VOCAL - Voice of Carers Across Lothian - seeks two enthusiastic and experienced Carer Brokerage Practitioners to join its busy and expanding team to provide brokerage support to carers across Edinburgh and Midlothian.

VOCAL is a carer-led organisation and provides a wide range of services to support unpaid carers in their caring role. Postholders will be expected to work as part of a team, improve outcomes for carers and maximise uptake of VOCAL and community services.

Postholders will be part of a SDS focused project, VOCAL about Independent Living funded by Support in the Right Direction, Inspiring Scotland. They will liaise with staff, relevant organisations and the funder whilst running the project, including Lothian Centre for Inclusive Living (LCiL) who will also have a funded post as part of this project . SDS carer support is already well established at VOCAL, and postholders will be able to benefit from the expertise of the practitioners who have been involved with SDS support to date.

Applicants will evidence excellent people, and communication skills, brokerage and person-centred support work. Applicants will also demonstrate awareness of the diverse range of caring situations, the impact of caring on peoples’ lives and barriers carers face at different points of the caring journey. Good working knowledge of health and social care will be expected, with preference given to candidates with applied knowledge of self-directed support. Applicants will be digitally competent and effective communicators with individuals, carer groups and partner agencies.

Rock Trust are delighted to be expanding the successful ‘Housing First for Youth’ service into Glasgow. We are looking for a team member who has experience of supporting young vulnerable people accessing our services. The role will involve working intensively with a small caseload of young people to coordinate and provide emotional and practical support.

The Project Worker will work directly with young people to coordinate and provide emotional and practical support on a 1:1 and group basis. Working with young people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness to ensure that when homelessness can’t be avoided, their experience of homelessness is rare, brief, and non-recurring.

The Project Worker will offer line management, guidance, and support to Support Assistants and volunteers, working together to support young people to return or remain at home, improve their practical independent living skills, set up their own tenancy and access other services and to reach their full potential. Project Workers are responsible for completing support plans and risk assessments and are the main contact for any key people involved in the care and support of young people.

In addition to the responsibilities in the JD, the successful candidate will be able to demonstrate:

• An ability to build trusting, lasting relationships with young people
• Support young people to manage and thrive in their home
• Motivate young people to set goals and reach their potential
• An ability to work effectively with partners and other key people to provide young people with
• excellent care and support
• Adopt a ‘whatever it takes’ and rights based approach
• Work in a psychologically and trauma informed manner

The Young Women’s Movement is Scotland's national organisation for young women and girls' leadership and rights.

Young women are at the heart of everything we do and we work collectively to equip with them the resources, networks and platforms to lead meaningful change and create a more equal society.

We exist because we want young women and girls’ needs and rights to be met. We believe in a society where everyone has the opportunity to live their lives to their fullest and we will continue to strive until that society is secured.

To help us achieve this, the Learning & Engagement Worker role has been created to:

• Extend our reach to even more young women and girls through a range of engaging youth work programmes that build skills and create change
• Support the delivery of our programmes and training for both young women participants and our volunteers
• Create safe spaces for young women to engage and learn, encouraging supportive and meaningful relationships to develop

Everyone who works at Young Women’s Movement:

• Has equality at the heart of everything they do
• Takes a participatory approach to our work. We are for young women and by young women
• Builds communities of friendship and support networks, finding joy in our collective actions and connections
• Understands the impact of challenging inequality on those most affected by it. We lead with kindness and empathy, putting collective wellbeing at the core of our organisation
• Delivers our work with integrity and are proud of the work we do
• Are bold and brave. We do not shy away from challenging the status quo and taking radical steps to make gender equality a reality in Scotland

How you'll help to create a fairer Scotland for young women and girls:

• Deliver our Learning and Engagement programmes e.g. Empowering Pathways using a youth work approach to reach more young women and girls and support their participation in the movement
• Support the development, session planning and delivery of new youth work initiatives and activities that support young women & girls
• Support the Learning & Engagement Coordinator to reach and engage young women and girls in our spaces and services
• Work with young women and girls on our programmes and signpost them to opportunities for their continued engagement both within our movement and in communities/wider society
• Assist the Learning & Engagement Coordinator with support to our volunteers
• Undertake administrative tasks to support the planning, onboarding, preparation, delivery and evaluation of our Learning & Engagement programmes
• Gather Learning & Engagement content to share with our Comms Team e.g. photographs, stories, videos etc.
• Create safe, sustainable spaces with and for young women
• Commit to an intersectional feminist approach and break down the barriers to young women’s participation, ensuring our spaces and programmes are accessible and inclusive to all
• Comply with the YWM’s procedures and practice including Health and Safety, Safeguarding and Data Protection
• Work collaboratively across the organisation, and where appropriate support colleagues in other teams
• Undertake any other duties that may arise

Let’s talk about you - you will already have or be working towards:

Essential

• Experience working with young people
• Knowledge and commitment to an intersectional feminist way of working
• Commitment to delivering high quality and meaningful experiences for young women on our programmes and our volunteers
• Passionate about enabling change for young women and girls through a range of learning interventions and programmes
• Strong time management and organisational skills
• An engaging and warm facilitation approach to build confidence and opportunities for young women that have the potential to create positive change, locally and nationally
• Willingness to work flexibly and travel across Scotland when necessary - our delivery is often in the evenings or weekends. Currently most of our programmes are delivered in Glasgow and the surrounding areas
• Commitment to own continuing professional development
• A flexible and adaptable approach

Desirable

• Experience and knowledge of youth work principles and approaches
• Experience of youth participation / delivering programmes that are co-designed with and for young women
• Ability to evaluate projects meaningfully and effectively for maximum impact.
• IT skills and experience of using Microsoft Teams, Word, PowerPoint & Excel, and Canva
• Experience of using social media platforms for awareness raising and system-changing campaigns
• A full, clean driving license and access to a vehicle

Why you should want to work with us!

• We operate a 4-day working week, which means full-time is 28 hours
• We offer flexible working options and patterns, including the option to work hybrid from anywhere in Scotland (our co-working space is in Edinburgh)
• Our annual leave entitlement is 28 days a year, including public holidays
• We provide 1 additional day of annual leave for your birthday (or to take another time that you would like to celebrate)
• All staff members are enrolled in our Employer Life Assurance Scheme
• You can access a range of benefits and discounts through our life assurance app
• We are committed to supporting staff development through training and coaching opportunities
• Wellbeing and mental health support are a priority, all of our staff can access counselling through our EAP provider.
• We have a number of feminist policies to support our staff
• You’ll be joining an intergenerational team that will embrace your ideas and support and encourage you to bring your whole self to work

Due to the nature of our work with children and young people, successful applicants will be required to undergo a disclosure check through the PVG Scheme.

Don't meet every single requirement?

Studies show that women and Black, Asian & Minority Ethnic people are less likely to apply for a job unless they meet every qualification. So, if you're excited about this role but your experience doesn't align perfectly with the job description, we'd love you to apply anyway. You might just be the perfect person for this role, or another role within The Young Women’s Movement family.

Reporting to: Learning & Engagement Lead

Location: Hybrid – Our co-working space is in Edinburgh with delivery taking place across Scotland, specifically Glasgow and the surrounding areas.

Do you enjoy working with people?

Do you have excellent communication and presentation skills, and experience working with young people?

We are looking for an enthusiastic Project Officer to join Fast Forward’s Going Forward Programme Team. This role will have a focus on formal and informal education settings, and youth participation.

Fast Forward is Scotland’s national youth work agency, focusing on supporting children & young people to make informed choices regarding, and take a harm reduction approach to, risk-taking behaviours, towards reducing the negative impacts of these on their lives and those of their families and wider community.

We promote health through programmes and resources developed by, with and for young people.

Our work is underpinned by the following values:

• Integrity - Our work is dynamic and informed by expertise, lived experience and relevant research
• Forward Thinking - We are brave and bold. We are creative in our approach to identifying and responding to risk taking behaviour.
• Inclusive - We take a person centred approach. We are non-judgemental and
• respectful.
• Collaborative - We coproduce, partner and learn with young people and experts
• from across the field

Going Forward Project Background

Since May 2017, the Going Forward Project has worked with partner organisations to deliver workshop sessions to vulnerable and at-risk young people in formal and informal education settings.

Our sessions focus on core themes of health, wellbeing and risk-taking behaviours, particularly:

• substance misuse (alcohol, drugs, tobacco, e-cigarettes/vaping)
• sexual health and relationships
• online safety
• drink spiking
• consent
• self-esteem and resilience
• gambling harms

Youth Participation

In line with United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), Fast Foward is committed to developing our children and young people's participation work. We want children and young people's experiences, opinions and suggestions to shape all aspects of our work.

This role will play a key part in supporting this development, embedding a child rights approach to our work. This will include developing our children and young people's Shadow Board.