An introduction to our organisation

Volunteering Matters are a national volunteering and social change charity. We passionately believe that everyone in the UK should have the opportunity to thrive. We bring people together, through the power of volunteering, to resolve some of society’s most complex social issues.

We are currently looking for a talented, dynamic, and professional Volunteer Coordinator to join our team in Perth and Kinross. The right candidate would be someone who can work flexibly, use their own initiative, and demonstrate a strong understanding and commitment to our organisational values.

An introduction to the role

As our Volunteer Coordinator, you will lead the delivery and development of our highly successful “Grandmentors” programme in Perth and Kinross.

Grandmentors is an innovative, inter-generational mentoring project where older volunteers (normally but not exclusively aged 50+) use their wealth of life experience and skills to mentor young people aged 16-26 who are care experienced, or facing other life challenges

These young people often benefit from a guiding hand and role model to support them to find work, continue their education, begin training, enhance their wellbeing, or develop their independent living skills - ultimately giving young people the empowerment and self-belief to lead successful lives.

Grandmentors is a national project which has operated for almost 15 years in various locations of the UK. We launched in Perth and Kinross in 2022. Further information on Grandmentors can be found online.

Key Duties & Responsibilities

• Consistently role model and display our organisational values (Being Positive, Inclusive, Empowering, Compassionate, Straightforward)
• Contribute to effective teamwork across the staff team and the wider charity, in line with our “flexible working by default” and “self-managed teams” philosophy
• Develop and deliver the Grandmentors programme in Perth and Kinross, meeting ambitious goals and milestones, ensuring all young people engaged achieve positive outcomes
• Establish and maintain effective working relationships with internal and external stakeholders including colleagues, volunteer mentors, young people, Social Services, Health and Education teams, third sector partners and others
• Effective recruitment, selection, training, and ongoing support of a diverse pool of talented and dedicated volunteer mentors from a wide cross-section of the community
• To maintain Volunteering Matters standards around quality and effective Volunteer Management
• To manage all elements of young people’s experience of Grandmentors, from point of referral to completion of their mentoring journey
• To manage the risk assessment, safeguarding, quality assurance and audit processes as appropriate
• Ensure monitoring, impact and evaluation information and data is collected and that Grandmentors meets it’s agreed goals, reporting format and schedule.
• Administration tasks including maintaining effective and accessible records via a Volunteering Database, the use of Microsoft Office, Teams, Zoom, Canva and other relevant software
• Develop relevant promotional material and information, for Grandmentors, and for our organisation locally

This job description is intended to include the broad range of responsibilities and requirements of the post. It is neither exhaustive nor exclusive but while some variations will be expected, these will be at an appropriate level for the role.

Skills Required

• An excellent knowledge and understanding of the life challenges and barriers that care experienced young people face today in Scotland, including an understanding of “The Promise”
• An understanding of how to assess the needs of an individual, using a person-centered approach
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including being able to have strategic conversations with external partners one minute, and talk to an anxious or unsure young person the next
• Excellent people skills with the ability to build professional, long-term relationships with various stakeholders, to influence and motivate others
• Excellent organisational skills including strong attention to detail, the ability to manage a busy workload and prioritise accordingly
• Excellent IT skills including the use of Office 365, Microsoft Teams and other software packages
• A creative approach to problem solving, an ability to work independently and use own initiative

Experience Required

• Experience working directly with young people (aged 16-26), particularly those who are care experienced or who face other life challenges and barriers
• Experience in all aspects of effective Volunteer Management (recruitment, training, support)
• Experience developing strong working relationships, with a range of internal and external stakeholders
• Experience of project management, achieving goals, managing a busy workload and working to deadlines
• Experience of measuring the impact of mentoring/volunteering, and understanding the results
• Understanding of, and full commitment, to Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion

Qualifications

We are looking for a candidate with relevant knowledge, skills and experience, as well as commitment to our organisational values, rather than any specific qualifications.

Our Values & Way of Working:

Volunteering Matters offer flexible working by default. This means that our staff have significant flexibility when it comes to place of work, working days and hours, and are empowered with the responsibility of managing their own diary and workload.

Part of your working week will be based in local communities within Perth and Kinross, meeting young people, volunteers and other stakeholders. Appropriate travel costs will be re-imbursed.

For the remainder of the time, you will work from home. You will need good internet access and a suitable home working environment. All I.T. equipment, mobile phone and other infrastructure will be supplied.

At Volunteering Matters, we embrace a philosophy of ‘Freedom within a Framework’ and are guided by our organisational values at all times:

• We are Empowering.
• We are Inclusive.
• We are Compassionate.
• We are Positive.
• We are Straightforward

We are looking for a candidate who can evidence these characteristics in their application and at interview.

Employee Benefits

Volunteering Matters ambition is to be the best place to work in the charity sector. We offer a wide range of employee benefits which include:

• Fully flexible working, by default
• Unlimited annual leave allowance to achieve a positive work-life balance
• Cycle to Work scheme
• Interest free season ticket loan (for public transport)
• Competitive and supportive maternity/adoption/family leave provision
• Competitive and supportive sick leave provision
• An organisational “Wellbeing Promise”

PVG

This role requires membership of the PVG (Protection of Vulnerable Groups) scheme. Having a conviction will not necessarily cause a bar to employment. We will support you to become a member of the PVG scheme, or update your existing membership (if relevant).

Diversity & Inclusion

We encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and communities. This will help us to ensure that our staff team represents the people we serve in Perth and Kinross.

We particularly welcome applications from Black people, people of colour, and people with disabilities - all of whom are currently under-represented in our staff team.

Disability Confident & Reasonable Adjustments

We guarantee to interview anyone with a disability whose application meets the minimum criteria for the role. Please provide evidence in your application, which demonstrates that you meet the level of competence required in the “Experience/Skills and attributes” section of this job description.

To be considered for a guaranteed interview or to discuss any reasonable adjustments during the process, please state this in your application or contact join@volunteeringmatters.org.uk for more information.

We have also committed to the following pledges which positively encompass our recruitment and selection processes and methodology: The Promise (Scotland), Show The Salary, Salary History.

To Apply for this role

1. Prepare an up-to-date CV
2. Prepare a supporting statement. Your supporting statement should NOT be a simple cover letter, it should be a detailed description of why you are a suitable candidate for this role. When creating your supporting statement, you could consider the job role, as well as the skills and experience that we are looking for. At least 1 A4 page is recommended.
3. Complete our Recruitment Monitoring Form which is available on the Jobs Section of our website
4. Send CV and Supporting Statement by email to - join@volunteeringmatters.org.uk

We will be in touch with all candidates who have been shortlisted for an interview, shortly after the closing date.

Interviews TBC, likely during the week beginning 11 September 2023.

If you have any questions or would like to speak to the Recruiting Manager for this role, please don’t hesitate to contact join@volunteeringmatters.org.uk