Western Isles Rape Crisis Centre is seeking an Advocacy & Support Worker to join our team and provide specialist advocacy and support to survivors of sexual violence who are engaging with, or considering engaging with, the criminal justice system.

The role includes providing emotional and practical support, working collaboratively with partner agencies, and contributing to the development of advocacy services across the Western Isles in a compassionate, survivor-centred, and community-based way.

We are looking for someone with relevant support or advocacy experience, strong communication skills, and a clear commitment to survivor-centred, anti-discriminatory practice.

We offer family-friendly policies and are committed to supporting staff wellbeing, creating a workplace where people feel valued and supported.

Job Purpose: The role of the Duty/Crisis Service Support Worker is to provide a confidential, safe and supportive information service to women and agencies who contact EWA through the crisis phone line and/or ‘drop in’ service. Where safety issues are assessed, the worker will ensure the completion of the Risk Identification checklist and an individualised support and safety plan. Where appropriate the worker will assess women, and any accompanying children who are affected by domestic abuse, for refuge accommodation. This role is based at EWA offices at 4 Cheyne Street, Edinburgh, EH4 1JB.

This role is subject to satisfactory Adult and Child PVG scheme membership.

About Us

Zero Tolerance is a Scottish charity working to end men’s violence against women by promoting gender equality and challenging attitudes which normalise violence and abuse. We are a values-led organisation and seek to improve the way we integrate feminism, equality, and diversity into our work. We ensure our HR policies and practices reflect our values (including enhanced parental leave, miscarriage and menopause policies and flexible working), and our salary framework is fair and competitive. We are committed to staff learning and development and have a paid reading week for all staff.

Zero Tolerance has a commitment to diversity and challenging all forms of inequality alongside gender inequality. We are open to as many different voices as there are experiences, and to all genders, and particularly welcome applications from Minority Ethnic, LGBT+, disabled, migrant, and other backgrounds currently underrepresented within the women’s sector.

We achieve change in the following ways:

1. Raise public and political awareness of the root cause of VAWG (gender inequality) and call for action.
2. Challenge and support key institutions to embed primary prevention of VAWG in their work.
3. Advance and share the evidence base on preventing VAWG.

What you’ll do

This role leads Zero Tolerance’s engagement work to increase public understanding of men’s violence against women and girls, while building support for the social and cultural changes needed to prevent it.

You will develop and deliver engagement activity that connects with a wide range of audiences across Scotland, building strong relationships with stakeholders, partners and supporters to advance Zero Tolerance’s aims. This will include designing engagement strategies and resources, organising events, supporting behaviour change activity and helping to amplify prevention-focused messages through creative and accessible approaches.

Working collaboratively across the organisation, you will contribute to influencing work, communications activity and project development, helping ensure our engagement work reflects feminist, intersectional and prevention-focused approaches.

What we need

The successful candidate will have experience in an engagement, influencing or partnership-based role, in a paid or voluntary capacity, alongside a strong understanding of violence against women and gender equality.

You’ll be a skilled communicator and relationship builder, confident engaging with a range of audiences from grassroots organisations and community groups through to senior stakeholders and decision makers.

You will also have:

• Experience developing, delivering and evaluating projects or engagement activity
• Experience building and maintaining effective stakeholder relationships and networks
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to communicate complex ideas clearly and accessibly
• Strong organisational skills with the ability to manage competing priorities and work flexibly
• Creative thinking and an understanding of how engagement approaches can support social change
• A self-motivated, collaborative and values-led approach, with willingness to adapt to the needs of a small charity

What do we offer?

• Competitive salary with annual pay progression. We operate a grading structure based on five salary grades. New employees start at point 1 of each salary grade and receive annual increments until the top of the grade is reached. This role is Grade 3 (£34,543 – £38,129).
• Staff pension scheme (6% employers’ contribution).
• 28 days annual leave plus 10 public holidays and a flexible working hours policy.
• We actively encourage continuous professional development for all our employees and have implemented a paid reading week and continuous training opportunities for individual learning and whole team development.

Shakti is a feminist Black Minority Ethnic (BME) voluntary organisation which offers information, advocacy, emotional/practical support and refuge/temporary accommodation to all Black Minority Ethnic women and their children, who are experiencing or fleeing domestic abuse. These positions offer an opportunity to make a meaningful difference by providing guidance, advocacy, and resource coordination. The ideal applicant will possess strong organisational skills, leadership qualities, and experience in social services or related fields. A background in public health, teaching, or administrative roles is highly desirable. These roles involve managing case files, developing support plans, and collaborating with various stakeholders to ensure clients receive comprehensive care.

The post holder will support BME women, their children and young people experiencing and/or fleeing domestic abuse or forced marriage. Applicants will ideally have a minimum of 2 years’ experience of working with BME Communities and hold a minimum of SVQ Level III (SCQF Level 6 or above) in Social Care or relevant qualification such as degree in Social Work or Community Education and be speakers of a BME community language; preferably Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Bengali, Arabic or African or East Asian languages . Applicants must have sound knowledge and understanding of equalities issues and the issues affecting BME women, children, and young people, understanding of the legislative and cultural issues surrounding BME specific Gender-Based violence, domestic abuse, honour-based abuse such as forced marriage and female genital mutilation, and their effects on BME women, their children, and young people.