Location: Plaistow South, Newham and Quaker Social Action’s offices in Bethnal Green, Tower Hamlets
Responsible to: Plaistow South Big Local Director
Salary: £14,168 pro rata (£36,432, FTE)
Hours: Part time 14 hours per week– ideally spread over 2 days per week
Terms of employment: 6-month fixed term contract, with possibility of 3-month extension
How to apply
We’re keen to make our recruitment process clear and transparent. Firstly, by 9 am on Thursday 20th June, we’d like you to send (to info@qsa.org.uk) the following two documents:
- Your CV, highlighting the areas of your experience pertinent to this role.
- Your supporting statement, explaining why you want this role and how you have the experience, skills and values we’re looking for. You will find this within our person specification further on in this pack. We’d encourage you to demonstrate why you’d be a great fit, but also be honest with us if you feel there are some aspects of the role you have less experience in.
- We also invite you to complete our online equality and diversity monitoring form.
We are holding interviews on Thursday July 4th, ideally in person, in either Plaistow or Bethnal Green – however, we can accommodate Zoom too. To enable all candidates to come to the interview well prepared, we’ll send you the interview questions the day before. We’re hoping to be able to make decisions that day, but if we’ve got a couple of particularly strong candidates, we may want to speak with you again.
Being a diverse and inclusive organisation is very important to us. We actively encourage and welcome applications from candidates of diverse cultures, perspectives and lived experiences. We hope you find this job pack clear and welcoming and indeed, should you apply for this role, that you find the same to be true of our whole recruitment process. Please do let us know if you don’t. We would genuinely welcome the feedback.
What does Plaistow South Big Local do?
Plaistow South Big Local (PSBL) is part of the Big Local programme which is a 10 year initiative, giving 150 areas across the UK £1 million of lottery money to make positive changes to their community.
The four programme outcomes for Big Local are:
- Communities will be better able to identify local needs and take action
- People will have increased skills and confidence, so that they continue to identify and respond to needs in the future
- The community will make a difference to the needs it prioritises
- People will feel that their area is an even better place to live
Each Big Local area forms a partnership group of local residents, who work together to create a community plan. PSBL is a resident-led Big Local partnership whose aim is to bring together the local talent, ambitions, skills and energy from individuals, groups and local organisations to achieve this and to make a massive and lasting positive difference to the Plaistow South community.
The PSBL partnership group hold responsible for the budget, delivering the community plan and employing staff to help bring their ambitions to life.
More about PSBL can be found here.
More about Local Trust can be found here.
About the role
As the Big Local programme enters its final stage, PSBL are seeking a driven and passionate community development officer to join our team and help realise the vision of the Plaistow South Big Local partnership and establish its legacy.
You will usually be based at our new office at Memorial Community Church, Barking Road, E13. You will work alongside the team, providing support across a diverse range of projects. They won’t be many typical days, but your role will include delivering community events and outreach to help residents find their voice, take ownership and reach their potential, alongside general administration task and content creation for our social media platforms and promotional materials.
This is an excellent opportunity for a highly organised individual with experience of working with communities in either a paid or voluntary capacity. You will be proactive and passionate, using your strong communication skills to engage and build rapport with local people, with experience creating supporting them to come up with great ideas for new initiatives that boost opportunities and improve social cohesion. An ability to work independently is key, with experience of managing multiple and varied priorities.
You will also have good digital skills, with experience of creating online communications for community projects, as well as being confident supporting administration tasks including data management and impact reporting.
Role description|
Purpose of post: To support and develop local residents to set up and engage in activities as part of Plaistow South Big Local, a community development initiative in the Plaistow South area of Newham. To oversee the spending of £1 million of funding, according to the Big Local principles and values – with the aim of making the local area an even better place to live and work.
Enabling community activities
- To understand the PSBL plan and to work with the PSBL director and co-workers to deliver upon the plan.
- To build up relationships within the local area, consulting and involving a wide range of local residents to ensure their views and voices are heard.
- To build links with other local charities and community groups, working together wherever possible.
- To outreach on behalf of PSBL to ensure local residents are aware of and can benefit from what is available within the community.
- To ensure appropriate records are kept of activities to ensure that the benefits are measured and reviewed.
- To run all community activities with due regard to Health & Safety concerns, ensuring activities are safe and compliant with any regulations in force, and looking at addressing isolation and loneliness, especially within households who cannot easily use technology.
- To support the smooth workings of the PSBL partnership including assisting with recruitment of new members to continue strengthening the board.
PSBL Projects
- To create a busy, thriving, active and inclusive space for local residents within the Plaistow South area.
- To support others to get involved in current projects whether it be local residents, local groups or committed volunteers.
- To run projects and events safely, with due regard to Health & Safety, risk, and safeguarding guidelines.
- To liaise with the local people in Plaistow South to ensure sound working relationships are established.
- To support the community engagement worker to create a busy, thriving, active and inclusive engagement within our projects.
- To seek partnerships and creative opportunities to widen the options of activities delivered within Plaistow South.
Communication and external liaison
- To lead on the delivery of PSBL’s communications plan, creating and sharing content and photos on the PSBL social media channels and uploading material on the website in order to build up knowledge of PSBL within the local community.
- To share the learning and celebrate the successes of PSBL within the local community.
- To represent PSBL by participating in appropriate local forums and meetings.
- To keep up to date with relevant developments within the Big Local community, to learn from others working in a similar context.
General
- To work within the policies and procedures of QSA.
- To receive line management from the PSBL Director.
- Any other duties, as appropriate to role, as agreed by the QSA Director, in consultation with the PSBL partnership board.
Person specification
Experience
- Experience of community development work whether in a paid or voluntary capacity.
- Experience of using social media and websites and graphic design tools such as Canva to publicise activities.
- Experience of recording data and report writing
- Experience of using digital marketing tools such as Mailchimp.
- Experience of outreach work is highly desirable.
Ability
- Excellent communication skills, using good listening skills, curiosity, empathy and tact to build positive relations with local residents.
- Ability to manage own workload and to work flexibly in a small team.
- Ability to create a warm and welcoming environment in a community setting.
- Ability to promote and publicise Plaistow South Big Local enthusiastically and effectively to individuals, community groups and using social media.
Knowledge
- Knowledge of the local area; Plaistow South specifically and Newham generally, is highly desirable.
- Knowledge of the challenges and barriers that can be faced by low income communities.
Ethos
- Commitment to and understanding of issues of inclusion, equality and diversity in the workplace and when providing a service to the public.
- A willingness to work within a Quaker ethos, as clarified by the vision & mission of QSA:
QSA’s vision is that of a just world, where people put people first. QSA’s mission is to enable people on low incomes and beyond to seek solutions to the issues that affect their lives, by building practical, sustainable and collaborative projects and by sharing that learning where it has potential to benefits communities beyond our own.
Please click here to download the full job pack
About Quaker Social Action and Big Locals
Quaker Social Action (QSA) is an east London charity tackling poverty and social exclusion. As the Local Trusted Organisation (LTO), QSA is accountable to Local Trust for the use of the Big Local funding, as well as providing governance and personnel support to The Pimlico Million and Barnfield partnership.
