Community Development Worker

Do you want to help build a world where everyone feels part of a community?
Can you find strengths in the people around you and bring them together towards a shared goal?
Are you passionate about building inclusive communities?

If you answered yes to all of the above, this could be the role for you!
We’re looking for a community development worker to strengthen T&T’s existing links into Bermondsey and Rotherhithe: enhancing our reach into minoritised communities, bringing together a ‘Community Committee’ to examine ways T&T can grow and refine our all-age offer, starting new groups and projects as needed, supporting existing projects to become sustainable and taking ownership of social media and promotion.

In this role, you’ll:

•Grow co-production to the level of launching a Community Committee.
•Facilitate the launch of vibrant new, community-driven initiatives that are highly responsive to current needs and the current climate.
•Address barriers to inclusion for minoritized communities and find solutions that are practical and replicable.
•Support smaller community organisations to grow and/or recover from the pandemic.

About you

You are passionate about the power of community to connect and support people, and you like to work in collaboration with others. You are outgoing, with demonstrable experience in community development, activism or leadership. You have strong administrative skills and are particularly able to show administrative experience including managing records or database entries. You’re flexible, accountable, take responsibility, are highly organised and skilled in multitasking and balancing priorities.

Candidates from minoritised ethnic backgrounds are preferred for this role due to the specific focus on engaging with minoritised communities.

About us

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.

This role is full time, with flexibility for regular evening and occasional weekend working.

Time & Talents is wholly committed to inclusion and diversity, and to building a culture and environment where everyone is appreciated for the unique person that they are. We actively encourage applications from a broad range of backgrounds and experiences.

If you would like an informal chat about the job, please email [email protected] with your phone number and a suitable time for us to call.

Purpose of the role
We want to build a world where everyone feels part of a community and no one feels lonely or left behind, and we believe we could do more to achieve our mission. We especially want to ensure that people from minoritised backgrounds are included and always feel welcome, and this role plays an important part in our self-reflection and taking steps to ensure that is possible. Some areas of growth could include: more easy exercise that doesn’t feel exclusive; more ways to reconnect with old friends and make new ones; more shared experiences such as growing food together, eating together and learning together; and vibrant community celebrations.

The Community Development Worker will have key accountabilities that take community development work to the next level and fill any gaps, such as:

•Growing co-production to the level of launching a Community Committee.
•Facilitating the launch of vibrant new, community-driven initiatives that are highly responsive to current needs and the current climate.
•Addressing barriers to inclusion and finding solutions that are practical and replicable.
•Supporting smaller community organisations to grow and/or recover from the pandemic.

Candidates from minoritised ethnic backgrounds are preferred for this role due to the specific focus on engaging with minoritised communities.

Reports to: Delivery Manager –Children & Community
Salary: £15,600 (pro rata from £26,000 FTE)
Hours: 22.5 hours per week (3 days)
Annual Leave entitlement: 20 days (including Bank Holiday Entitlement)
Pension: Matched contribution up to 5%
Term: 4 years
Probation: 6 months

Key responsibilities:

Community outreach
•Identify gaps in T&T’s reach into the local community.
•Organise and carry out methods of outreach to minoritised and/or under-represented groups in Rotherhithe and Bermondsey.
•Develop an inclusive and diverse ‘Community Committee’ to facilitate community feedback from service users and from people who do not yet use T&T services
•Communicate across programme areas to ensure all parts of T&T are working to support the local community in ways that are most helpful to them.
Relationship management.
•Develop strong relationships with community and faith organisations and leaders linked to minoritised and/or under-represented groups.
•Manage these relationships to keep community stakeholders on board with our work, continually engaging and communicating as needed.

Service delivery
•Work with the programme streams within T&T to ensure that services are accessible and appropriate.
•Develop new services as needed, in partnership with the Delivery Managers.
•Ensure that services have mechanisms of monitoring and evaluation.
•Manage the day-to-day operations of the project

Additional Requirements
•Attend staff meetings, work proactively with the team, and contribute to the wider activities of the organisation
•Work with other staff on ad hoc projects and activities relating to your work
•Undertaking general tasks at the request of the line manager in order to maximise the smooth running of the charity and its work
•Providing cover for colleagues by agreement with the line manager in the event of staff sickness, leave, vacancies or other such temporary situations
•Taking appropriate responsibility under the Health and Safety at Work Acts and complying with all other Time & Talents policies
•Participation in evening and/or weekend events and meetings as needed
•Any other activities as deemed appropriate by the line manager

Person Specification
Qualifications (academic, technical and professional):
Desirable: NVQ or similar in social care or related field, or equivalent experience

Experience (work and tasks):
Essential: Strong local knowledge of Rotherhithe, Bermondsey and Surrey Quays areas
Essential: Experience of community development, community activism or community leadership
Desirable: Experience of Children’s / Adult Safeguarding
Desirable: Experience of working or volunteering in the voluntary / community sector, ideally with people with a wide range of needs and abilities

Skills (e.g. PC, driving)
Essential: Excellent relationship-building and teamwork skills, both inside and outside an organisation
Essential: Highly organised with excellent attention to detail and ability to multi-task, working to meet objectives and deadlines
Essential: Excellent written English, numeracy, digital literacy and IT skills including MS Office and Office 365 with proven ability to learn new systems
Essential: Ability to be self-sufficient -comfortable working remotely from some (or all) colleagues
Desirable: Full clean D1 driving licence

Competencies/ behaviours
Essential: Friendly, positive and personable manner with a high level of energy and enthusiasm
Essential: Emotionally resilient, excellent interpersonal skills and ability to deal with wide range of people
Essential: Strong affinity with the mission and values of Time & Talents and the voluntary and charity sector

COVID-19: the safety and wellbeing of our employees remains a top priority. Therefore, depending on the ongoing review of Covid-related safety concerns and/or Government restrictions on social distancing, office working and travel, there may be a requirement for some homeworking. You will therefore need to be willing and able to train/work from home and have good broadband access to do so.

What we do

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.

During the pandemic, T&T became an emergency food hub at the request of Southwark Council. In the last two years since closing the food hub, we have re-introduced most of our pre-pandemic offer, with some new additions arising out of the needs the pandemic uncovered, such as our Holiday Hunger Clubs targeting food poverty during school holidays. We are also proud to have grown a pilot self-defence group for Somali women into a multi-language women’s only boxercise group full of laughter and fun.

We are continuing to reflect on our role in ensuring that we are building a world where everyone feels part of the community, and no one is isolated or lonely. We are looking for a fresh pair of eyes to help us to scale up this work.