Volunteering Matters

At Volunteering Matters we use volunteering’s unique power to bring people together and build stronger, more resilient communities across the UK.

We bring people together to resolve some of society’s most complex issues. From social isolation and loneliness; improving health and wellbeing; building skills, confidence, and opportunity; to ensuring young people can become change makers in their community, the impact that we make is great. And we won’t stop until everyone in the UK has the opportunity to thrive.

People-led and impact driven, we are a national charity that is deeply embedded in local areas across the UK. We operate in five regions: London and the South East; Wales and the West of England; East of England; the Midlands and North West England; and Scotland and North East England. We also have an Employee Volunteering Team with over 25 years’ experience, acting as a broker to provide tailor-made solutions to employers. We turn local knowledge and energy into action and progress, building stronger communities and a better future for all.

This is an exciting time to be joining the team. We’re changing the way we work to meet new ambitions and make sure our impact continues to grow alongside out business.

Role Purpose

ProjectScotland, part of the national charity Volunteering Matters, supports people to get on in life through the power of volunteering. We are looking to recruit a talented, dynamic, and professional Mentor Project Worker, to join our team in West Lothian. The right candidate would be someone who can work flexibly, and can demonstrate an understanding of, and commitment, to our organisational values.

Young people we support include those facing multiple barriers or disadvantage. Our support helps them to achieve positive outcomes for their future. As our Mentor Project Worker, you will work closely with our partner organisations locally to deliver a high quality, impactful mentoring service across West Lothian.

Home-Start UK is the leading family charity with trained volunteers and expert support helping families with young children in communities across the UK. We are an umbrella organisation of circa 55 staff that works closely with our network of 184 local Home-Starts.

We recognise that being a parent has never been easy. Every Home-Start volunteer is trained to work alongside parents to overcome the challenges they are facing. We work with parents to build on their strengths and give them the support that they tell us they need. We offer no judgement – just compassionate, confidential help and expert support. This peer-to-peer support is key to the difference Home-Start makes and often our volunteers have lived experience of the challenges their families are facing themselves.

ABOUT THE ROLE

We are seeking a colleague who will bring both experience of and passion for volunteering and creating the best experience for those who volunteer with us. Someone who understands the importance of good volunteering practice and who can help translate evidence from various sources into meaningful development resources and activities that will enhance our role as a leading voluntary organisation.

To be successful as our Volunteering Development Officer, you will have coordinated volunteering activity and perhaps the development of volunteer guidance, process, policy and/or resources. You will thrive on working with others in multiple roles across our federation and learning from others’ experiences. You will be organised, flexible and a great communicator, willing to participate in related volunteering campaigns and project opportunities as they arise.

The role presents a significant opportunity for the successful candidate to contribute to our ambitions for volunteering across the UK.

Since launching in 2021, Covid Aid has reached thousands of people across the UK with support, advice, and information. We have built an award winning digital community with over 1400 members. The Charity has recently received some funding from the Scottish Government, which will enable growth and direct services to our Long Covid Community in Scotland.

At the moment there are more than 2 million people around the UK who have been living with Long Covid, with families and loved ones also dealing with the deaths of more than 200,000 people. With rates still high, these numbers will continue to Grow, with media attention elsewhere the fight for support for our Long Covid Community is more important than ever.

With the growth of our digital community in mind we are seeking a Digital Support and Services Manager. The person we are looking for will have an understanding of the Community North Star metric, and follow the SPACES model. Our digital support platform will continue to allow users to speak to each other and provide peer support, whilst in addition creating a community of interest groups, courses, webinars and other therapeutic sessions and courses. Through promotion of groups, courses, and events on our other digital channels we will reach our monthly audience, meaning that we can provide support to an ever-increasing and diverse audience of individuals who have been significantly impacted by Covid-19.

The role is 15 hours a week and the hourly rate is £17, we would expect that this would be worked over several days but this can be flexible to incorporate other commitments. This will include short regular meetings with the Executive Director as well as a fortnightly meeting with volunteers and colleagues.

The initial contract length is for three months, rolling on a monthly basis monthly after this. (With covid aid or the freelancers to provide a notice period of one month prior to departing role.) We hope that the flexible nature of this role will attract a candidate that can start as soon as is practical.

Are you passionate about helping people to live a better life? Do you want to work for a charity where your health and wellbeing matter just as much as the people you support? Do you want to be part of a trauma-informed team where you will be supported to develop creative and flexible ways of working?

At LinkLiving, our values and people are at the heart of everything we do including how we recruit our staff. It is important for us to find people who share our values, which are:

• Empathy (listen to and understand an individual’s needs and circumstances)
• Respect (treat others the way they wish to be treated)
• Integrity (be honest and have strong moral principles)
• Caring (show kindness and concern for others)

LinkLiving is a Scottish health and wellbeing charity that supports people to manage or overcome the effects of negative life experiences (including trauma, mental health challenges, poverty and inequality) so that they can build on their strengths and aspirations in order to live their best possible lives. We support people through a range of models including:

• Personal development and employability programmes
• Self-help coaching
• Supported accommodation
• Care at home
• Housing support
• Befriending
• Social cafes

The Service

Our Older Persons Service provides support to people aged 65+ by providing both volunteer befriending in West Fife and a range of weekly social cafes across Fife. Both services aim to reduce loneliness and isolation and to help people maintain or build links within their communities.

Volunteer Befriending

There is a high rate of loneliness in Fife, particularly amongst older people. The Older Persons’ Service Volunteer Befrienders provide much needed companionship and light touch support to help the older people of West Fife to maintain or improve involvement in their communities.

Social Cafes

Weekly social cafés offer older people aged 65+ who have become isolated or lonely to meet others, socialise, take part in activities and maintain or improve involvement in their communities.

The Job

The purpose of the job is to recruit, train and support volunteers who volunteer with the people who receive our services supporting them to become actively engaged and included in their communities.

The Project Worker will provide regular support, guidance and training to volunteers and a small staff team. They will develop relationships with relevant agencies and other services to maximise opportunities for the people we support.

The Project Worker will be responsible for their own workload, daily decision making and be expected to work with minimum supervision.

About You

You will be able to demonstrate that you have a relevant qualification in Volunteer management, e.g., City and Guilds Level 3 Management of Volunteers or extensive experience working with volunteers.

Additionally, you must have previous experience of coordinating and supervising a team and demonstrate an understanding of how to work with volunteers.

It is essential that the post holder has effective communication skills including excellent written, oral and IT skills and can produce reports and analyse data. An ability to create relationships/partnerships with other voluntary and statutory agencies is a key element of this role.

The post holder must be able to drive and travel between services as required.

What’s in it for you?

The benefits of being a LinkLiving employee (subject to the policies and benefit terms and conditions) include:

• Competitive salary, reviewed annually, and opportunity for annual performance related salary increases and discretionary non-consolidated pay awards, subject to terms of the scheme
• 35 days’ holiday per year (inclusive of public holidays) pro rata plus additional 3 days pro rata after 3 years’ service, with an opportunity to buy and sell holiday
• temporary enhanced business travel mileage allowance to support employees with increased fuel costs
• access to paid SVQ qualifications and a wide range of learning and development opportunities and funded Disclosure Scotland and Scottish Social Services Council memberships
• defined contribution pension scheme with generous employer contributions plus salary exchange and additional voluntary contribution options
• life assurance scheme providing death in service benefits to named beneficiaries
• healthcare cash plan for employees (and dependents) to support health and wellbeing plus discounts on shopping, restaurants, and other services
• employee assistance programme for employees and their immediate household dependants to support health, mental and financial well-being
• discounted travel schemes including cycle to work scheme, monthly bus pass scheme and travel ticket loan and much more!

This post is subject to Protection of Vulnerable Groups (PVG) Scheme registration. Link will meet the cost of any new PVG scheme membership or scheme record update.