An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Community Links Worker to work in a Befriending capacity for young people in East Dunbartonshire.

East Dunbartonshire Voluntary Action (EDVA), in partnership with East Dunbartonshire Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP), is developing a new Befriending Service in the area to work with children and young adults, aged up to 18 years who are experiencing difficulties in their lives, or who are at risk from becoming socially isolated.

The Community Links Worker will work with the new service (which will be attached to EDVA’s existing befriending service for adults) in assessing, recruiting, and matching carefully selected adult volunteers who will offer befriending support to young people.

The postholder will ensure that befriending volunteers provide encouragement for young people to undertake new activities, help them gain confidence and increase their self-esteem. They will also work with volunteers in ensuring young people develop social skills and enable them to re-engage with their local community.

Against the background of COVID19 and lockdown which has imposed severe restrictions on young people, this post will play a crucial role in allowing young people to increase their social connectedness.

Working as a key member of our Scotland Directorate’s communications team you will report to the Communications Manager (Engagement). You will deliver communications activities across a range of channels, mainly focusing on telling the story of our work and the communities we fund through digital and social media.

Developing content will be a key element of your day-to-day work. You will tailor the content you make to different channels and understand what works best for their distinct audiences. Alongside celebrating the amazing stories of the groups we fund, you will create content that helps and encourages people who may apply in the future. You’ll also provide support and advice to help our funding teams reach out to the communities they work with through digital and social media.

You will lead on maintaining and monitoring The National Lottery Community Fund Scotland digital channels. You will plan content to increase engagement, ensuring messages are targeted, have a consistent tone of voice and speak to or grow our audiences.

Although specialising in digital and social media, you will need a broad set of skills (including planning, writing and storytelling) so that you can play an active part in our multi-disciplinary communications team, and pick up other work when required. You will be a flexible worker: comfortable using your own initiative to lead pieces of work, or working collaboratively with colleagues.

You’ll work closely with the press and media team to develop and deliver media campaigns in Scotland across our digital platforms and social media channels.

You’ll also be passionate about uncovering and understanding the needs of our customers. This will help you develop useful and engaging content to help us support both the people applying for our grants, and the groups that have grants from us already. It will also help you understand the barriers people may face in accessing National Lottery funding – whether because of their background, health, disability or other circumstances. Understanding these issues will help you reach these people with targeted communications, and create content that is accessible and relevant to them.

Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland (CHSS) is an independent Scottish charity, whose mission is to be the community of support, kindness and challenge where people can help each other, can secure the expert help they need, and collectively advocate for the care that matters to them.

This role will ensure CHSS complies with all legal and statutory health & safety legislation, reporting on risk and compliance, and ensure that health & safety is embedded across our retail chain of 40 shops, service delivery, fundraising events, office, and home working.

You will lead and coordinate the organisation’s health & safety culture by supporting employees and volunteers to establish, manage and monitor standards, processes, communications, training and systems to ensure all responsibilities associated with health and safety are adhered to.

You will also provide support to the Director of People Driven Development and the Head of Human Resources & Organisational Development in the development of health & safety strategy and plans.

You will be regarded as an authority in CHSS on health & safety.

In addition, you should be a confident communicator to a variety of audiences, have well developed ICT skills (ideally in Office 365, including SharePoint), project management, administrative and organisational skills. A Full UK driving licence and access to a car is required.

CHSS employees enjoy a variety of organisational benefits including: Company pension scheme, generous holiday allowance, company sick pay, employee welfare support and life assurance.

This role is subject to a Basic Disclosure check.

CHSS is committed to equality of opportunity, to following practices, and to providing a service which is free from unfair and unlawful discrimination. CHSS aims to ensure that no applicant, volunteer or member of staff is unfairly treated on the grounds of offending background.

The No.1 Befriending Agency is a vibrant local social enterprise that works to reduce loneliness and isolation. Part of how we do this is to ensure that older people can thrive in later life. We work with our dedicated volunteers to provide the support that local older people need to live happy, healthy lives. We work to help older people stay connected with their communities, alleviating loneliness, improving health and wellbeing and making communities stronger through volunteering. This includes providing support for them to be as independent as possible using digital technology and accessing virtual events.

We are excited to invite applications for our Operations Manager vacancy. This role is an integral position managing the efficient and effective running of operational services, business administration, monitoring on all income and expenditure matters, HR management, liaison with key stakeholders reporting to the board and funders. You will contribute to the development of operational strategic plans, direction and decision making and proactively work towards the achievement of shared objectives. This includes developing and implementing strategies, key objectives, systems, processes and procedures relating to administration, resources, premises and health & safety.

You will be responsible for managing a multi-disciplinary team which includes Volunteer Coordinators working to support volunteers in different areas in Glasgow and collaborating as a team. You will be joining us at a time of change and growth, when we are expanding our services to meet increasing demand from local older people and developing services as a result of the pandemic. You will be responsible for working with colleagues to ensure we have sufficient volunteers who are supported and engaged in rewarding activity and can deliver our high quality, friendly services. You will also play an essential role in our fundraising and community engagement events and to solicit pro bono professional support from volunteers and the board members.

This role manages a multidisciplinary team that delivers services, events and activities and volunteering in a dynamic and changing environment. You will have experience of working in a similar role, and with sound business operational experience you will be able to communicate effectively at a number of levels as we work towards a new `normal’. You will help ensure that our internal operations run as efficiently as possible, as well as supporting our day-to-day relationships with strategic partners, funders and volunteers working with a highly committed team. As a small organisation we are looking for entrepreneurship, flexibility and imagination as well as accuracy and integrity. If you have the drive to make a difference within an organisation which makes a difference we look forward to hearing from you.

Our aim

We are looking for an experienced person who can (re)start and lead an inclusive youth work programme in Ruchazie to encourage young people in our community to build confidence, skills and achieve their personal goals.

Ruchazie Church

Since re-planting our church in 2018, we have re-established a worshipping community within the parish. We are now a key anchor organisation in Ruchazie with a reputation as a local catalyst for change. Using an asset-based community development model we have a track record of mobilising volunteers to develop ground-breaking initiatives that give practical help, support and hope for local people. Our support is available to anyone without discrimination.

We have a core team of active volunteers and, just before the COVID19 pandemic, we had a congregation of about 50 gathering weekly. As a church we are rooted in the evangelical tradition and our style is informal, friendly and welcoming. Our building is a key community hub. Before lockdown it was a very busy space used by our partners, local groups and other organisations to deliver vital practical help, services and activities.

Ruchazie is an area of significant, multiple deprivation. 41% of the children live in poverty. 67% of those attending our local secondary school have or had male relatives resident in Barlinnie Prison. 36% of the 16-19 year olds are not in any form of employment, education or training. There are many challenges here, but this is not our focus.

There is great community spirit here and we see wonderful, dynamic, creative people made in the image of God. By working together, we empower people to make the changes they want to see for themselves, their families and their community.

Previous Youth Work

Despite building significant momentum with our youth work programme pre-pandemic, lockdown restrictions halted most of our activities. We used to have a mixture of afterschool and holiday time clubs with various creative and performing arts programmes. Some activities were delivered in partnership with other organisations such as GK Experience, Bolt FM and Junction 12 (a local Christian youth project). While some of our young people made a significant contribution during lockdown as volunteers with our emergency response, only a small remnant of our previous youth work programme remains.

Therefore, we are looking for someone to work alongside local people to begin this work again. Our new Youth Worker will take the lead in building a team of volunteers and then relaunching a new youth work programme.

About the Youth Worker

We are looking for someone who can work effectively within our existing Church team to relaunch, develop and lead the youth work programme at Ruchazie Church.

Our ideal candidate will have previous experience of delivering a really effective youth work programme aligned to best practice principles. They will possess well-developed interpersonal leadership skills to recruit and support a team of volunteers and also to collaborate with external partners, networks and community connections. We are looking for someone who can build and maintain trusting, respectful relationships with young people to promote good emotional, physical and mental health. Our Youth Worker will also be able to deliver inclusive programmes and activities that will enable young people to explore Christian spirituality and other themes of faith openly.

Information:

The garden is located within the grounds of Midlothian community hospital, and is managed by the garden coordinator and other gardens staff and volunteers. The garden welcomes individuals and groups from across Midlothian with physical and mental health issues, as well as people looking to gain new skills and to be better connected in their local community.

The aim of this post is to manage a programme of gardening and landscaping activity for those on community payback orders to participate in, helping to maintain the garden for use and enjoyment of all groups and visitors.

The post holder will be responsible for the support and management of people on community payback orders.

We are looking for a skilled and dynamic individual with a “can do” attitude and a genuine interest in gardens and working outdoors. Knowledge of the Justice system is desirable and excellent interpersonal skills will enable you to motivate and inspire participants to get the most out of the opportunities that the garden presents. You should also have the ability to demonstrate Cyrenians values of Compassion, Respect, Integrity and Innovation in the work that you do.

Organisation Profile:

Cyrenians is a charity working towards a society that truly values and includes all. Our Vision is of an inclusive society in which we all have the opportunities to live valued and fulfilled lives. We work to make that vision a reality through our mission to support people excluded from family, home, work or community on their life journey.

CLASP is seeking to recruit a suitably experienced Manager to recruit, train, support and place a team of volunteers in the delivery of our digital participation service. This service is part of our HOPE (Helping Older People Evolve) Project which supports older adults aged 50+ across North Ayrshire. These services include one to one befriending in the person’s own home, telephone/digital befriending, weekly lunch clubs, social activities/outings, health and fitness classes, and information sessions.

The digital participation service will focus on providing one to one and small group tuition for older adults in the use of digital technology, utilising the essential digital skills framework.

We are ideally looking for a candidate who is sympathetic to the needs of the client group. A good working knowledge and recent experience of volunteer recruitment and management, general management and project management is essential. You will be responsible for the day to day management of the Project and the volunteer team, reporting directly to the CLASP Board of Directors. You will therefore ideally have a relevant qualification at management level. There will also be a requirement to source and complete funding applications to help expand and develop the Project’s activities so a knowledge or experience of this would be advantageous.

Venture Scotland offers an outdoor-based personal development programme which empowers young people aged 16-30, who face complex and difficult challenges in their lives, to create and sustain change.

We focus on the physical, mental and emotional wellbeing of our young people, working with them to make lasting changes in their lives and helping them play a positive role in their community.

We are seeking a Volunteer Co-ordinator to support and develop our current volunteer community, while also recruiting, training and inducting new volunteers to support our work. The role will include the day-to-day co-ordination of volunteers, managing our safeguarding system and helping to organise and run our annual Volunteer Development Weekend.

The job will also involve working with and supporting our young Ambassadors Group of graduates who are training to be volunteers.

Do you want to work in a small, passionate, supportive team of people, who really care about the young people we are helping? Do you want to work in an organisation who listens, values everyone’s views and cares about the health and wellbeing of their staff? Do you understand the transformative effect of the outdoors? Are you passionate about #ChangingYoungLives Outdoors?