We are looking for someone who is analytical, organised and proactive, with excellent attention to detail. Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, with a commitment to collaboration and continuous learning.

We are looking for a Project Research officer to support the work of Fast Forward and its Scottish Gambling Education Hub (SGEH) by working collaboratively with academic and research partners, bringing together existing evidence, andidentifying emerging trends to inform the Hub's work.

The postholder will coordinate monitoring and evaluation processes, gather and analyse evidence from SGEH activities, and support the dissemination of research, policy developments and emerging evidence relating to gambling harms, young people's health and wellbeing, and harm reduction.

Organisation profile

Fast Forward is Scotland’s national youth work agency, it is a force for change supporting children and young people to make informed decisions about risk taking behaviours. We take a harm reduction approach to reduce the negative impacts of these behaviours on their lives and those of their families and wider community.

The team’s work is dynamic, challenging and rewarding in developing innovative programmes to address risk-taking behaviours that often goes unrecognised. You will find creative ways to engage with partners, adapting and creating resources to enable them to better deliver meaningful harm reduction and prevention education around harmful gambling and gambling harm.

Our work is underpinned by the following values:

Integrity- Our work is dynamic and informed by expertise, lived experience and relevant research

Forward Thinking- We are brave and bold. We are creative in our approach to identifying and responding to risk taking behaviour.

Inclusive- We take a person-centred approach. We are non-judgemental and respectful.

Collaborative- We coproduce, partner and learn with young people and experts from across the field.

As a result of recent funding from the Scottish Government, we are expanding our team to increase our capacity and strengthen the support we provide across Scotland.

We are looking for an enthusiastic Project Officer to join Fast Forward’s existing Scottish Gambling Education Hub. This role will have a focus on working in the community with young people, practitioners and families living and working in Clackmannanshire.

We are looking for a practitioner with excellent communication skills and robust track record of working in the community with young people, practitioners and families

The Hub was Scotland’s first gambling education and prevention programme focusing on protecting young people from gambling harms. Its work includes delivering training to practitioners, staff, schools and youth groups, developing resources, as well as partnership building with national organisations.

Organisation Profile

Fast Forward is Scotland’s national youth work agency, it is a force for change supporting children and young people to make informed decisions about risk taking behaviours. We take a harm reduction approach to reduce the negative impacts of these behaviours on their lives and those of their families and wider community.

The team’s work is dynamic, challenging and rewarding in developing innovative programmes to address risk-taking behaviours that often goes unrecognised. You will find creative ways to engage with partners, adapting and creating resources to enable them to better deliver meaningful harm reduction and prevention education around harmful gambling and gambling harm.

Our work is underpinned by the following values:

Integrity - Our work is dynamic and informed by expertise, lived experience and relevant research

Forward Thinking- We are brave and bold. We are creative in our approach to identifying and responding to risk taking behaviour.

Inclusive - We take a person-centred approach. We are non-judgemental and respectful.

Collaborative- We coproduce, partner and learn with young people and experts from across the field.

Are you an enthusiastic, creative, dynamic individual who loves working with children and is committed to the realisation of children’s human rights. Children’s Parliament is excited to be recruiting for a Project Officer in our Child Human Rights Defenders Team.

“If we’re listened to and taken seriously it makes us feel like our rights are real.”

Member of Children’s Parliament

The Project Officer will primarily be working with our Child Human Rights Defenders, to empower them to influence national policy, practice and legislation on key issues important to children across Scotland. There will be opportunities to support the wider development, delivery and reporting on a range of child human rights’ projects across Scotland.

Passionate about children, an excellent communicator and highly organised, the post holder will contribute to our work to support the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and deliver human rights for children.

The role is offered on a full-time basis of 35 hours per week.

This is a Scotland wide post with an office base at the Children’s Parliament in Edinburgh. Regular working at our Children’s Parliament office is required. Our office moves to Norton Park in Leith in September 2026. We offer flexible working and we are happy to discuss working patterns.

Overview of the Role

Children’s Parliament demonstrates children’s rights in action, supporting children to influence policy, practice and legislation, and we build the capacity and win the hearts and minds of adults to realise children’s human rights. Following the incorporation of children’s rights into Scots law, Children’s Parliament has a critical role to play to support the implementation of children’s human rights in the everyday.

In this context the role of the Project Officer is to embed the views, experiences and ideas of children into decision making around policy, practice and legislation in Scotland. Supporting children to engage adult key decision makers on what needs to change.

The Child Human Rights Defenders project supports children who are experienced Members of Children’s Parliament, to participate in democratic processes at a local, national and international level. Our team is currently made up of 14 Members of Children’s Parliament from Aberdeen, Dumfries & Galloway, Dundee, Fife, Glasgow and Perth & Kinross.

Using a children’s rights approach, the project empowers children to drive change on key issues important to children across Scotland, in recent years the children have raised concerns on issues such as vaping, the climate crisis and mental health.

A key part of this project is a two-year cycle of influencing where children identify issues that need action now for children to grow up healthy, happy and safe in Scotland, they develop calls to action and drive change on these issues locally and nationally, including with the Scottish Cabinet and the Scottish Government Executive Team.

Ewen’s Room is a grassroots charity based in Lochaber and the Western Isles. We believe that preventing suicide starts early, by giving people the practical skills to look after their own mental health and providing kind, non-judgmental support before things get too much.

Central to our approach is our education provision, designed to build personal resilience and active peer support from an early age. In primary schools, our WellBeing Heroes programme uses a play-based approach, therapeutic stories and practical tool to help young children understand their own mental fitness, backed by resources for parents and teachers. In secondary schools, our WellBeing Champions programme equips teenagers with the knowledge to safeguard their wellbeing and lead supervised, weekly peer-support drop-in sessions. From early years through to youth clubs, we normalise mental health conversations across all age groups.

Beyond the classroom, our dedicated team provides a warm, accessible lifeline for adults across Lochaber. We offer safe spaces to connect through our community "Open Doors" drop-in sessions, alongside confidential, professional one-to one and smallgroup therapy designed to guide individuals through times of emotional distress.

We are growing to meet a rising mental health crisis in our area. Our goal is to make our support safe, high-quality, and accessible in every corner of Lochaber, while launching our own small businesses to fund our work independently.

Role Purpose

The Income & Enterprise Manager is a strategic and entrepreneurial business development role within Ewen’s Room. Reporting directly to the Chief Officer, you will drive the charity’s financial sustainability and diversification as we expand across Lochaber and the Western Highlands.

You will combine sharp bid-writing skills with a proactive, self-starting approach, leading on grant applications, building strong funder relationships, designing a high impact corporate giving strategy, and energising local community fundraising events (such as Ewen's Run). Crucially, you will spearhead our social enterprise ambitions: identifying commercial opportunities to monetise our existing skills and service portfolio, writing robust business plans, and securing start-up funding to build long term earned income streams.