Communications volunteer volunteer jobs

37.5 hours per week / permanent / working Monday to Friday, 9am-5pm with the requirement of working one late shift per week, one shift at the weekend per month and be part of an out of hours ‘on-call rota’

YMCA DownsLink Group is the leading charity for children and young people across Sussex and Surrey. We offer safe homes, mental health support and trusted advice.

We believe that every child and young person has the right to be safe, heard and to shape their own future. We work alongside them to make that happen.

We are here for children and young people, many of whom face multiple challenges and need our support.

Our Values - we do what’s right, we work with heart, and we build real connections – guide us in all our actions.

Are you a person‑centred leader who thrives on empowering others and driving positive outcomes for young people?

If so, we are searching for a motivational and resilient leader who thrives on developing others, championing best practice, and nurturing a collaborative and compassionate culture. You will bring a trauma-informed and psychologically informed approach to both your team and the young people we support, ensuring everyone feels understood, safe, and empowered. If you are energised by leading teams, shaping services, and supporting staff to deliver exceptional, person-centred support - even in challenging moments - this could be the role for you.

As Deputy Supported Housing Manager, you will play a central role in our Eastbourne and Hailsham services - supported accommodation for young people aged 16–25 who are at risk of homelessness. Our services operate 24/7 to provide a safe, stable home where young people can feel understood, encouraged and supported. You will be based at our Eastbourne Foyer, located in the heart of Eastbourne, where the service maintains strong connections with and contributes actively to the local community. The role also involves travel across Eastbourne and Hailsham to our other East Sussex sites.

Across our East Sussex sites, we work with around 50 young people, each with their own story, strengths, challenges and ambitions. Support Workers hold individual caseloads and meet regularly with residents to build support plans, celebrate progress, and set meaningful goals for the future. Your leadership will help create the environment where this work thrives - one where young people feel empowered and staff feel confident and supported. 

What you will be doing

As Deputy Supported Housing Manager, you will play a key role in the running, quality, and impact of our services. Working closely with the Supported Housing Manager, you will help lead a safe, supportive, and high‑performing environment where young people can thrive.

Service Provision

You will support the Supported Housing Manager with the day‑to‑day delivery of the service, ensuring we meet all requirements set out in the service specification and remain fully compliant with Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) and Ofsted standards. Your responsibilities will include:

• Overseeing the full referral, interview, and induction process for all bedspaces and ensuring that every resident understands their Occupancy Agreement and House Rules.
• Maintaining the quality, safety, and presentation of the accommodation by working closely with our Housing and Property Services team to coordinate estate inspections, health and safety risk assessments, repairs, and the timely turnaround of void rooms.
• Supporting effective income collection across the service, working with the Rents team to build and maintain a positive rent‑payment culture among residents. 

Leadership and People Management

You will directly line‑manage members of the staff team, ensuring their practice, professionalism, and development reflect our high standards. You will:

• Provide coaching, guidance, and clear expectations to ensure staff feel confident, supported, and motivated in their work with young people.
• Create a team culture rooted in creativity, consistency, and best practice, ensuring staff are equipped to empower young people to reach their goals while maintaining appropriate and safe boundaries.
• Be responsible for creating and maintaining staff rotas to ensure adequate service coverage at all times.

General Responsibilities

• Participate in the management on‑call rota, offering out‑of‑hours support to services across the wider locality.
• Embed Psychologically Informed Environments (PIEs), Trauma‑Informed approaches, and restorative practices throughout your work, ensuring our support model is compassionate, reflective, and person‑centred.

If you are enthusiastic about this opportunity but your experience doesn’t align perfectly with every requirement, we encourage you to apply anyway and demonstrate how your experience is transferrable. You may be just the right candidate.

You have experience line managing staff and building positive, supportive team cultures. You bring consistency, are well organised and approachable, and are confident in setting clear expectations. You enjoy motivating others, supporting staff development, and planning effective rotas to ensure high‑quality service delivery.

You will bring experience working in supported housing or similar services, supporting young people and/or adults at risk, along with proven experience in managing or supervising a team. You will already have a solid understanding of the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) and Ofsted frameworks, as well as a strong working knowledge of Trauma‑Informed Care and Psychologically Informed Environments (PIE).

You will be an effective communicator with strong facilitation skills, able to navigate challenging situations with confidence, calmness, and a solution‑focused approach. You will also have experience overseeing safeguarding procedures within residential settings, ensuring safety, accountability, and robust decision‑making. Just as importantly, you will understand the importance of maintaining professional boundaries, modelling best practice for the team and the young people we support.

CLOSING DATE: Sunday 31 May 2026 at midnight. Please note applications will be reviewed on an ongoing basis, and we may invite strong candidates to interview before the closing date, so early applications are encouraged.

We are not able to support a work permit or offer a visa sponsorship for this role. Candidates must already have the right to live and work in the UK independently.

An inclusive workplace We are committed to policies and practices of equity, diversity, and inclusion and to supporting our people to make sure our culture is consistent with this commitment. 

Accessibility If you require assistance or have questions regarding the application process, please do contact us.

YMCA DLG requires all staff and volunteers to be committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people, and to respond proactively to safeguarding concerns. 

Successful applicants are required to undertake an Enhanced DBS (including the Children’s and Adults’ barred lists) check, along with a reference and background check carried out by a third-party service provider.

What if your planning expertise could help one of the UK's largest charities turn ambitious strategy into measurable progress for people affected by dementia?

About the opportunity

As Head of Corporate Planning, you'll lead the process by which Alzheimer's Society translates its strategy into a clear, deliverable plan and tracks the difference we are making. In a role where every decision shapes how we use our resources to end the devastation of dementia, you'll provide the leadership team with the insight they need to focus on what matters most and to keep adjusting course as the world around us changes.

You'll bring people together from across the organisation, building trusted relationships that make corporate planning a genuinely shared endeavour rather than a Finance exercise. Through workshops, partnership and powerful reporting, you'll help leaders at every level understand how their work connects to the corporate plan, where progress is being made, and where we need to challenge ourselves to do more.

You'll be part of our Finance and Assurance directorate, where our vision is to be the Society's single point of truth. Working closely with other Finance department heads, you'll help to deliver an accountable, efficient and improvement-driven approach to the Society's financial and corporate strategy, providing the leadership team with the information they need to run the organisation well.

Leading our Corporate Planning team, you'll set the standard for accessible, timely and accurate corporate planning, while continuously improving the way we plan across the Society and the way we measure success. You'll act as a vital source of insight on what is working across the Society, what might need to change, and where the next opportunity to increase our impact for people affected by dementia might lie.

Please note that this role is a 12 month fixed term contract. 

About you
You're an experienced corporate planning or strategy professional who understands that good planning is about people as much as process. You're as comfortable in an Executive workshop as you are in the detail, and you know how to combine analytical rigour with clear communication, constructive challenge and a genuine interest in helping others see the bigger picture.

You'll have:

- An in-depth understanding and significant experience of planning a large organisation's activity in a way that effectively supports delivery and the tracking of performance, driving continuous improvement.
- A track record of providing insightful, accessible reporting to drive decision-making at senior levels, including with Executive and Board audiences.
- The confidence to engage stakeholders at all levels in planning and progress tracking, leading them through it with clarity and credibility.
- Proven facilitation, workshop leading and presentation skills, including with executive and senior leadership teams.
- Effective analytical skills, with the ability to draw insight from data and influence priority setting at an organisational level.
- Confidence and experience in leading a small team, managing their performance and developing their capability.
- The ability to deliver effectively to timelines in complex and sometimes ambiguous environments, balancing strategic focus with operational responsiveness.
- Demonstratable critical thinking skills, identifying and acting on ways to work more effectively and efficiently, and celebrating progress, solutions and impact rather than activity.

It would be particularly valuable if you also bring:

- Experience of corporate planning or strategy delivery within a large charity, public sector or values-led organisation.

What you'll focus on

- Leading the corporate planning process and producing the corporate plan, with clear objectives that align to budget and risk appetite and translate strategy into delivery.
- Analysing performance against the corporate plan and providing accessible, timely insight to the leadership of the organisation on what is working and what may need to change.
- Working with Finance, Risk and other relevant teams to align reporting on progress, outcome, finance and risk, producing engaging dashboards and reports that drive decision-making at Executive and Board level.
- Facilitating discussions, running workshops and driving engagement and understanding of our plans and how we measure them across all parts of the organisation.
- Setting, tracking and reporting the impact of activity as part of integrated team, directorate and corporate reporting.
- Continuously improving the performance of the Corporate Planning function so the Society remains agile in delivering impact aligned with the strategy.
- Owning and managing the departmental budget, ensuring resources are allocated effectively to meet strategic and operational objectives.
-  Building and drawing on external networks to inform the Society's approach and decision-making, bringing best practice from across the sector and more widely.

You'll work alongside other leaders across Finance and Assurance to deliver the directorate plan and deputise for the Associate Director of Finance as required, role-modelling a high challenge, high support culture where accountability, performance and development go hand in hand.

Are you ready to bring planning rigour, partnership and insight to the people working to end the devastation of dementia?

Important dates

- The deadline for applications is 23:59 on Wednesday 20th May 2026
- Interviews will begin W/C 25th May 2026 and will include a presentation task to prepare beforehand.

About Alzheimer's Society

Dementia is the UK's biggest killer. One in three people born in the UK today will develop dementia in their lifetime.

At Alzheimer's Society, we're the UK's leading dementia charity and the only one to tackle all aspects of dementia by giving help and hope to people living with dementia today and in the future. We give vital support to people facing the most frightening times of their lives, while also funding groundbreaking research and campaigning to make dementia the priority it should be.

Together with our supporters, we're working towards a world where dementia no longer devastates lives.

Our values make sure that our focus is clear for the challenges and opportunities ahead and remind us of what we all stand for.

Our commitment to Equity, Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging

We need to ensure the voices around our table better reflect and understand the communities we exist to serve. We strongly encourage individuals to apply who have a disability, impairment or health condition or individuals who identify as Black, Asian or from another minority ethnic background, as these groups are currently under-represented at Alzheimer's Society.  

We want everyone we work with, as a colleague, volunteer, supporter, or someone we support, to feel included and that they belong at Alzheimer's Society. 

Our Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy here along with our internal employee forum and Employee Lived Experience network groups help us promote inclusion and belonging, becoming an engaged and inclusive organisation for all our people. 

Our hiring process

During your recruitment process we want to make sure that you bring your whole self and can be at your best. We are working hard to ensure our recruitment process is as inclusive as possible, so please do inform us of your experience and anything you think we could do better by completing our candidate survey when you apply.  Please also contact Alzheimer's Society Talent Acquisition Team via [email protected] for application support or any adjustments you might need.

To ensure fairness and consistency to select the best candidate for this role, all our applications are anonymised up until an interview has been confirmed. We recognise the benefits of AI, but if you're considering using it to submit your application, we encourage you to reflect on the value it truly adds. AI tools often lack the personal touch and authenticity that set candidates apart. We want to hear your unique perspective, experiences, and skills, so we encourage you to showcase them in your own voice.

We try to avoid closing roles early where possible, however if we receive a high volume of applications, we may close earlier than the advertised closing date. Should this occur, we will aim to provide you with at least 48 hours' notice.

We are committed to safer recruitment and ensuring the welfare of those we work with, due to the nature of some of our roles, we might need to carry out a Criminal Record Check at the relevant level. You can read more information via our Website.

Giving back to you

Our employees work hard every day to make a true difference in people's lives. We are proud to support them with a range of benefits, recognition and many options for working agilely, all contributing to a strong work life balance. We also have various learning programmes to support you in your development and help you grow to realise your potential and shape a career with Alzheimer's Society. 

You can also visit our Working for Us pages, which give you more information about what it's like to be an employee at the Society.

Do you have good knowledge of best practice in relation to rent management? Are you interested in financial empowerment?
This role has been created to support the successful implementation, embedding, and ongoing optimisation of our new Housing Management IT System. 
The post holder will ensure that income related processes—such as rent charging, arrears management, service charges, and financial workflows—are accurately embedded across all refuge services. This will include ongoing configuration and testing of the new system to ensure it meets our needs.

Alongside system implementation responsibilities, the post holder will lead on the effective management and reduction of rent arrears, including recovery of historic arrears. Operating within a performance driven framework, they will ensure income KPIs, compliance requirements, and data quality standards are consistently achieved.

A key purpose of the role is to promote financial inclusion, ensuring survivors understand their financial responsibilities, maximise income through benefits and entitlements, and build long term financial resilience.

This post is restricted to women due to the nature of the role. The Occupational Requirement under Schedule 9 (part 1) of the Equality Act 2010 applies

Closing Date: 09:00am on 18 May 2026

Interview Date: 26 and 27 May 2026

Sight Scotland is Scotland’s leading charity providing specialist care, education and research for people with vision impairment. The charity has been in existence for over 230 years, and offer a variety of services in the community as well as education, transcription into alternative formats and residential care for adults and children. Their vision is of an inclusive Scotland where people of all visual abilities have the opportunity to thrive. To achieve their mission and as part of the new fundraising strategy the Fundraising and Audience Development team recognises that there are efficiencies within fundraising operations that need to be identified and implemented – this role will be critical to delivering that. 

Within the Fundraising and Audience Development team the post holder will work closely with peer managers on areas such as supporter journey planning, developing CRM integration with platforms such as MailChimp for integrated marketing opportunities, providing accurate and useful reporting and CRM dashboards, and processes for prospect research and pipeline management. This role has line management responsibility for the Fundraising and Engagement Administrator.

This role would suit someone who has experience of fundraising operations, supporter care or database functions within a fundraising team. The successful candidate will want to work in a role where they can use their experience to really shape and improve fundraising operations and have both immediate and long-term positive impact on income generation.

Application notes 

Please download the Candidate Info Pack provided for further information about the role, timelines and next steps.

To progress your application, please contact THINK recruitment to organise an informal screening call. Please note, we cannot shortlist candidates who have not had a screening call so please allow enough time to have a call before the closing date.

If you need assistance with downloading the pack, please contact THINK Recruitment and our team will support you.

Closing date for applications: Midnight Tuesday 2nd June 2026 

Interviews are expected to be held on Thursday 11th June 2026 

The South East District are excited to advertise the opening for a full time District Mission Enabler to support the District, its churches, circuits and people, in mission. Home based, own transport is essential. There will be an expectation to attend the District Office in Crawley, Sussex, on occasion, as well as other locations across the South East District.