Wigtown Festival Company is looking to appoint a Young People’s Engagement Officer to develop and run our year-round programmes with 15-25-year-olds. This is an exciting opportunity to help shape a fresh way of working with our target group of 15-to-25-year-olds at Wigtown Book Festival and around the year.

We are seeking a dynamic and imaginative individual who is experienced in enabling young people (YP) to develop cultural skills and explore their interests in a secure and supportive environment. The ideal candidate will be passionate about widening cultural access and overcoming barriers to participation.

Working within a small programming team and reporting to the Creative Director, they will be responsible for initiating, delivering and evaluating projects, and delivering against the aims of the Festival Company’s Young People’s Engagement Plan. An ability to self-organise and juggle multiple projects in a busy workplace is essential.

The Young People’s Engagement Post is kindly supported by The Holywood Trust.

Salary and Terms

The position is full-time / 35 hours a week. The salary is in the range of £26,000-£30,000 depending on experience, with an initial contract for two years.

WFC is a Fair Work and Real Living Wage employer and is open to flexible working from day one.

Key Responsibilities

• Working closely in partnership with a wide range of young people to programme activities (including at Wigtown Book Festival) and develop new projects according to need.
• Creating new and lasting working relationships with other YP organisations in the region and beyond.
• Building and nurturing a new young people’s advisory team.
• Developing and implementing the young people’s engagement plan and evaluation framework.
• Monitoring, evaluating and reporting on the impact of our activities with YP.
• Sourcing funding for YP projects and managing funder relationships.
• Overseeing social media and marketing for our young people’s activities.
• Occasional weekend and evening working (eg during Wigtown Book Festival) with time off in lieu.

Essential Experience and Attributes

• A proven ability to work with and engage with young people collaboratively and respectfully.
• A proven ability to build relationships with partner organisations in the cultural and third sectors.
• An understanding of monitoring and evaluating young people’s activities.
• An understanding and respect for the principles of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.
• An understanding of the essential importance of safeguarding; PGV certificated.
• Interest in / experience of the cultural sector.
• Excellent personal, communication and teamwork skills.

Other Desirable Experience and Attributes

• Experience in budget management.
• A knowledge of Dumfries & Galloway.
• A knowledge and passion for literature.
• Familiarity with social media and marketing.

We are looking for a dedicated and motivated individuals to join our team. Y sort it Young Carers Service supports young carers/ young adult carers aged between 8-18 years across West Dunbartonshire.

This exciting post offers a unique opportunity to work with Young Carers within school, home & community based settings. The role of the Young Carer Support Worker will be to support young carers in making informed choices around issues that are important to them, through one to one, group work sessions & respite.

You will be offering and completing Young Carers Statements (Assessments), developing support plans, providing advice and information, training, and peer support to help young carers with their caring role.

Young carers are supported through a range of measures to alleviate the caring role and your role will be to work closely with schools, partner agencies and family members to ensure they are able to be a young person first and foremost.

You will be active at providing support and encouragement, helping them to overcome challenges and /or barriers working towards goals to improve their learning, skills and personal development. Offering guidance, rights based information, creating learning opportunities. You will be developing support plans, providing advice and information, training and peer support. Your role will be to work closely with schools, partner agencies and family members.

The post holder should be flexible as the actual times of work will involve working, evenings, school holidays and weekends. The post holder should be flexible as the actual times of

work may change to respond to the demands of the work of the Young Carers Service including overnight stays for respite.

You will be directly managed by Y sort it Young Carer Manager.

About Volunteering Matters

We are looking for a talented, dynamic, and compassionate Youth Engagement Manager to join our team in Edinburgh. The right candidate would be someone who can work flexibly and demonstrate an understanding and total commitment to our organisational values.

This role will be working in partnership with St Thomas of Aquins R.C High School, we have been delivering Brighter Futures here for two years and have funding till June 2025.

At Volunteering Matters we use volunteering’s unique power to bring people together and build stronger, more resilient communities across the UK.

We bring people together to resolve some of society’s most complex issues. From social isolation and loneliness; improving health and wellbeing; building skills, confidence, and opportunity; to ensuring young people can become change makers in their community, the impact that we make is great. And we won’t stop until everyone in the UK has the opportunity to thrive.

People-led and impact driven, we are a national charity that is deeply embedded in local areas across the UK. We operate in five regions: London and the South East; Wales and the West of England; East of England; the Midlands and North West England; and Scotland and North East England. We also have an Employee Volunteering Team with over 25 years’ experience, acting as a broker to provide tailor-made solutions to employers. We turn local knowledge and energy into action and progress, building stronger communities and a better future for all.

This is an exciting time to be joining the team. We’re changing the way we work to meet new ambitions and make sure our impact continues to grow alongside out business.

About the role

Project Scotland, part of the national charity Volunteering Matters, supports young people to get on in life through the power of volunteering. Brighter futures work with pupils (aged 13-16), we offer disadvantaged pupils struggling to engage with the regular school curriculum the opportunity to undertake a volunteering placement as well as the option of having a mentor. We support and empower pupils to gain skills and confidence in a new environment within the wider community, promoting a sense of belonging, whilst extending horizons and aspirations.

We are looking for a talented, dynamic, and compassionate Youth Engagement Manager to join our team in Edinburgh. The right candidate would be someone who can work flexibly and demonstrate an understanding and total commitment to our organisational values.

This role will be working in partnership with St Thomas of Aquins R.C High School, we have been delivering Brighter Futures here for two years and have funding till June 2025.

Key Duties & Responsibilities

• To build relationships with secondary school pupils, particularly those on flexible timetables, who have complex and challenging barriers, acting in a non-judgemental way to support them through their Brighter Futures journey
• Consistently role modelling and displaying Volunteering Matters organisational values
• Deliver and develop the Brighter Futures Schools programme within in St Thomas of Aquins R.C High School, meeting ambitious targets and milestones, ensuring all young people engaged achieve positive outcome.
• Provide pre and post volunteering practical and emotional support to each pupil, helping to build their confidence and identify achievable goals as well support the pupil to complete awards and qualifications linked to their volunteering.
• Engaging with current charity partners, not for profit organisations and social enterprises and developing new ones in line with our Best Practice for under 16’s volunteering.
• Develop diverse, high quality and bespoke volunteer placements with third sector partners that reflect the needs and interests of pupils.
• 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 a young person’s experience, from referral to completion of their journey, including managing the match with their mentor.
• To manage the risk assessment, safeguarding, quality assurance and audit processes as appropriate
• Ensure monitoring, impact and evaluation information is collected and that Brighter Futures meets it’s agreed targets, reporting format and schedule.
• Administration tasks including maintaining effective and accessible records, the use of Microsoft Office, Teams, Zoom and other software such as Canva (use to develop relevant promotional material and information)

Our Values & Way of Working:

In all that we do, we embrace a philosophy of ‘Freedom within a Framework’ and are guided by our values: Empowering, Inclusive, Compassionate, Positive & Straightforward.

Benefits

Our employee benefits reflect our culture which is built on an approach of full flexibility with accountability, and designed to let you make your most positive contribution; we offer Flexible Working by Default (re hours & place of work), Unlimited Annual Leave, Employee Pension scheme, Life Assurance, Cycle to Work Scheme, Season Ticket Loan, Employee Assistance Programme, enhanced sick and family leave. We are also open to discuss job share applications.

An exciting opportunity has arisen to join the Access to Industry’s Young Peoples Service. You will work in a trauma informed way supporting young people aged 16-21, with complex health and social care issues, to progress towards education, training or employment. You will be part of a small team working one-to-one with young people as well as developing and delivering structured group work.

Key Responsibility areas will include:

Service Delivery:This role will focus on the intensive case management of young people from the City of Edinburgh who have mental health issues which may be a result of adverse childhood experiences. Their challenges to progress may be compounded by emerging issues with substances; offending behaviour; family support; and/or accommodation. You will work in outreach, to engage with Edinburgh’s young people including i.e., schools, Through-Care After-Care, young person’s substance misuse practitioners and HMP YOI Polmont (linking with AI’s Passport CashBack project).

Caseworker support:You will work one to one with young people, assessing their needs, devise action plans and work holistically. Support will be flexible, from employability to welfare advice.

You will work to progress clients into training programmes, employment, and education.

Over time you will develop small-group work programmes that meet the needs of young people you support.

Targets: The project has annual targets and outcomes that you will work towards achieving and achieving evidence of for funders. This is monitored monthly through team meetings and within support and supervision.

Partnership: Pivotal to your role, you will be working with other services and agencies to build positive networks for young people and referral sources into the service.

Administration: You will administer all aspects of the project from referrals, training, progression routes and employer engagement.

AI Team: You will play a part in the wider team of AI through attendance at internal meetings and participation in shared services across the teams.

Quality Assurance & Management Systems: You will maintain excellent records and will maintain case management through use of the Management Information Systems, Helix.

Health & Safety and Property Management: You will ensure a healthy and safe environment, and the protection and best use of property and equipment, by implementing and observing AI policies and procedures. You will ensure that all work opportunities are carried out in accordance with Health and Safety legislation and good practice.

Communications: You will be an effective communicator as you will be working with external agencies, specialist providers and employers and attending meetings on AI’s behalf. You will contribute to internal reporting procedures both written and verbally. You will market the project externally. You will ensure client and organisation confidentiality at all times.

Other Requirements:The post holder will be expected to manage their own caseload and work with minimum supervision partly in an outreach capacity.