual trust and respect.
• Deliver direct face-to-face work with young people in existing and new youth work provision.
• Encourage the involvement of young people in the planning and evaluation of programmes.
• Assist with service development by effectively contributing to planning, delivery, and monitoring and evaluation requirements.
• Develop reflective practice and attend supervision as required.
• Assist in the development of programmes that promote equal opportunities and inclusive environments.
• Deliver a range of fun, engaging activities suitable for various age ranges in a school based setting and alternative education setting.
• Use a wide range of resources to effectively engage with all young people.
• Ensure health and safety is always maintained to the required standards.
• Carry out any other duties as required, including the possibility of residential trips and holiday programmes as required.

Skills Required

• Experience of working with and developing trusting relationships with children and young people aged 7-16 years old.
• Ability to communicate effectively with young people and the ability to motivate and engage them positively.
• Experience of working with and developing trusting relationships with hard-to-reach young people.
• Experience of delivering and developing youth work in a variety of settings.
• Ability to work effectively as part of a team and on your own initiative with minimum supervision.
• Knowledge of issues facing young people within our community.
• Understanding of child protection and safeguarding and willingness to undergo further training.
• An understanding of the needs of socially excluded young people.
• A high level of professionalism in the workplace, including maintaining confidentiality at all times
• Reliability and good timekeeping.

Key Competencies

• Productivity – Plans work carefully, makes effective use of available time, reprioritises as necessary, consistently delivers high-quality work on time, makes timely decisions, and approaches tasks systematically
• Adaptability – Is open to new ideas and suggestions, suggests new and innovative ways of working, shows a positive approach to change, demonstrates a flexible approach when dealing with others, and remains calm when faced with unexpected problems
• Taking Action – Demonstrates a keen sense of ownership for work, shows resilience when working under pressure, strives to meet targets, rises to tough challenges, and attempts to solve problems before seeking help (adopting a can-do mindset)
• Delivering Customer Impact – Understands customer needs, responds quickly to changing customer needs and/or anticipates customer needs, identifies ways to improve customer service, takes responsibility for sorting out customer problems, and keeps customers informed of developments
• Working with Others (internal & external) – Collaborates effectively with others, develops positive relationships, actively takes part in team activities, is supportive of colleagues, builds trust, and treats everyone as an individual
• Communicates with a Presence – Is always present with others, listens to understand, checks for understanding, communicates key information effectively, talks with enthusiasm and confidence, and adapts communication depending on the audience
• Contributes with Authenticity – Conducts work in an ethical and fair way, acts with integrity, is willing to be vulnerable and fail, takes calculated risks, speaks openly and honestly, and aspires to be a positive role model (adopts a 'big heart, small head' approach)
• Always Learning – Spots and takes opportunities to develop own skills and knowledge, evaluates the impact of actions and initiatives, takes time to self-reflect on behaviours and effectiveness, applies new knowledge and skills to be more effective, and shares learning with colleagues

Responsible to:Education Manager & Senior Youth Worker

Works with: All Foundation employees, partners, volunteers and with children and young people aged 7-16 years from across our North Edinburgh community.

Benefits

• Real Living Wage employer
• Health Assured Employee Assistance Programme
• First aid training
• Staff uniform (Macron kit allowance)
• On-site parking
• Company pension scheme
• 30 days annual leave including Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day. (Pro rata)
• Training and development opportunities
• Free access for employees’ children to Football Development Department holiday and football programmes.