Community Engagement Officer
£30,000 - £34,000 (dependent on relevant skills and experience) plus generous benefits
Location: Home-based, with occasional travel to Football Foundation offices and other sites
We are the Football Foundation - the Premier League, the FA and government’s charity that delivers outstanding grassroots facilities, more and better places to play, transforming lives and communities where it is needed most.
To help us with this important mission, we’re looking for a Community Engagement Officer to join the team and play a key role in ensuring we achieve our objectives of engaging with and increasing physical activity levels amongst the four key priority groups facing the greatest inequalities: low socio-economic groups, women and girls, disabled people and people with long term health conditions, and culturally diverse communities.
This is an exciting time to be joining the Football Foundation and this is a great opportunity to use your knowledge and experience of place-based working and community engagement to make a real difference through community sports.
About the Football Foundation
Over the last 22 years, the Foundation has awarded more than 23,000 grants to deliver outstanding grassroots facilities across England worth more than £877 million. This year, the Foundation will be investing more money than ever into facilities across England and is committed to improving the experience of playing football for everyone.
The Foundation’s goal is to unlock the power of pitches ensuring everyone has a great place to play regardless of gender, race, disability or place
The role
As Community Engagement Officer you will play a key role in ensuring the Foundation achieves its objectives of engaging with and increasing physical activity levels amongst the four key priority groups facing the greatest inequalities: low socio-economic groups, women and girls, disabled people and people with long term health conditions, and culturally diverse communities. This will predominantly be achieved through the critical support you will provide to our ambitious PlayZones Programme, as we continue to roll the programme out across priority areas of the Country.
We have an ambition to deliver in excess of 200 PlayZone facilities by 2025. To realise this ambition, we’re going to focus on investing in safe, inclusive, and accessible facilities in communities with the greatest need. We will tackle inequalities in physical activity levels and create inclusive opportunities for our priority groups to become active through recreational formats of football and other sports and activities.
With a great deal to do, the role will be pivotal in working with local groups to support them through the application process, and to ensure high quality projects are being developed based on local community need.
The role sits within the Football Foundation’s Delivery Team, the team responsible for strategic identification and capital project delivery, reporting to the Community Engagement Lead and with responsibility for a portfolio of PlayZone programme areas within one of the Delivery Team geographical regions.
You will provide critical support to applicants and work extremely closely with our network of Delivery Managers & Officers to advise and agree community engagement plans for a range of Over £25k projects – helping to ensure their engagement is robust, but that applicants also receive support and guidance as required throughout the development of their application.
Community Engagement Officers will champion the benefits of great engagement, capturing good practice, identifying successful approaches, and share knowledge and learning across the Foundation and other stakeholders.
What are we looking for?
You don’t need to follow football to apply, but it is expected that you appreciate the power of sport to change lives and have a genuine interest in using your skills and experience to help the Foundation achieve our charitable and strategic objectives.
You must be educated to HND/Degree standard, or with the equivalent experience, with knowledge of how sports development can be used for community benefit. You must have strong communication and interpersonal skills with experience of communicating with and supporting a diverse range of colleagues and customers remotely.
Your knowledge of place-based working and how to best reach and engage with local communities will be key for this role, as well as your understanding of the inequalities that exist in supporting active lives across socio economic groups, women & girls, individuals with a disability or a long-term health condition, and culturally diverse communities. You will be aware of and have experience of dealing with the operations and challenges faced by community organisations, charities, and the voluntary sector.
You must be highly organised, with working knowledge of different project management techniques and experience of managing multiple projects at the same time. While not essential, experience of producing robust reports and of using dashboards to monitor the progress of projects would be useful.
How we achieve our goals is equally important to us. We are striving to be an inclusive and diverse organisation which reflects the diverse communities, users and beneficiaries of our work and the outcomes we deliver. Becoming part of the Football Foundation team, will give you the chance to deliver a positive impact in every community in England; to help transform lives and communities through great places to play; and to be part of a supportive and inclusive staff team that works hard and plays fair to achieve its goals.
For full details of the role and requirements, please download our recruitment pack below.
What can we offer you?
The salary for this role is £30,000 - £34,000 per annum (dependent on relevant skills and experience). You will start on 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays (which increases after 2 years), plus additional time off to volunteer. We also offer a generous pension scheme (8% employer contribution), collective bonus scheme, free health care provision, a monthly gym subsidy, interest-free season ticket loan, death in service benefit and access to selected match tickets
We are committed to helping our team members maintain a healthy work-life balance, so offer flexible working around core hours to help achieve that.
Equality and Diversity Commitment
The Football Foundation is committed to, and values the principles of diversity, equality, and inclusion. We strive to provide an inclusive and supportive working environment where all our team feel respected and supported in fulfilling their potential. We encourage and welcome applications from all, regardless of background and are particularly interested to hear from individuals belonging to under-represented groups including diverse ethnic communities, individuals with a disability and those from the LGBTQI+ community.
Should you need any adjustments to the recruitment process, at either application or interview stage, please contact us at jobs @ footballfoundation. org .uk
How do I apply?
To apply, please follow the steps outlined below:
1. Please send the following to jobs @ footballfoundation. org. uk
o CV
o Cover letter - please highlight briefly and clearly how your skills, abilities and experience equip you for the role, together with your reasons for applying.
The closing date for applications is: Wednesday 22 May 2024 at midday
Interviews are currently scheduled for 30 May 2024.
Due to the volume of applications received for most roles, the Foundation only contacts candidates if they are shortlisted for interview. If you do not hear from us within two weeks of the closing date, you should assume your application has not been successful.
Please note that you must be eligible to work in the UK to apply.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Using Anonymous Recruitment
This organisation is using Anonymous Recruitment to reduce bias in the first stages of the hiring process. Our system keeps your personal information hidden until the recruiter contacts you.
Background
Chapter One is a dynamic, growing charity with a vision of a world in which all children have the literacy skills needed to thrive. Our mission is to close the reading gap by providing children with one-to-one support at the time they need it most. We work in eleven areas/regions of the UK and will support 3250 children in 2024-25.
Our unique Online Reading Volunteer programme pairs struggling five to seven-year old (KS1) readers with reading support volunteers who are working professionals. The volunteer ask is very focused: readers commit 30 minutes a week to read with a child using a bespoke digital platform for an entire academic year. The results are transformative, boosting children's reading confidence and ability.
From a school perspective, online reading volunteers provide direct, meaningful literacy support for up to 10 pupils per class. The programme is particularly suitable for communities where it might be challenging to find parents and other volunteers who can commit to physically visiting schools to boost reading.
Job Summary
Chapter One is seeking a London Programme Manager who is an excellent communicator and is able both to motivate and support schools and teachers to implement our online reading volunteers programme, and also to ensure that the programme’s impact and benefit to disadvantaged communities is maximised throughout the academic year.
The post is ideal for someone looking for part-time, flexible, term-time only work from a home base and who is able to travel frequently around London. Chapter One currently works in the following London boroughs: Barnet, Camden, Haringey, Islington, Lambeth, Newham, Tower Hamlets, Southwark. The postholder will be joining a team of established Programme Managers (also part-time) who work in different parts of the UK and will need to have some flexibility to work additional hours during busy autumn months, and conversely to work fewer hours during quieter periods of the year.
Key Responsibilities:
• Effectively explain Chapter One’s online reading volunteer programme and its benefits to school leaders and teachers
• Install, setup and maintain Chapter One equipment in participating classrooms
• Fully understand the operation of the Chapter One platform and database and communicate this to others
• Organise and conduct initial teacher training and follow-up
• Ensure a smooth initial launch of Chapter One’s programme in every classroom
• Liaise with colleagues performing technical and volunteer support roles
• Through regular visits to/contact with schools, provide on-going embedded professional learning and support to teachers throughout the year as needed
• Proactively monitor classroom adherence/fidelity to the Chapter One model, including systematic review of data reports and volunteer feedback, taking proactive action to resolve problems that arise
• Analyse and manipulate data (largely in Google sheets) to produce reports and identify trends
• Create monthly data summaries for all participating classrooms
• Lead annual review meetings for senior leadership at participating schools
• Support programme monitoring, evaluation and research as required
• Coordinate in person and virtual school ‘visits’ of volunteer teams to classrooms where necessary
• Liaison with corporate partners as required
• Weekly communication and status updates with Senior Programme Manager(s) and wider team
• As a new school year approaches, secure commitments from returning schools and find and target new schools to join Chapter One’s programme
Role Requirements:
Essential
- Highly motivated individual with excellent interpersonal and organisational skills
- Proven track record of working at a senior level in education, project management or a related field
- Proven strength in both written and verbal communication
- Highly IT literate, with excellent computer skills, able to troubleshoot software issues and adept with Google suite
- Ability to manipulate and analyse to draw useful conclusions to improve programme delivery
- Proven ability to work independently
- Self-starter and quick learner
- Ability to adapt and embrace a changing environment
- University degree
- Ability to drive and access to a car for work purposes
Desirable
- Two years of teaching/education experience with primary age children
Chapter One is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We value and celebrate diversity in backgrounds and experience and are deliberate about the kind of teams we are building. Literacy is a universal concern, and we need people from all backgrounds to maximise our innovation, creativity and impact. We especially welcome applications from persons who have experienced disadvantage and/or from those who are of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities who are currently underrepresented in the organisation.
Chapter One is committed to safeguarding children and young people. All postholders are subject to a satisfactory enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service disclosure. Copies of our Safeguarding Policy and Safer Recruitment Policy are available on request.
Please send your CV (maximum 2 A4 sides) and a covering letter via Charity Jobs. Your covering letter (maximum 1 side of A4) should refer to the Job Description provided and:
1) Explain your relevant experience and why you’re interested in this role at this point in your career.
2) Share your ability to be resilient when things are not going the way you thought, including clear examples of past experiences.
3) Explain how our organisational mission is in line with your values.
Applications that fail to meet these criteria will automatically be discounted. We want you to have every opportunity to shine and to show us your talents—please let us know if there is anything we can do to make sure the assessment process works for you.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Using Anonymous Recruitment
This organisation is using Anonymous Recruitment to reduce bias in the first stages of the hiring process. Our system keeps your personal information hidden until the recruiter contacts you.
Background
Chapter One is a dynamic, growing charity with a vision of a world in which all children have the literacy skills needed to thrive. Our mission is to close the reading gap by providing children with one-to-one support at the time they need it most. We work in eleven areas/regions of the UK and will support 3250 children in 2024-25.
Our unique Online Reading Volunteer programme pairs struggling five to seven-year old (KS1) readers with reading support volunteers who are working professionals. The volunteer ask is very focused: readers commit 30 minutes a week to read with a child using a bespoke digital platform for an entire academic year. The results are transformative, boosting children's reading confidence and ability.
From a school perspective, online reading volunteers provide direct, meaningful literacy support for up to 10 pupils per class. The programme is particularly suitable for communities where it might be challenging to find parents and other volunteers who can commit to physically visiting schools to boost reading.
Job Summary
Chapter One is seeking a Birmingham/West Midlands Programme Manager from September 2024 who is an excellent communicator and is able both to motivate and support schools and teachers to implement our online reading volunteers programme, and also to ensure that the programme’s impact and benefit to disadvantaged communities is maximised throughout the academic year.
The post is ideal for someone looking for part-time, flexible, term-time only work from a home base and who is able to travel frequently around the Birmingham and West Midlands area. The postholder will be joining a team of established Programme Managers (also part-time) who work in different parts of the UK and will need to have some flexibility to work additional hours during busy autumn months, and conversely to work fewer hours during quieter periods of the year.
Key Responsibilities:
• Effectively explain Chapter One’s online reading volunteer programme and its benefits to school leaders and teachers
• Install, setup and maintain Chapter One equipment in participating classrooms
• Fully understand the operation of the Chapter One platform and database and communicate this to others
• Organise and conduct initial teacher training and follow-up
• Ensure a smooth initial launch of Chapter One’s programme in every classroom
• Liaise with colleagues performing technical and volunteer support roles
• Through regular visits to/contact with schools, provide on-going embedded professional learning and support to teachers throughout the year as needed
• Proactively monitor classroom adherence/fidelity to the Chapter One model, including systematic review of data reports and volunteer feedback, taking proactive action to resolve problems that arise
• Analyse and manipulate data (largely in Google sheets) to produce reports and identify trends
• Create monthly data summaries for all participating classrooms
• Lead annual review meetings for senior leadership at participating schools
• Support programme monitoring, evaluation and research as required
• Coordinate in person and virtual school ‘visits’ of volunteer teams to classrooms where necessary
• Liaison with corporate partners as required
• Weekly communication and status updates with Senior Programme Manager(s) and wider team
• As a new school year approaches, secure commitments from returning schools and find and target new schools to join Chapter One’s programme
Role Requirements:
Essential
- Highly motivated individual with excellent interpersonal and organisational skills
- Proven track record of working at a senior level in education, project management or a related field
- Proven strength in both written and verbal communication
- Highly IT literate, with excellent computer skills, able to troubleshoot software issues and adept with Google suite
- Ability to manipulate and analyse to draw useful conclusions to improve programme delivery
- Proven ability to work independently
- Self-starter and quick learner
- Ability to adapt and embrace a changing environment
- University degree
- Ability to drive and access to a car for work purposes
Desirable
- Two years of teaching/education experience with primary age children
Chapter One is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We value and celebrate diversity in backgrounds and experience and are deliberate about the kind of teams we are building. Literacy is a universal concern, and we need people from all backgrounds to maximise our innovation, creativity and impact. We especially welcome applications from persons who have experienced disadvantage and/or from those who are of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities who are currently underrepresented in the organisation.
Chapter One is committed to safeguarding children and young people. All postholders are subject to a satisfactory enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service disclosure. Copies of our Safeguarding Policy and Safer Recruitment Policy are available on request.
Please send your CV (maximum 2 A4 sides) and a covering letter via Charity Jobs. Your covering letter (maximum 1 side of A4) should refer to the Job Description provided and:
1) Explain your relevant experience and why you’re interested in this role at this point in your career.
2) Share your ability to be resilient when things are not going the way you thought, including clear examples of past experiences.
3) Explain how our organisational mission is in line with your values.
Applications that fail to meet these criteria will automatically be discounted. We want you to have every opportunity to shine and to show us your talents—please let us know if there is anything we can do to make sure the assessment process works for you.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.