Are you passionate about human rights, social justice and amplifying the voices of people who are often unheard? Do you bring energy, creativity, and a commitment to empowering communities? If so, we want to hear from you!

We’re looking for a Collective Advocacy Worker to help build and support dynamic, inclusive groups where people with lived experience can come together, speak up, and influence change in services and society.

You’ll help shape collective advocacy opportunities that reflect people’s needs, build confidence and connection, and champion the right to be heard.

What You'll Do:

• Develop and support collective advocacy groups across East Dunbartonshire
• Build relationships with individuals and partner organisations
• Facilitate safe, inclusive group spaces for discussion and action
• Support people to identify shared issues and take collective action

What We’re Looking For:

• A vibrant, compassionate, and imaginative individual
• Excellent communication and facilitation skills
• Experience of community development, group work, or advocacy
• Understanding of equalities, rights-based work, and inclusive practice
• A commitment to working alongside people to create meaningful change

We are a Disability Confident employer.

Partners in Advocacy has established itself as one of Scotland's leading providers of independent advocacy, delivering exceptional advocacy services since 1998.

We are recruiting for our Children's Hearings advocacy team for an Independent Advocate for Dundee (14 hours). You will be joining a busy team supporting children and young people going through the Children's Hearings System. Please note, applicants for this role must be based in Dundee.

Through this role, you will ensure that young people's voices and wishes are heard, enabling them to make informed choices, protect their rights and have a meaningful impact on decisions that affect their lives.

We strongly encourage individuals from diverse backgrounds to apply. If you believe your skills, experience, and expertise align with the criteria outlined in the person specification, we would be delighted to hear from you. Please complete the application form, ensuring that you provide examples of how your knowledge and experience fulfil each aspect of the person specification.

Partners in Advocacy takes pride in being a Disability Confident Employer, fully committed to creating an inclusive and accessible work environment.

We understand that many will have other commitments outside of work and so flexible working, part-time hours or job-sharing arrangements will be considered for the right candidate.

Please note; GCA has a high percentage of female participants and due to the nature of the referrals we receive there is a genuine occupational requirement to ensure that we recruit a female Employment Advisor. This would be a claim from GCA as an exception under the Equality Act 2010.

About Us:

Glasgow Council on Alcohol (GCA) was founded in 1965 and is the oldest established Council on Alcohol in Scotland. GCA is a voluntary organisation working to reduce the harm caused by alcohol misuse through the provision of a range of high quality advice, information, counselling, support, prevention and education and training services.

Our mission is to provide evidence-based support to individuals, communities and government to improve health and wellbeing across Scotland.

The foundation of GCA is our supportive and inclusive culture for all who engage and work with us.

GCA deliver services over 6 days per week and throughout Glasgow, East Dunbartonshire and East Renfrewshire.

About the Role:

Elevate is one service with two routes to employability: Elevate Glasgow PSP and the Recovery Employability Service. This role is based within the Recovery Employability Service. The Recovery Employability Service is part of the Elevate Employability project within Glasgow Council on Alcohol and the Employment Advisor will prepare participants for further training, education or work and support them through the job search, application and interview process; providing them with skills, motivation, and confidence to move into suitable sustainable employment.

Elevate Employability is a service which aims to support people in recovery from drug and/or alcohol use into volunteering, training, education and/or employment. We are delighted that we are now able to extend the service to include aftercare provision for those in work to include those affected by poor mental health or have experience of homelessness or the criminal justice service as well as those in recovery.

The Employment Advisor will make a real impact to individuals’ day to day lives as they uniquely tailor their personal development, offer emotional and practical support and set realistic goals as part of their journey to employability opportunities.

Key Responsibilities:

• Deliver performance targets for supporting people who are in recovery to sustain their employment
• Use the Elevate-Glasgow team and wider partner agencies as a support network to develop a comprehensive support plan for each individual
• Provide personalised support assisting participants who are in recovery to find and sustain in work and provide information as well as advice and guidance on the job search, application, and interview process
• Provide support through a variety of activities including regular telephone contact, face to face meetings, virtual mediums, mentoring, job coaching and group activity.
• Assist participants in their search for employment which match participants’ skills, experience and aspirations and in looking for opportunities to work towards longer term goals, such as supporting participants into training and/or education opportunities
• Deliver Job Clubs and employability training sessions
• Formulate action plans to assist participants to remove barriers to achieve their employment goals
• Providing quality support services to participants through effective planning, monitoring, evaluation and review of their requirements in partnership with them
• Meet contractual compliance
• Promote the unique, person centred ethos of Elevate Employability
• Prioritise workload to ensure a high quality, person-centred service to all participants
• Adhere to the implementation of risk management procedures (including child and adult safeguarding protocols) taking personal responsibility for keeping up to date on the requirements of these procedures
• Understand health and safety responsibilities
• Undertake any other duties as required by the Service Manager – Employability

Qualifications and Experience :

• Clean current UK Driving License and access to own car is desirable
• A qualification in Advice and Guidance or equivalent qualification is preferrable
• Proven experience of working in the employability or voluntary sector
• Proven experience of interacting with individuals in a recovery or criminal justice or mental health or homelessness settings
• Proven ability to manage and support a caseload of clients to achieve targets for employment progression and track record of supporting people into find sustainable employment
• Proven experience in understanding the local labour market and knowledge and understanding of the issues faced by those in recovery in the job market
• Proven experience of supporting people to do CVs, application forms, job search, interview preparation, mock interviews and telephone interviews
• Proven experience of delivering employability training to groups and delivering Job Clubs
• Experience of using digital technology effectively essential with knowledge of I.T/ Computer Skills, Microsoft Offic, and Zoom/Teams

Skills and Competencies:

• Be friendly, compassionate and naturally able to build relationships with individuals
• Excellent interpersonal and written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to engage with participants and build good relationships
• Planning, organisation, and co-ordination skills
• Team working and networking skills
• Time management skills
• Ability to work on own initiative and remotely from line management
• Commitment to working in line with GCA’s values of collaboration, respect, and empathy

Why Join Us?

• Your work will contribute to make a real difference to people’s lives.
• Competitive salary and benefits package :
  • Very generous annual leave entitlement: full time employees start with an annual leave entitlement of 37 days (inclusive of 8 bank holidays) which increases with length of service.
  • Duvet days where employees may take time off at short notice.
  • Death in service policy.
  • Cycle to work scheme where employees can save money on a new bike and spread the cost.
  • And much more!
• Opportunities for continuous learning and career development.
• A supportive and inclusive work environment where your contributions are valued.

sparqs is a charity funded by the Scottish Funding Council to work with Scotland's university and college sectors. Our mission is to foster a culture of partnership between students and staff which enables the Scottish education sector to respond to challenges and realise its ambitions to provide the best possible experience for each and every student.

We are seeking an enthusiastic and dedicated person to deliver a range of activities including training, consultancy support and research and development projects. Some of our current projects include supporting the development of student partnership within a new tertiary quality enhancement framework, supporting equality, diversity, and inclusion in learning and teaching, and supporting effective learner journeys. We would welcome applicants with experience (or similar) in these areas. The role involves regular travel throughout Scotland and may also involve occasional international travel.

You will have a commitment to supporting the role of students in delivering improvements to college and university life and a good range of key skills including excellent interpersonal skills, written communication skills and experience of delivering training or facilitating workshops.

sparqs recognises the positive value of diversity, promotes equality, and challenges discrimination. We welcome and encourage job applications from people of all backgrounds and with diverse kinds of life experiences.