We are seeking a Youth Work Director to lead and inspire our youth work.
Can you lead our passionate youth work team and deliver outstanding support for young people?
At The Mix Stowmarket Ltd., we support young people between 8 and 25 years throughout mid Suffolk, offering a wide range of established and highly respected youth work and educational programmes. Our reputation for youth work is second to none.
We see a future in which young people are change makers, with clear confident voices that are heard. A future in which any young person from any background can grow and flourish to become their best selves. In that future they exercise both their rights and responsibilities and invest their lives in building strong communities. We walk together with young people as trusted partners who support, guide, inspire and empower them with that future in mind. We are The Mix.
You will be highly experienced in youth work with a real understanding of young people, a flair for getting the most out of people and delivering the best results. We require your extensive knowledge of the sector, including first-hand experience of supporting young people with their personal, professional, and educational needs.
As a senior leader, you will play a key role in developing and delivering our strategic ambitions, developing the team, maintaining the highest standards, and ensuring a lasting positive impact for young people and the wider community.
The right candidate will be an experienced leader, passionate about youth work and able demonstrate sound management and people skills experience.
The Mix Stowmarket Ltd. are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. Any job offers are subject to the completion of satisfactory pre-employment checks including role-specific DBS (Criminal Record) checks.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
LOCATION: Based out of our Training Centre in Great Horwood, near Milton Keynes with responsibility for puppies placed with socialisers in Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Northamptonshire (with possible travel outside these areas from time to time)
JOB TYPE: Full time permanent, with occasional evening and weekends required
Medical Detection Dogs trains dogs to save lives.
We train specialist dogs to detect the odour of human disease, providing life-saving alert assistance dogs to people with complex health problems across the UK and collaborating with NHS Trusts and other researchers and Universities both in the UK and internationally to advance the early diagnosis of disease.
We have an exciting new opportunity to join this small but fast-growing charity that is a world leader in its specialist innovative field.
The Job
The welfare of our dogs is very important to us. We have a no kennel policy and all our dogs live in the homes of volunteer puppy socialisers for about the first 20 months. We are committed to providing quality training and support for all our dogs, and the volunteers who look after them.
We are looking for someone with the skills, experience and passion to join our team of trainers responsible for organising and monitoring the progress of our puppies and young dogs to ensure they receive the highest standard of socialisation and early training, thereby maximising their chances of becoming a Medical Detection Dog.
Reports to: Socialising Training Coordinator
Responsibilities
Training and Development of Puppies
· Take responsibility for a cohort of puppies allocated to socialisers living in your geographical area.
· Provide training that meets the charity’s quality standards and in accordance with timescales and targets.
· To deliver effective training by holding puppy classes, 121’s and home visits with socialisers in your geographical area.
· To prepare the puppy to be a Medical Alert Assistance Dog.
· Regularly monitor progress of the puppies in your area and provide detailed, evidenced feedback to the senior team within Dog Supply and training.
· Support and assist with the potential matches for a particular assistance dog partnership and in consultation with the Socialising Trainer Coordinator, provide any client specific training needed prior to the match.
Socialiser Support
· Be the first point of contact for the socialisers in your area, which will include guidance and instruction to socialisers on handling, behaviour and training of the dogs under your supervision.
· Provide general health care advice within your core working hours.
· To support when required on dog emergencies that arise out of your core hours.
Socialiser Recruitment
· Assist in the recruitment of new volunteer socialisers.
· Carry out home checks to assess prospective new socialisers.
Other
· Update the Harlequin CRM database in a timely fashion to ensure accurate and up to date training, veterinary and health records.
· Support the charity’s fundraising, communications and volunteering teams as required, specifically in relation to your area.
· From time to time you may be required to have a dog live with you for additional training for a set period.
· Share best practice with colleagues across the charity.
Other tasks or ad hoc duties agreed with your line manager required to ensure the successful running of the charity.
PERSON SPECIFICATION
SKILLS AND ABILITIES
· Ability to demonstrate high quality judgement and a proven track record in relation to the following:
• Dog training matters including the analysis of temperaments, appropriate training methods and requirements necessary to maintain public confidence in assistance dogs.
• Solutions to training and behavioural problems.
• Socialiser training including the ability to assess each person’s preferred learning style and adapt as appropriate your training approach, the specific programmes to be followed,
• Welfare and safety and appropriate time for referral to others.
• Appropriate support to apprentices
• Dealings with other staff, clients and members of the public
· Strong and clear teaching and instructing skills.
· Ability to plan work, be organised and ensure that time is utilised effectively for yourself, colleagues and socialisers.
· Ability to communicate effectively and appropriately with a wide range of people internally and externally. This will include clients and their families, fosterers, other professional service providers, members of the public, the media, managers and other colleagues.
· High level of IT literacy and report writing skills including experience
· of using Microsoft based programs such as Outlook, Word, Excel, Internet Explorer and Power Point.
KNOWLEDGE & EXPERIENCE
Practical knowledge in the following areas:
· Experience of working with Assistance Dogs and ADI regulations
· Basic theory of practical dog training.
· Law in relation to dogs.
· Knowledge of medical conditions relevant to puppies between 8 weeks and 2 years of age.
· Dog and human psychology.
· Health and safety implications of dog and socialiser handling.
PERSONAL ATTRIBUTES
You should be supportive of the charitable aims of Medical Detection Dogs and capable of working as part of a team, as well as able to motivate yourself.
You should be adaptable and positively embrace change by not only being flexible towards the ideas of others but also putting forward ideas to colleagues. This will involve creativity in problem solving and making appropriate responses to new ideas and unexpected situations.
Values & Behaviours
There are a few key values that we believe are important in the workplace:
· Respect
· Cooperation
· Honesty
· Fairness
Based on the values listed above, we encourage the behaviours below in the charity:
· Respectful communication
· Cooperating with others
· Honesty in all interactions
· Fairness in decision making
Benefits
· Sick Pay
· Health Cover
· 26 days holiday, increasing with service
· 5% Employer Pension Contribution
· Free On-site parking
Finally, the successful candidate will also be expected to:
- Hold a full UK Driving Licence
- Provide proof of identity and eligibility to work in the UK.
- Undertake a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check
Job title: Regional Director, East and Southern Africa
Principal Location: Nairobi (other strategic locations in East Africa negotiable)
Role Purpose:
Street Child is a rapidly growing, child-focused, humanitarian and development organisation. In 2023, Street Child celebrated reaching over one million children across 25 countries over its fifteen years of existence. This was accomplished with and through a growing network of more than 200 national and local actors. The Regional Director will be a standard bearer of this ambition in East and Southern Africa, providing leadership across all countries where Street Child is operational while monitoring and pursuing growth opportunities across the region. As Street Child’s most senior representative in the region, the Regional Director will guide and drive the organisation to deliver on the objective of ensuring all children are safe, in school, and learning.
As Street Child actively seeks opportunities to expand its support for the most marginalized girls and boys, the Regional Director will be responsible for providing outstanding leadership and for resourcing and delivering high impact programming across East and Southern Africa. The Regional Director will work to identify and advance partnerships with regional, national, and local actors, as well as donors. This will require bringing a strong network to the role along with energy to represent Street Child in organisational, regional, and global forums. As Street Child country teams drive delivery for girls and boys, the Regional Director will work with country directors to develop high-functioning teams to deliver and resource ambitious regional and country strategies.
The Regional Director will manage one regional programme coordinator and will progressively assume responsibility for line management of country directors in East and Southern Africa.
Key Responsibilities:
- The Regional Director will act as chief motivator, working collaboratively with country, regional, and head office teams to:
- Cultivate enthusiastic and high-performing teams through outstanding leadership:
- Build, lead and motivate an ambitious and enthusiastic team of Street Child Country Directors and Strategic Leadership Teams.
- Oversee and support the recruitment and development of passionate, motivated, and technically excellent Street Child staff.
- Strengthen Street Child’s culture of learning, for both staff and local partners, by identifying professional and organisational development opportunities that respond to self-identified capacity gaps.
- Build a supportive network of learning and information exchange between regional county teams.
- Be a frequent in-person presence in operational countries, sometimes spending extended periods to support leadership at the country level, including in insecure contexts.
- Oversee the management of partnerships in countries in East and Southern Africa where Street Child does not maintain a direct presence.
- Drive resource mobilization across the East and Southern Africa region, for country programmes, regional strategy, and partners:
- In close collaboration with country leadership, identify country-level needs, seek out opportunities, and support in the development of winning proposals for country programmes.
- Across the region, identify needs and gaps, and drive new potential expansion opportunities in line with Street Child’s global strategy.
- Guide programmatic excellence across the region through robust strategy development and high-quality programme delivery:
- Develop a technically robust and evidence-based regional strategy that identifies Street Child’s comparative value and strategic goals in the region, across humanitarian, development and refugee contexts.
- Continuously consult with Country Directors, programme managers and local partners to ensure programme design and delivery is iterative, adaptive and quality-assured and impact is clearly measured.
- Provide support to local partners to develop organisational development plans and their own high-functioning leadership structures.
- Oversee and work closely with the regional finance team in their development and delivery of accurate, value for money budgets and robust operational processes.
- Ensure that operations and programmes in East and Southern Africa are conducted in line with Street Child’s policies and standards, including in the areas of safeguarding, safety and security, HR, finance.
1) Be a passionate representative of Street Child and our partners, across the organisation and in external forums:
- Represent Street Child at the highest level in East and Southern Africa, including pro-active participation in relevant coordination mechanisms at national and regional level.
- Represent Street Child and the needs of children in East and Southern Africa in global for a as required.
2) Advance and diversify partnerships with the local actors who respond to the needs of girls and boys in their communities, and with donors who can resource the work:
- Lead the development of strategic partnerships with relevant actors including donors, INGOs and local/national government, including at the regional level.
- Oversee the development of a resource mobilisation strategy for the region based on Street Child’s expertise and donor priorities.
- Lead and/or support Country Directors in the development of high-quality and highly competitive institutional funding proposals.
- Proactive engagement with Street Child UK head office and programmes team on strategic, networking and fundraising activities.
- The Key Responsibilities provide a high-level view of the Regional Director role. These responsibilities will evolve as the Regional Director expands Street Child’s reach across East and Southern Africa. Street Child operates with an entrepreneurial spirit that may require staff to step-up and step-in to reasonable tasks beyond the initial description of their role. The Regional Director may occasionally be called upon to provide surge or scoping support to other parts of Street Child Programmes as delegated by the Director of Global Programmes.
Qualifications and Experience:
- Significant senior management experience, leading high-functioning programme regional or county teams in the humanitarian and development sector. Previous experience as a country or regional director is preferred.
- Strong strategic thinker, with demonstrated expertise developing, resourcing, and delivering strategic plans at the regional or country level.
- Demonstrable experience of proposal development and/or winning funding; Experience in both humanitarian and development contexts.
- Strong command of the localisation agenda, and commitment to local level leadership and decision-making.
- Strong experience delivering high quality education and/or child protection programming.
- Excellent written and spoken communications in English.
- Experience working in the East and Southern Africa region.
- Demonstrated experience working closely with and in support of a multitude of partners including those from local civil society, government, and the private sector.
- Excellent relationship building skills, with an ability to skillfully navigate both national and international stakeholders.
- Willingness to actively engage in program development with country teams including extended missions to support at country level (significant travel expected).
- Additional language skills with a preference for Swahili, Portuguese, French, Somali, or other regional language
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.