Volunteer and Support Development Manager

St Sidwell s Community Centre

We are a community centre in the heart of Exeter giving a warm welcome regardless of background, ability or circumstance. We offer a wide programme of activities, events and services for the local community.

At the heart of St Sid s is our volunteering and work-experience programme, which provides opportunities across all areas of our work. We run a community café, a bakery and a cookery school; we grow vegetables and look after one of the few large green spaces in the city centre; we offer affordable meeting rooms and venue hire; free English for Speakers of Other Languages classes; and provide a wide range of additional support to the local community.

St Sidwell s is open to all, but we specialise in working with people facing barriers to participation including people experiencing long-term unemployment; people with disabilities; people with convictions; people experiencing mental health problems; people with English as an additional language; refugees and asylum seekers; people experiencing addiction; and those who are homeless or vulnerably housed.

Background

Over the past few years there has been increasing demand for volunteer placements within the organisation alongside a growing need for a wide range of support within the community. We want to build and develop our offer to meet the needs of the community in a financially sustainable way. Thanks to support from The National Lottery Community Fund we are now able to hire a person to a new role to help grow and reshape our volunteering and support programmes, helping to better meet the needs of our community and making our work more resilient for the future.

Role description

Key responsibilities

The purpose of this role is to lead the development of our Volunteer and Support programmes to:

- Provide a greater number of meaningful volunteering opportunities within the Community Centre

- Increase and enhance our support and training for all volunteers

- Ensure there is a clear, consistent and sustainable support offer for the local community

- Design and establish new Support Volunteer roles, to help provide increased support for the community, as well as increased volunteer opportunities

Volunteer Programme Development

- Set up volunteer working groups and committees to ensure the voice of a wide range of volunteers and potential volunteers is always integral to project development

- Lead the design and development of new volunteer roles within the organisation, in particular a range of roles focused on supporting others (Support Volunteers)

- Work with volunteers and staff across the organisation to identify training needs, design and embed appropriate training and induction for volunteers

- Support design and delivery of new volunteer pathways, including structured and/or accredited training enabling volunteers to develop in the ways they want to e.g. moving onto employment or education, supporting others or learning new skills

- Ensure volunteers are recognised and achievements are celebrated

- Ensure a consistently inclusive and compassionate approach to volunteers

Community Support Development

- Conduct a strategic assessment of ongoing support needs of centre users

- Creation of clear framework for support offered within the community centre by staff and volunteers

- As above, development of new Support Volunteer roles providing support to others including: peer mentors sharing lived experience; skills-based support e.g. IT; wellbeing and 1:1 listening support

- Facilitate other organisations providing support from within the Community Centre

- Development and implementation of partnership-based volunteer roles

Overarching project and organisational development

- Work collaboratively and proactively with key partners and stakeholders to improve volunteering and community support across organisations

- Develop new partnerships to improve outcomes for our beneficiaries and improve access to services

- Embed a framework for trauma-informed and compassion focussed ways of working within the organisation

- Develop a monitoring and evaluation framework, support project staff to collect monitoring data and evaluate the programme for continuous improvement

- Report to funders

- Work with the Centre Manager on developing a sustainable funding model for the programme and contribute to funding applications as required

- Contribute to organisational strategic development and innovation

Safeguarding

- Safeguarding Lead for the organisation

Staff management and relationships

- Manage the Volunteer Coordinator and Mental Health, Support and Wellbeing Lead. Potential to add management of Gardening Lead in Programme Year 2.

- Identify staff training and support needs

- Work collaboratively with team members from across the organisation to ensure effective project development and implementation

- Responsible to Centre Manager

Additional duties

- Attend team meetings and participate in community centre events

- Participate in training as required for the role and by the organisation

- Promotion of environmental sustainability throughout the project

- Any other duties as required by St Sidwell s Centre

Person specification

Essential

Minimum two years experience working with volunteers

Experience working with people experiencing barriers to participation (see background description above)

Strong understanding of community mental health needs and challenges and the support services available locally and nationally

Understanding of trauma and compassion-informed approaches

Experience designing and facilitating training

Strong written and verbal communication skills and confidence communicating with people from a wide range of backgrounds and with people who have English as an additional language

Project management experience, including budget management

Ability to work effectively within a team

Ability to effectively manage time and workload

Experience implementing a monitoring and evaluation framework and keeping accurate records

Experience reporting to funders

Understanding of and commitment to confidentiality and data protection

Strong IT skills including Word and Excel

Strong commitment to our organisational values particularly equality, diversity and inclusion

Willingness to undertake additional formal training and self-directed learning

Desirable

Personal experience as a volunteer

Experience working in the field of mental health and wellbeing support

Evidence of training, CPD or qualifications relevant to the role

Experience of providing supervision / 1:1 support to colleagues

Experience writing successful funding bids

Experience developing a monitoring and evaluation framework

Experience developing income generation activities within a charity or social enterprise setting

Skills in conflict resolution, de-escalation and non-violent communication

An interest in and understanding of social justice and community development

Contract and employment terms

£31,560-£33,392 (pro rata) depending on experience

22.5 hours / week (0.6FTE)

33 days holiday per year (including bank holidays) pro rata, with additional day added for every year of service (to a maximum of 5 additional days)

Lunch in our community café on working days

Statutory pension contributions

Contract will be on a 3-year fixed term basis, with possibility to make the role permanent subject to project development and funding

Role is subject to an enhanced DBS check

This role is funded by The National Lottery Community Fund.