Advocate jobs in Birmingham, west midlands

Support and Advocacy Practitioner

Kairos Women Working Together is looking for a Support and Advocacy Practitioner to join our specialist women’s organisation in Coventry.

Since 1999, Kairos has walked alongside women facing multiple intersecting disadvantage and therefore subject to, or at risk of, sexual exploitation. Through support, advocacy and community, we work with women to increase options and opportunities, strengthen voice and agency, and empower them to create the futures they want for themselves.

This is an exciting time to join Kairos. We are growing our work through our Women’s Hub, strengthening our specialist support offer, and developing our role as a place of safety, advocacy, community and change for women in Coventry.

About the role

This is a frontline practitioner role providing women-centred, trauma-informed, holistic support.

You will manage a caseload, provide one-to-one support and advocacy, contribute to safeguarding and risk work, support drop-ins and outreach, facilitate group activity, and work closely with partner agencies.

The work is meaningful, challenging and deeply relational. The women we walk alongside are often facing significant trauma, risk, exclusion, crisis and harm. This means the role can be tough. Sometimes very tough. It requires emotional resilience, good boundaries, reflective capacity and the ability to stay grounded when things are complex or uncertain.

But this work is also full of purpose, hope and possibility. At Kairos, you will see the difference that trusted relationships, practical advocacy, women-only spaces and long-term support can make.

Kairos is rooted in feminist values and an analysis of power, inequality and men’s violence against women and girls. Our work is practical and frontline, but it is also activist in nature. We support individual women, and we also seek to challenge the systems, attitudes and injustices that create and sustain harm.

Who we are looking for

We are looking for someone who shares our values of Hope, Compassion, Empowerment, Solidarity, Voice and Justice.

We are not only interested in formal qualifications or traditional career routes. Relevant experience may come from paid work, volunteering, community work, activism, study, caring responsibilities, personal learning or lived experience.

What matters most is your ability to build trust, listen without judgement, hold strong boundaries, manage complexity, advocate clearly, reflect on your practice and work in a way that is rooted in Kairos’ values.

We do not expect anyone to arrive knowing everything. Kairos is a learning organisation, and staff are supported through regular line management, reflective supervision, external clinical supervision and access to relevant training and development.

Diversity, accessibility and lived experience

The voices of women with lived experience are centred in everything that we do. We encourage lived experience across the whole organisation, including volunteers, staff, senior leadership and our board of trustees.

We want Kairos to reflect the diversity of the women we support. We actively encourage applications from Black, minoritised and migrant women; women with disabilities; lesbian and bisexual women; and working-class women.

You will be welcomed, supported and respected in a culture that values authenticity, honesty and sisterhood.

We are committed to making our recruitment process as accessible as possible. If you need information in a different format, reasonable adjustments, or support to take part in the recruitment process, please contact us.

Role details

Job title: Support and Advocacy Practitioner
Salary: £29,779 per annum
Hours: 37 hours per week
Contract: Permanent
Location: Kairos Women’s Hub, The Old Grammar School, 31 Silver Street, Coventry, CV1 1HP
Reporting to: Support and Services Lead
Working pattern: Hub and community based, with occasional hybrid working. The role includes some evening work, currently Wednesdays, as part of our outreach and drop-in rota. Very occasional weekend work may be required for events or fundraising activity.
Annual leave: 25 days, rising by one day for each year of service up to 30 days, plus bank holidays.
Wellbeing offer: One paid wellbeing hour each week, paid wellbeing break between Christmas and New Year, access to Employee Assistance Programme, external clinical supervision, team wellbeing activities and optional Blue Light Card scheme.

This post is open to female applicants only as an occupational requirement under Schedule 9, Part 1 of the Equality Act 2010. This is due to the nature of the role and Kairos’ work as a specialist women-only organisation supporting women subject to, or at risk of, men’s violence, abuse and sexual exploitation.

An enhanced DBS check will be required. The role also requires a full driving licence and access to a vehicle with business insurance, as practitioners may need to travel across Coventry and transport women as part of their support. Mileage is reimbursed.

How to apply

Please apply by submitting your CV and a covering letter.

Your covering letter should explain why you are interested in the role and how your experience, knowledge, skills, values and aptitude meet the person specification in the recruitment pack.

Please give clear examples from your paid work, volunteering, community work, activism, study, caring responsibilities, personal learning or lived experience where relevant.

We do not expect you to meet every desirable criterion. If you connect with Kairos’ mission and can show that you have the values, insight and potential needed for this work, we would welcome your application.

Closing date: 26 July 2026 at 11:55pm
Interview dates: 20 and 21 August 2026

Please read the full recruitment pack before applying.

The GAMH Research, Policy and Advocacy Officer is a new post that will play a central role in advancing GAMH’s global policy and advocacy agenda, helping to strengthen and elevate the focus on the health and wellbeing of men within national, regional and global policy environments. The postholder will design and deliver policy advocacy initiatives, generate high-quality research, write reports and publications, support project coordination, engage stakeholders and partners, and support communications to influence decision-makers aimed at improving health and wellbeing outcomes for men and boys within a gender equality framework. The position will work across all GAMH workstreams, with a particular focus on men’s health in Europe, prostate cancer and human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination programmes.

This exciting new role will is being created at a time of organisational expansion and growing interest in men’s health worldwide. It will require attendance at meetings in London and the South East of England and occasional European/international travel will also be required.

Key Responsibilities

1. Policy Advocacy and Campaign Development

• Develop and contribute to GAMH’s policy positions and advocacy on key men’s health issues, with a particular focus on men’s health in Europe, prostate cancer and HPV.
• Monitor and analyse key policy developments relevant to men’s health and the work of GAMH across prevention, early diagnosis, screening, treatment, and support.
• Support the design and delivery of advocacy strategies and campaigns targeting policymakers, professional societies, international non-governmental organisations and other international bodies.
• Support coalition and network building by GAMH to strengthen policy responses on men’s health.
• Prepare policy briefings and advocacy materials.

2. Research, Analysis and Writing

• Conduct and synthesise research on men’s health issues, including policy analysis, epidemiology, and literature reviews.
• Write high-quality accessible reports, evidence summaries, position papers and publications to support GAMH’s work.
• Identify relevant gaps in policy data and evidence relating to men’s health. 

3. Project Coordination and support

• Manage the development of a European Men’s Health report.
• Play a leading role in, and support, the development of GAMH’s Global Prostate Cancer Initiative and wider work on prostate cancer policy.

• Assist in the planning and delivery of other GAMH projects, as necessary.
• Contribute to funding proposals and reporting to donors.

4. Stakeholder Engagement and Partnerships

• Support the strengthening of GAMH engagement with national men’s health networks and its members, particularly in Europe.
• Build and maintain relationships with key stakeholders across each of the relevant GAMH workstreams, including policymakers, non-governmental organisations, UN agencies, academics and researchers, patient organisations, professional bodies, advocates and industry.
• Represent GAMH at meetings, conferences, and events (as required).
• Attend and report to the GAMH Board of Trustees (as required)

5. Communications, Dissemination and Impact

• Support the dissemination of GAMH reports, campaigns, and advocacy outputs.
• Support launch event/s of GAMH and initiatives and reports.
• Contribute to GAMH’s website, newsletters, and social media channels.
• Support monitoring and evaluation of GAMH advocacy and research activities.

Person Specification

Essential

• Degree (or equivalent experience) in health policy, public health, or a related field.
• Demonstrable experience in policy advocacy, campaigns and research.
• Experience of research, analysing and synthesising complex information into clear evidence-based written outputs.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills (in English), with ability to adapt content for different audiences.
• Strong organisational skills and attention to detail.
• Confidence working with senior stakeholders and external partners.
• Ability to work independently and manage multiple priorities.
• Strong interest in gender and global health issues, particularly men’s health.
• Commitment to GAMH’s mission and values.

Desirable

• Experience working on policy and research related to one or more GAMH focus areas, particularly cancer, mental health, primacy care, self-care and sexual and reproductive health.
• Experience and understanding of working on gender and health issues, particularly men’s health.
• Knowledge of European and global health policy institutions and processes.
• Experience working at an international level in an NGO, government, professional body, university or other context.
• Experience in stakeholder engagement and partnership development.
• Additional European language(s).

Skills and attributes

• Highly organised and reliable.
• Ability to work independently and remotely (home-based).
• Ability to work across multiple topics and deadlines simultaneously.
• Collaborative and proactive.
• Adaptable.
• Takes initiative.
• Communication and influencing ability.

What We Offer

• Competitive salary and benefits.
• Annual leave, statutory sick pay and parental leave, pension contribution scheme.
• Opportunity to contribute to a growing global movement on men’s health.
• A flexible and supportive working environment.
• Exposure and engagement with national and international partners, policymakers, funders and senior leaders.
• An exciting mission-driven and collaborative working environment.

The Advocacy Director holds primary responsibility for delivering ECC’s advocacy strategy internationally and within the UK. This strategy aims to ensure states’ legal obligations on casualty recording are recognised and upheld globally, and that casualty data is used effectively to shape policy responses to conflict.

ECC’s advocacy work is focused primarily within the human rights and humanitarian multilateral fora in Geneva, but also incorporates work with New York-based UN targets within the security field. In parallel, as a UK-based organisation, we seek to influence domestic decision-makers including those within the FCDO, MoD, and parliament.

The Advocacy Director will be ECC's most senior external face after the Executive Director. As a key figure within a small organisation, the Advocacy Director will lead advocacy activity directly, building and stewarding relationships with state delegations, UK parliamentarians, UN officials, and civil society partners. The role requires exceptional political judgment, fluency across both multilateral and Westminster environments, and the credibility to represent ECC at the most senior national and international levels.

Note: This role is being advertised at the same time as the Executive Director role, as both functions were previously filled by the same person. Candidates can apply for the Advocacy Director role alone, or apply for both roles to combine as a full-time position. Please see full details in the Executive Director job description and advert.