Project Esperanza is a Scottish charity that is committed to supporting multi-ethnic communities, particularly migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees, in overcoming barriers to social integration. Our beneficiaries are impacted by national issues such as poverty, but also by chronic health, caring responsibilities, language barriers, no access to employment, education, adequate housing and transport- all of these issues which then impact on overall health and wellbeing.

About the role:

Are you passionate about empowering women through trauma-informed care? We’re looking for a qualified counsellor to provide one on one emotional support and co-facilitate monthly therapeutic group sessions, including art therapy and therapeutic gardening. This unique role combines traditional counselling with creative and nature-based approaches to help women heal, build resilience and become advocates for change.

Project Esperanza is a womanist initiative based in North Edinburgh that offers practical, emotional and integration support predominantly to families of African heritage but also supports a huge base of people from multi ethnic backgrounds. We are the pioneers of race and faith sensitive, culturally authentic and appropriate, trauma-informed, stigma-free specialised support and services that address social isolation, migration trauma and racial trauma.

The FGM Steering Committee is a strategic advisory body established to guide, inform, and oversee the delivery and development of Project Esperanza’s Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) awareness, prevention, and support programme. The Committee is accountable to the Board of Trustees and plays a critical role in ensuring that our programme and service is culturally competent, trauma-informed, and impactful.

Edinburgh Family Support Partnership's Umbrella Hubs is a transformational new collaboration between City of Edinburgh Children's Services, Barnardo's Scotland, Children 1st, Citadel, Safe Families and Edinburgh Community Food. Our aim is to radically transform how Edinburgh Children's Services and partners deliver services to families within the city of Edinburgh whilst simultaneously improving a family's journey through the current complex landscape of accessing family support.

Our multi-disciplinary teams will be community based, in each of the 4 locality areas across the city of Edinburgh. As well as connecting families with holistic responsive and flexible support the multi-disciplinary teams will empower families to ‘reach in' themselves and be supported along their journey through a relational and strengths-based approach.

Our aim of providing early intervention that empowers families to take control encourages an integrated approach, leads to tailored plans and provides the right support when it is needed and diverts children and families from escalating into statutory processes. Families are at the heart of our approach and restorative family led decision making drives our support in partnership with families, their networks, communities and enables them to address challenges before they become a crisis.

If you are passionate about supporting and empowering families when the support is needed, then this is a great opportunity to be part of an innovative project and influence how family support is delivered in Edinburgh.

Please note due to the high volume of applications for some posts, this advert might close before the displayed closing date. We recommend that you apply for this role as soon as possible.

Pay & Reward Framework

We know that our colleagues go above and beyond in delivering our vital work, driven by their passion and commitment to Barnardo's values. We also know that we can only realise our ambitions and achieve better outcomes for more children, thanks to the talent, hard work and creativity of our people.

For all these reasons, we are committed to a new approach to pay and reward, to ensure it is fair, attractive and progressive, which was rolled out in April 2023. This is a positive change for the charity, and a part of our People & Culture Strategy. It will assist us in supporting colleagues to belong, thrive and grow in their colleague journey at Barnardo's and in time will offer clear routes of progression for colleagues in both their career and their pay.

Whilst the full pay band and salary range is advertised, our approach to starting salaries is to appoint between the minimum to mid-point of the pay band – this ensures that pay steps are available to reward our colleagues annually based on their contribution to excellence and alignment to our values and behaviours. More details on Barnardo's pay framework can be found upon application.

Benefits

Workplace Offer: What it means for you

The world of work has changed. We are understanding of what works best for our colleagues both current and future as we look to embrace this new way of working. Our hybrid working initiative is based on trust, flexibility and empowerment. We understand our workplace offer means different things to different people, and we encourage those conversations. This may mean working at one of our stores, services, working at home, at one of our Collaboration Hubs or any combination of these.

• Barnardo's believe in creating equality of opportunity in the workplace and supporting people to manage their work-life balance; we are therefore open to offering flexible working arrangements.
• Annual Leave entitlement for full-time colleagues is 26 days per annum, increasing to 27 days per annum, after 3 years Barnardo's service, 29 days per annum, after 5 years Barnardo's service and 30 days per annum, after 7 years Barnardo's service. Those working less than full time are entitled to the same level of holiday pro rata
• The ability to buy up to another 5 days annual leave via our HolidayPlus scheme
• A host of family friendly leave options including company Maternity Paternity and Adoption pay; together with all family additional leave options
• Service related sick pay from day 1
• Access to a Group Personal Pension with a matched 4% or 6% contribution from Barnardo's. Ability to pay via salary sacrifice to garner both tax and NI savings on your own contribution
• Death in service cover of 4x annual earnings for all staff contributing to our Group Personal Pension
• Cycle2work scheme
• Interest free season ticket loans
• Discounts and cashback from at high street shops including major supermarkets, cinemas, gyms, leisure/theme parks, holidays and much more via our Benefit Portal
• 20% discount at Barnardo's stores
• Opportunity to purchase a health cash plan to claim towards dental, glasses, therapy etc
• Free access to round the clock employee assistance program for advice and support
• Access to Barnardo's Learning and Development offer

*T&C's apply based on contract

About Barnardo's

We are committed to being an inclusive employer and cultivating a culture where everyone can belong and thrive through inclusion and connectivity. We want our workforce to be reflective of the communities we work with, and for equality, diversity and inclusion to be embedded in everything we do. We are a Disability Confident Leader, are progressing our ambition to be an anti-racist organisation with Anti-Racism Commitments and actions in place and have networks for colleagues who are disabled, LGBT+, Black and Minoritised Ethnic and Women. We particularly encourage applications from Black and Minoritised Ethnic and/or disabled candidates who are currently underrepresented in our workforce. For disabled applicants, we offer reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process.

Our basis and values