Community Activities Facilitator

Are you an experienced, creative, and highly organised groups facilitator?
Do you care deeply about the welfare of older adults and isolated older men?
Do you have experience in social care or working with people with a wide variety of needs and abilities?

If you answered yes to all of the above, this could be the role for you!

We’re looking for an experienced and skilled individual who will plan and deliver group activities to help reduce loneliness, improve health and wellbeing and increase opportunities for older adults and their carers to connect with their local community, particularly older men and older adults living with dementia.

The role

In this role, you'll deliver three of our existing groups: Ruby Tuesdays, Men's Pub Club and Men’s Walking Group. Ruby Tuesdays is a social contact group for people aged 55+ with dementia or memory impairment. The Wednesday Pub Club is a well-established weekly drop-in, social group for men aged 55+ in Rotherhithe and Bermondsey. Sitting alongside Pub Club is a weekly walk around London that was requested by members, providing an opportunity for exercise and social interaction, extending our offer to men who might feel less comfortable with the pub environment.

A key part of the role is involving older adults and carers themselves in the delivery of the programme as volunteers, and involving people of all ages and backgrounds from the local community - from NHS health professionals to local artists and students. You will also need to build individual relationships of trust with older participants, and work closely with rest of the Older Adults team, and the wider T&T team, to ensure we take a joined-up approach to caring for individuals.

About you

The role needs someone creative, energetic, passionate, but importantly, also highly organised. You must be as comfortable making sure a minibus schedule is up to date, as you are delivering craft activities or quizzes, or as comfortable hosting NHS professionals delivering healthcare advice, as you would be helping run an escorted visit to a local city farm. You need to have lots of ideas, and be highly ambitious, but also be able to make your ideas happen.

Most of all, we are looking for someone who cares deeply about the welfare of older adults and their carers, and is able to react quickly and appropriately to emerging issues – especially to the more serious care issues we inevitably encounter. While appropriate training will be given, we are looking for candidates with some social care experience ideally.

This role is two days per week on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, with flexibility for regular evening and occasional weekend working.

QUALIFICATIONS:

Essential:
There are no essential qualifications.

Desirable:
-NVQ or similar in social care or related field
-Professional qualification, degree or equivalent experience

EXPERIENCE:

Essential:
-Experience of working with and understanding of care and support needs of older people with dementia and older men
-Experience of project managing and delivering a successful programme of activities
-Experience of facilitating groups of up to 20+ people
-Experience of developing, starting, and delivering new activities and projects
-Experience of working or volunteering in the voluntary and community sector
-Experience of working with older adults, preferably with a range of levels of need
-Experience of working with people with disabilities including sensory impairments
-Experience of Adult Safeguarding

Desirable:
-Experience of working in a community setting, with people with a wide range of needs and abilities
-Counselling, social care work or health professional background or voluntary sector in the field of elderly care.
-Knowledge and understanding of conditions relating to older people e.g. mental health issues, dementia, sensory loss and long-term chronic conditions
-Experience of creating and delivering digital activities
-Experience of supporting volunteers and peer-led projects

SKILLS:

Essential:
-Active and physically able to escort older people on walking tours to local establishments
-Excellent relationship building skills, both inside and outside an organisation
-Strong multitasking abilities and ability to work to meet objectives and to meet deadlines
-Ability to work collaboratively and experience of working well in a team
-Highly organised with excellent attention to detail
-Good presentation skills
-Excellent standard of written English and numeracy skills
-Excellent digital literacy and IT skills including MS Office, Office 365 and experience of database use, with proven ability to learn new systems
-Ability to work as part of a team as well as being self-sufficient - comfortable working remotely from some (or all) colleagues

Desirable:
-Full clean driving licence

COMPETENCIES/BEHAVIOURS:

Essential:
-Friendly, positive and personable manner with a high level of energy and enthusiasm
-Emotionally resilient, excellent interpersonal skills and ability to deal with wide range of people
-Strong affinity with the mission and values of Time & Talents and the voluntary and charity sector
-Willing and able to undertake occasional out of hours working when required

Time & Talents is a lively, busy community centre in the heart of Rotherhithe, SE16. Set in a leafy heritage building, and ‘T&T2’, our second venue in Surrey Quays Shopping Centre, we offer something for everyone. With a history of 135 years of supporting people of all ages in Rotherhithe and Bermondsey, we bring people together for mutual support, fun and friendship, with a wide range of services and activities for older people and other adults, along with volunteering and children and families’ projects.

We work with around 400 older adults and their carers a year, many of whom are very frail and elderly. Sadly, though they very often get left out: their friendships and networks disappear, family and friends move away, and they end up very lonely and isolated. Once that happens, mental and physical illness too often follow. We believe that surrounding older adults with a welcoming, nurturing community, is vital to improving and maintaining their wellbeing. We also know they want to thrive, create, feel a sense of purpose, and continue living their lives to the full, for their whole lives.

In response to this we offer one to one support and case-working, befriending, and an exciting programme of social and support groups with fully escorted transport. We also run fun events and intergenerational activities to bring the whole community together. From reminiscence, art, music, and health and wellbeing advice, to outings and new and exciting experiences, no two days are the same.

We are an energetic, experienced, and passionate team of 17, with a strong sense of shared purpose and a lively sense of humour. You’ll have the chance to make a big contribution to a growing, ambitious and innovative organisation which has doubled its reach and impact in recent years.