Community champions and partnerships coordinator jobs in belfast

We are seeking a dynamic, experienced programme coordinator to lead our Travelling with Confidence grant, engaging and empowering disabled people, promoting independent mobility, using rail and connecting modes. Working with our members and partners you will coordinate and support the delivery of this important programme, helping to ensure it is participatory, empowering, effective and well-evaluated, while sharing learnings and building a lasting legacy.

Salary: £36,400 (FTE) 

Days: Part-time, 3.5 days (25.9hrs) p/w – flexible working patterns available 

Benefits: 25 days’ annual leave plus bank holidays; pension with employer contribution of 3%; flexi-time working (core hours 10am-3pm); access to Employee Assistance Programme 

Contract type: Fixed term, until 26 February 2027 (15 months)

Location: Home-based (location flexible, within Great Britain) 

Direct reports: None, but responsible for liaison with and reporting from delivery partners 

About us 

Community Rail Network is a not-for-profit organisation, working across Britain to support a growing ‘community rail’ movement. Community rail promotes sustainable and inclusive travel, coordinates volunteering and place-making projects, and brings people together. 

Community rail is made up of 75 community-based partnership organisations, 1,300 station friends volunteer groups, and other community-led initiatives around Britain. Their activities range from creative projects with young people, to advising train operators on service improvements, to building travel confidence with families and marginalised groups, to biodiversity projects at stations, to promoting greener travel and tourism by rail. 

Our enthusiastic team of 22 works mainly from home in different locations, but we come together regularly in person and online. We work collaboratively to advise our members, provide training, events and resources, run campaigns, and champion community rail and its insights via decision-makers and the media. We believe in developing our team and supporting everyone to reach their potential while having a good work-life balance. 

Responsibilities

Programme coordination, delivery and monitoring and evaluation: 

• Ensure good coordination and communication between delivery partners and support their high-quality delivery in line with timeframes and requirements, including via steering group meetings and individual support. 

• Offer support, guidance and ideas to our delivery partners to assist their work, helping them to build capacity and confidence and meet their objectives. This includes support to engage with, and draw on the experiences, ideas and voices of disabled people.

• Support delivery partners in developing and embedding co-creation principles and empowering ways of working for their projects, drawing on good practice and expertise. 

• Work with stakeholders at all levels to facilitate positive collaboration and help develop our wider network while supporting project objectives and raising awareness about this work.

• Produce communications content to support project delivery, such as case studies and blogs, and work with our Communications and Policy team to promote the programme, its achievements, and amplify the voices/views/needs of the disabled people engaged. 

• Manage the delivery of a accompanying small grant fund (using/adapting our existing processes and systems) for other community rail partnerships/groups to deliver travel confidence initiatives with disabled people. Provide similar support and advice to those grant-funded to that offered to the core delivery partners, in line with their needs. 

• Support monitoring, data collection and meaningful evaluation by all core and grant-funded delivery partners, ensuring this is in line with project reporting requirements, and serves our goals around legacy-building and empowering those involved.

• Monitor and review project objectives, troubleshooting any issues in a timely manner. 

• Financial management of the grant budget, managing internal (Community Rail Network) budget spend as well as monitoring the delivery partner budgets in partnership with the project leads, ensuring these are in line with agreed grant funding.

Grant administration, reporting and liaison  

• Maintain and develop relations with the grant provider, ensuring we meet reporting deadlines and other requirements (such as attendance at progress meetings).

• Work with project partners to agree the data set requirements and outcome parameters for evaluation, and provide suitable reporting tools.

• Completion of grant reports and financial statements, including coordinating and reviewing project delivery data (from project partners).

Evaluation and legacy building 

• Work collaboratively with an external evaluation consultant to assess and enhance current monitoring and evaluation approaches, co-develop theories of change, and embed participatory and inclusive evaluative practices throughout the programme. 

• Produce guidance and tools to support wider delivery across community rail and beyond, working with our member support and communications teams. 

• Work with colleagues, members and partners to raise wider awareness about the project and its findings and build a legacy. This includes set up and delivery of a member webinar (with support from the events team) to share project experiences. 

Team and partnership working (as relevant and appropriate) 

• Contribute to the wider objectives and development of Community Rail Network by sharing project progress and learning and offering advice and input. Work with our member support & development team to help embed lessons from the project and improve our ongoing support for members on rail confidence initiatives and the involvement and empowerment of disabled people.

• Feed into our senior team on strategic insights and ideas emerging from the programme to help us advocate for more inclusive, confident (rail) travel for disabled people. 

• Attend, and support, community rail events (internal and external) to develop knowledge and understanding of the movement and its role. 

• Contribute to the development of our internal systems (e.g. spreadsheets, CRM) such as by data capturing relevant contacts and details.

• As a member of the Community Rail Network team, assist with more general work as needed. 

Skills and competencies 

1. A proven track record in project management, including coordinating between multiple delivery partners and ensuring project/funding requirements are met, and supporting/overseeing effective monitoring and evaluation. 
2. Demonstrable experience in supporting community projects, ideally related to inclusion and mobility, including working with disabled people. 
3. A good understanding of and confidence using community engagement, local communications, project planning and evaluation techniques. 
4. The ability to collaborate and communicate with community groups and other local partners, draw on their views and expertise, and support them to deliver effectively. 
5. Excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to work confidently with stakeholders at all levels and facilitate positive discussion; articulate and assertive, and a great team player. 
6. A proven ability to bring partners and groups together, develop and maintain mutually-beneficial partnerships, deliver joint activities, and form professional networks. 
7. Good writing and analysis skills, with the ability to draw on quantitative and qualitative evidence, produce case studies and reports. 
8. Awareness of accessibility, social mobility and social inclusion issues, and an appreciation of the importance of rail, sustainable travel and mobility to communities and disabled people.
9. A demonstrable ability to manage time effectively and juggle a range of activities in an organised, professional, productive manner, including planning and scheduling, coordinating with colleagues and partners, and bringing projects to fruition.

Other information

This post is home-based, but with some travel (including occasional overnight stays) for project meetings, events and external meetings. Applicants will need local access to a train station to enable rail-based travel for work as needed.

This is a fixed term contract and includes a probationary period of three months from the date of appointment. Successful applicants will need to provide proof that they have the right to work in the UK and provide two references.  Start date for the role is 1 December 2025, or as soon as possible after this date.

We are committed to being a flexible, supportive, inclusive and understanding. Community Rail Network is an equal opportunities employer. We welcome applications from disabled people, who meet the skills for this role, and support positive representation within our workforce. We will provide reasonable adjustments for interviews as required.