Are you passionate about making a difference to the lives of young people? Do you want a flexible, varied and meaningful job in a supportive team? Do you value great employee benefits such as 360 Wellbeing membership and an annual training budget? Apply to join us!

Bridges Project is a leading youth work charity that helps young people aged 12-25 in East Lothian and Midlothian overcome challenges and adapt to adulthood. For nearly 40 years, we have helped young people develop their life skills, improve their educational attainment and move into employment or further education.

We have a vacancy for an Educational Support Worker to deliver an effective casework and group work service to young people experiencing a range of challenges such as non-attendance at school, low attainment, poor mental health and family poverty.

The successful candidate will:

• Support young people to gain employability skills, life skills and accreditation; helping them in to work, apprenticeships, further education or vocational training
• Provide vocational/industry specific accreditation and training to groups of young people alongside individual support to address particular barriers
• Take the lead on the service and to provide an effective interface between young people, partners and stakeholders involved in the service.

This is an exciting position in which the successful candidate will take pride in developing a programme of delivery which will provide young people with clear pathways to positive destinations.

It is essential that candidates have a full, clean driving licence and constant use of a car. Membership of the PVG scheme will be an essential requirement of the post. A contributory company pension scheme is offered with a 10% employer contribution.

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).

Kidscene is an after school and holiday club for children from the schools in the surrounding area as well as children from the Royal Blind School who have additional support needs as well as a vision impairment.

You will ensure all the children who attend Kidscene feel included and safe by assisting with day to day activities, you will do this by providing quality play and care within the framework of the club’s policies and procedures.

About us

We're one of Scotland's oldest charities - for more than two centuries, we've been supporting and empowering people with sight loss to live fulfilling lives. We're proud of all we've achieved in the past - but we have our sights set firmly on the future.

We're determined that no-one should face sight loss alone. We're committed to improving, diversifying and growing our services to make sure we can reach many more people with sight loss - when and where they need us.

The Scottish Schools Pipes and Drums Trust (SSPDT) is a national charity that supports and partners a wide range of not-for-profit organisations, community groups, and small and large charities in Scotland. You can read more about our work at sspdt.org.uk

Whilst the SSPDT is in a position to award grants to support youth music-making programmes, we are aware that volunteer fundraisers in communities often find it hard to find match funding because of a lack of time and knowledge. Although they run excellent programmes, they are much less likely to be able to secure funding than their professional, paid, fundraising counterparts, who are employed by larger, better funded organisations.

This new fundraising role will improve equality of access to funding for a range of volunteer groups across Scotland. By so doing, the role will expand opportunities for young people to learn instrumental music, and to make music and perform with others, building confidence, teamwork, resilience, perseverance and other important skills for life, learning and work.

We are looking for an entrepreneurial, energetic individual who enjoys innovation, coaching, and has an ey for strategy as well as detail. We are a small, friendly team working in lovely office in central Edinburgh as well as remotely.