Rock Trust are delighted to be expanding the successful ‘Housing First for Youth’ service into Glasgow. We are looking for a team member who has experience of supporting young vulnerable people accessing our services. The role will involve working intensively with a small caseload of young people to coordinate and provide emotional and practical support.

The Project Worker will work directly with young people to coordinate and provide emotional and practical support on a 1:1 and group basis. Working with young people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness to ensure that when homelessness can’t be avoided, their experience of homelessness is rare, brief, and non-recurring.

The Project Worker will offer line management, guidance, and support to Support Assistants and volunteers, working together to support young people to return or remain at home, improve their practical independent living skills, set up their own tenancy and access other services and to reach their full potential. Project Workers are responsible for completing support plans and risk assessments and are the main contact for any key people involved in the care and support of young people.

In addition to the responsibilities in the JD, the successful candidate will be able to demonstrate:

• An ability to build trusting, lasting relationships with young people
• Support young people to manage and thrive in their home
• Motivate young people to set goals and reach their potential
• An ability to work effectively with partners and other key people to provide young people with
• excellent care and support
• Adopt a ‘whatever it takes’ and rights based approach
• Work in a psychologically and trauma informed manner

Background information

The Welcoming Association is a charity that works with New Scots (asylum seekers, refugees and migrants) in Edinburgh. We won the 2021 Ashden Award for Greener Communities, and three of our volunteers also won prestigious prizes at the Inspiring Volunteer Awards 2021. At the five-year strategic review in February 2024, the staff acknowledged some of the organisation’s many strengths, such as being cooperative, close-knit, flexible, and dedicated to its employees. Therefore, our future fundraiser will join a supportive and high-performing team.

Purpose of the role

The purpose of the post is to work closely with the Director to create and implement comprehensive fundraising plans aligned with the Welcoming Association’s strategic goals.

This is an ideal role for someone who has demonstrated experience in fundraising and is looking to further develop their knowledge and experience in an exciting and far-sighted organisation. The role offers the successful candidate an opportunity to learn and develop the skills needed to forge a successful career in the third sector.

Key Working Relationships:

Internal: Senior Management Team and project coordinators. Please refer to our organogram.

External: Service users, funders, and partner agencies.

Additional information

Please note that you must already be eligible to work in the UK to be employed by The Welcoming Association.

The post holder will work from The Welcoming’s office on 20/1 Westfield Avenue, Edinburgh, EH11 2TT.

Equality, diversity and inclusion are at the heart of The Welcoming. We welcome applications from BAME people, applicants with lived experience as refugees, or working with refugees, asylum seekers and vulnerable adults.

Volunteering Matters are a national volunteering and social change charity. We believe that everyone across the UK should have the opportunity to thrive. We bring people together through the unique power of volunteering, to overcome some of society’s most complex issues.

We are looking for a talented, dynamic, and professional Volunteer Engagement Manager to join our team in the City of Edinburgh. The right candidate would be someone who can work flexibly, is driven, and is passionate about supporting parents and families. It is also important that the post holder can commit to our organisational values – being Compassionate, Empowering, Inclusive, Positive and Straightforward.

An introduction to the role

In this role you will support the delivery and development of our established Family Supporters programme across the City of Edinburgh. Family Supporters is an effective mentoring programme which offers practical, emotional, and social support to parents and families across Edinburgh, empowering them to face a range of life challenges and issues. We recruit, train and match dedicated, local volunteers to help families every step of the way, spending 1-1 time together on a personalised set of goals chosen by the family, for the family. The programme supports parents and families in lots of ways such as improved living standards, budgeting skills, healthier eating, better school life and behaviour, help to access Education, Employment or Training, access to physical and mental health and wellbeing resources/aid, as well as introducing parents to community resources, to name a few.

Further information on Family Supporters Edinburgh can be found online, and on our website.

Information on Employee Benefits

Our ambition is to be the best place to work in the charity sector. We offer lots of employee benefits including:

• Fully flexible working
• Unlimited annual leave, to achieve a positive work-life balance
• Cycle to Work scheme
• Interest free season ticket loan (public transport)
• Competitive and supportive maternity/adoption/family leave provision
• Competitive and supportive sick leave provision
• Access to our free Employee Assistance line

Our ways of Working

We offer flexible working by default. This means that our staff have significant flexibility when it comes to place of work, working hours, and are empowered with the responsibility of managing their own diary and workload.

Part of your working week will need to be based in local communities within the City of Edinburgh, meeting with volunteers, parents and families, partner organisations and others. For the remainder of the time, you can be based from our City of Edinburgh office or at home (must be locally). If working from home, you will need good internet access and a suitable home working environment, all IT equipment, mobile phone and any home working supplies will be available.

Duties & Responsibilities

• Role model and display our organisational values – being Compassionate, Empowering, Inclusive, Positive and Straightforward
• Teamwork across the regional staff team and the wider charity, working in a flexible way
• Deliver and develop the Family Supporters programme across Edinburgh, meeting ambitious goals and milestones, ensuring all volunteers and families involved achieve positive outcomes
• Attract, recruit, train and provide ongoing support to a team of dedicated volunteers, from a wide cross-section of the community
• Maintain Volunteering Matters standards around quality and effective Volunteer Management
• Establish and maintain excellent working relationships with stakeholders including colleagues, volunteers, families, Social Services, Health and Education teams, third sector partners and others
• Support appropriate risk assessment, safeguarding, quality assurance and audit processes
• Develop relevant promotional material and information, for Family Supporters, and for our organisation locally
• Ensure quarterly statistical data is collected and that the programme meets its agreed goals, reporting format and schedule as required by our funders.
• Administration tasks including the use of Office 365, Microsoft Teams and other relevant software

This job description is intended to include the broad range of responsibilities and requirements of the post. While some variations may be expected, these will be at an appropriate level for the role.

Person Specification

Skills & Knowledge Required

• Excellent knowledge of the life challenges and issues that parents and families face in Scotland, and an understanding of “The Promise”
• An understanding of how to assess the needs of an individual, using a person-centered approach
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Excellent people skills, able to build professional, long-term relationships with various stakeholders, to influence and motivate others
• Excellent time management and organisational skills with the ability to manage a busy workload and prioritise effectively
• Excellent IT skills including the use of Office 365, Microsoft Teams, and other software (training provided)
• A good problem solver, able to work independently and use own initiative

Experience Required

• Experience working directly with families, particularly those who face life challenges
• Experience in all aspects of effective Volunteer Management (recruitment, training, support)
• Experience developing strong working relationships with a range of internal and external stakeholders
• Experience of project management, achieving goals, managing a busy workload, and working to deadlines
• Experience of measuring the impact of mentoring/volunteering, and understanding the results
• Understanding of, and full commitment, to Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion

Role Reports To: Project Manager for Edinburgh

Qualifications

We are not looking for any specific qualifications, for this role. Relevant experience and skills are more important, along with a commitment to our organisational values.

Protection of Vulnerable Groups (PVG)

This role requires membership of the PVG scheme. Having a conviction is not necessarily a barrier to employment. If you are not currently a member of the PVG scheme, we can support you with the application process (fees will be reimbursed by Volunteering Matters).