Hours: 35 hours per week, evening and weekend work is essential
Contract: Permanent
Salary: £28,500 - £30,347 (depending on skills and experience) plus 5% pension contribution
Annual leave: 25 days per year pro rata (increasing by one day per year until you reach a maximum of 30)
Location: Your base is Share HQ, 64 Altenburg Gardens, London, SW11 1JL. You’ll also work regularly at other sites we lease in Wandsworth and Lambeth.
Closing date: Wednesday 11th November 2020 at 10am
Interview date: Tuesday 17th November 2020
Job purpose and context
The Volunteer and Community Services Manager is responsible for developing, co-ordinating and managing our community based projects, which are hugely popular with our clients, adults with learning disabilities and/or autism. As well as leading on these, you’ll co-ordinate and manage the volunteers which are the backbone of these projects, ensuring they have a really great experience with us.
You’ll take a pro-active approach to managing a team of staff, and provide regular and on-going support to volunteers. You’ll be fundamental in shaping how these projects and future projects, will make the biggest impact possible to the lives of disabled adults.
Who we are looking for
Our ideal candidate would have project and people management experience within the third sector. They'll have good knowledge of how to run successful volunteer led projects and a good understanding of the support needs of our clients as well as best practice in volunteering. They'll be exceptionally organised, be a great team worker and pay close attention to detail. They'll enjoy juggling a busy but rewarding workload, and have excellent written and face to face communication and facilitation skills.
They'll be approachable and enjoy building meaningful relationships with stakeholders. They’ll enjoy solving problems and be driven to deliver the best possible service to our service users. They'll be happy to work flexibly as regular out of hours’ work is an essential part of this role.
About us
At Share, we’re passionate about supporting disabled people to set their own goals for learning and life, and then helping them to achieve their aspirations. The majority of our service users are people with learning disabilities and/or autism. We offer a range of training, employment, personal development, leisure and community based opportunities. We're working for a world where disabled people are fully included and have access to all the amenities and opportunities in their communities.
We won the prestigious award of Employer of the Year at Wandsworth Business Awards 2019. We also hold the Investors in People accreditation and we are accredited by the National Autistic Society. You can find out more about what it's like to work for Share here.
Summary of main duties
Project Management:
- Project manage and ensure the smooth running of all current and future community based projects at Share.
- Work with service users to ensure projects are person centred.
- Monitor and evaluate project outcomes, produce regular case studies and evidence to demonstrate impact.
- Manage project budgets and ensure that projects meet the aims and objectives as set out in funding bids.
- Prepare reports for funders and the senior management team
- Manage project referrals, identifying client needs, preparing profiles and liaising with parents/carers, and other professionals.
- Develop and implement policies and procedures to ensure the safety of staff, service users and volunteers.
- Co-ordinating and logging project activities and outputs.
- Develop community partnerships to expand opportunities.
- Support with planning and shaping future community based projects at Share.
- To work in a way that celebrates diversity and values each person who accesses the projects.
- Line manage staff by providing ongoing guidance, supervision, and performance management.
Volunteer Management:
- Lead on the recruitment and management of a diverse mix of community based volunteers.
- Write and advertise vacancies, screen application forms and match volunteers appropriately.
- Arrange interviews and provide feedback to applicants. Carry out background checks.
- Ensure that volunteers are inducted and trained to the highest level possible by organising and facilitating inductions and training events.
- Administer volunteer expenses and keep records up to date.
- Build meaningful and positive relationships with volunteers by providing regular on-going support and supervision.
- Ensure volunteers feel appreciated and part of the team, by arranging volunteer appreciation events or small tokens of thanks.
- Work with external partners to develop volunteer referrals and training opportunities.
- To work at all times in a way that values diversity and focuses on ability
- To carry out any other duties that may be reasonably required
Person Specification
Please address each criteria set out below by providing examples of how you meet each criteria, on the application form.
Essential experience and knowledge
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Experience of planning and managing complex volunteer led projects
- Experience of recruiting and managing volunteers and knowledge of best practice in volunteering
- Experience of facilitating training
- Line management experience
- Experience of monitoring and evaluating programmes and writing reports
- Good understanding of the barriers disabled people face in society and what helps people to become fully socially included
- Understanding of safeguarding and safe recruitment practices
Essential skills and personal qualities:
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You’ll be someone in whom people trust, and you’ll inspire confidence in service users, carers, colleagues and others
- Friendly, warm, open and even tempered – able to problem solve, cope with occasional stressful situations and conflicting demands
- Great organisational skills, resilience and the ability to juggle a varied and busy workload
- You’ll be someone who enjoys completing tasks to a high and accurate standard
- You’ll be a strong communicator, innovative and solutions focused
- You’ll be flexible, adaptable and self-motivated
- Excellent team working skills and willingness to be responsive to changing needs
- Excellent administrative and IT skills in Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, and Excel
- Able to build meaningful relationships with a variety of people both internally and externally
- Motivated by working for an organisation with a strong social purpose.
How to apply:
Please complete our application form and equal opportunities form and return both by 10am on Wednesday 11th November to hradmin@sharecommunity.org.uk. Interviews will take place on Tuesday 17th November 2020.
If you would like to have chat about the role before applying, please contact Leanne Wood (People and Project Manager) on 0208 050 4162 We focus on ability and believe people work best when they feel valued, safe and happy. We do all that we can to make sure that Share is friendly and welcoming to everyone.
We particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) candidates, who are currently under represented at this level within our organisation.
Please read our privacy policy for job applicants to find out how we store data as part of our recruitment process. This job is subject to two satisfactory references, evidence of qualifications, an enhanced DBS check and providing evidence of right to work in the UK. If you have a disability and would like to discuss other ways of submitting your application, please contact us.
We are very much looking forward to receiving your application.
