Volunteering Matters

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.

Role Purpose

ProjectScotland, part of the national charity Volunteering Matters, supports young people to get on in life through the power of volunteering. We are looking to recruit a dynamic and professional Community Development Worker to join our team in West Lothian. We are looking for a creative, self-starter. The right candidate would be someone who can work flexibly, and can demonstrate an understanding of, and commitment, to our organisational values. Our ideal candidate is someone with experience of consulting with young people, engaging them in various ways and using their feedback to change the way services are designed and delivered. We are open to recruiting someone to this role based on a secondment arrangement, if of interest.

Programme Overview

ProjectScotland have secured a small amount of funding to complete a short-term project in West Lothian, involving various external partners and local young people (aged 16-30).

Feedback from Employability Services in West Lothian is that young people are increasingly presenting themselves with poor mental health, and these services are not necessarily designed or equipped to effectively respond to that need. Waiting lists for mental health support are long, and young people often need to engage with multiple agencies to receive appropriate support that works for them.

In this role, you will:

• Attract local young people to take part in this short-term research and social action programme.
• Engage with those young people – by listening, consulting, understanding their experience of accessing local employability services, the extent to which these services have supported their mental health needs, identify new ideas, solutions and recommendations for change.
• Create a final report, presentation, or toolkit which presents the findings, with recommendations for the future.
• Work alongside our partners, SAMH, who will be delivering a range of mental health training for West Lothian organisations. Support SAMH by understanding what training organisations would find helpful and supporting the coordination of these sessions.
• Engage with a range of partners, networks and forums across West Lothian including the Local Employability Partnership, Third Sector Employability Forum, West Lothian Gateway and others.
• Contribute to the development of an evaluation for the work, to articulate its value locally and nationally with a view to supporting its further roll out

Key Duties & Responsibilities

• Consistently role model and display our organisational values.
• Successfully attract and engage young people, ensuring they can easily participate in this research and social action programme irrespective of background.
• Develop strong relationships with young people, ensuring they are supported, valued, and listened to. Find creative ways to engage with young people to get their feedback and views.
• Develop strong relationships with partner organisations in West Lothian to identify young people who could take part in this programme, and to understand each organisations training needs and requirements.
• To manage the risk assessment, quality assurance and audit processes as appropriate
• Ensure monitoring, impact and evaluation information and data is collected and that the project meets its agreed targets, reporting format and schedule.
• Effective use of IT including Office 365, Microsoft Teams, Zoom and social media. This includes creating engaging publicity content that can be promoted across our website and social media.
• To ensure all the above is done with excellent record keeping, in accordance with compliance requirements. This includes the use of Salesforce CRM system (training will be given).

Skills Required

• A confident self-started, someone who is creative and can use their own initiative.
• Excellent knowledge and understanding of the life challenges and barriers that young people face today in Scotland – ideally trauma-informed in your 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 and IT skills including the ability to manage workload and prioritise effectively, the use of Microsoft Office, Microsoft Teams and Zoom.
• A creative approach to problem solving, with strong attention to detail.
• Skills around creating content for social media.
• Creating, coordinating, and supporting reporting channels around contract compliance and impact measurement.
• Commitment to, and knowledge of managing inclusive practice and a commitment to equality and diversity.

Experience Required

• Experience working directly with young people, particularly those who face challenges and barriers achieving employability or other goals.
• Experience working with a wide range of stakeholders, proven ability to communicate effectively and work as part of a team.
• Experience of project coordination/management, achieving high targets, managing a busy workload, and working to strict deadlines.
• Understanding of and full commitment to Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion.
• Day to Day Working

Part of your working week will be based within West Lothian communities, meeting young people, partner organisations and other stakeholders. For the remainder of the time, you can work from home (must be relatively local to West Lothian due to the need to travel for part of the week).

Good internet access and a suitable home working environment is required. All I.T. equipment, mobile phone and infrastructure will be supplied.

Protection of Vulnerable Groups (PVG) scheme

This role requires membership of the PVG (Protection of Vulnerable Groups) scheme. We will support

you to become a PVG member if you are not already. Having a conviction will not necessarily cause a bar to employment.

Qualifications & Experience

Relevant experience and values alignment is more important for this role than specific qualifications. The role does require someone with experience of working with or supporting children and families with a focus on ethnically diverse communities. Speaking/understanding additional languages to English is also desirable.

This role requires an enhanced DBS check which will be undertaken with the successful candidate before starting.

Location

With a flexible working policy, the postholder will be based from home. The postholder will need internet access to enable remote working. I.T. equipment and infrastructure will be supplied. There is an expectation to travel across Hounslow in the role.

To find out more and apply please visit our website

Closing date: 2nd June 2023

Interview date and Location: TBC, online