This is an exciting opportunity be part of our Ayrshire Supporting Families Team working alongside communities, building strong relationships and achieving positive outcomes for all.

As a team, we offer early help to children and families who are experiencing emotional distress and difficulties. The service we provide is tailored to meet the needs of children and families. We recognise and value the importance of how we engage with the communities that we work in and want to ensure that this remains a theme in how our services grow and develop.

Our aim is to work with individuals and organisations within communities across Ayrshire with a focus of identifying community assets, community based challenges, gaps in provision for support, and to co-produce methods and provisions to address gaps and challenges.

The children, young people and families that we support can often be trying to cope with issues such as bullying, social isolation, pressures to achieve, anxiety and trauma which can lead to a range of difficulties: poor mental health and wellbeing, self harm, family and peer relationship breakdown and increased vulnerabilities.

Our role is to address the impact these difficulties have on the daily lives of children by delivering a programme of activities and engagement events that support the empowerment of local communities to better protect and support children and families. The availability of the service is flexible to when support is needed, including daytime, evenings and at the weekends.

If you have experience of managing volunteers within a community engagement or development role and have a Degree/Diploma in Community Education or other relevant qualification (e.g. Social Work) then… we want to hear from you.

This is a fixed term post of 35 hours per week until March 2021 with likely continuation of funding until October 2021

Getting Ready for Change

This is an exciting opportunity be part of a team working alongside families, building strong relationships and connections that will build the evidence base for preventative, trauma informed support that meet the needs of families affected by substance use, and that is co-designed with them.

The Project Worker will lead consult and engage with parents in recovery living within North Ayrshire to examine their views on their needs as parents through the Recovery process. As well as seeking views on existing supports available, we will work with parents in recovery to co-design provision which meets the needs they have identified.

We will use the finding of this consultation to share with our partners both, statutory and third sector, to influence and change the current support landscape to reflect what families tell us they need. Our objective would be to use these findings to move into a demonstration phase that will allow us to show the impact of working in this way has on families affected by substance misuse.

If you have experience of engagement with groups, supported people with lived experience of substance use and co-production of service provision and have a Degree/Diploma in Social Work or other relevant qualification (e.g. Community Engagement/ Criminal Justice) then… then we want to hear from you.

Please also see Additional Information with regards to the project and role.

This is a fixed term, part time post of 21 hours per week, funded initially until August 21. Hours to be worked flexibly to suit the needs of the service including evenings and weekends, if required.