Independent sexual violence advocate jobs in Bury, greater manchester

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.

This is an exciting opportunity for a new leader to guide the organisation through its next phase of development, building from a position of strength. The organisation is in the first year of a clear and ambitious three-year strategy, with a strong core team of staff and a healthy financial position.

The outgoing Executive Director was previously also the organisation’s Advocacy Director, and continued to deliver both functions within one role. For this reason the Board of Trustees is advertising the position in two configurations. Applicants are welcome to express an interest in either:

• Option A — Part-time Executive Director. A 0.6 FTE part-time post which is a leadership and management role only, and does not include delivering the advocacy activities of the organisation. These will be undertaken by a separate part-time Advocacy Director, who carries the advocacy responsibilities covered by the associated Advocacy Director job description.

• Option B — Full-time Executive Director. A single full-time post in which the successful candidate takes on both the part-time Executive Director role and the responsibilities of the part-time Advocacy Director role being advertised concurrently. The successful candidate must meet the person specification requirements of BOTH roles.

• 24 hours per week (part time)
• £35,000.a. pro rata (Actual salary £22,702.70) plus 6% pension contribution
• Remote

Rape Crisis England & Wales (RCEW) is the national campaigns and membership body for a network of independent, community-based Rape Crisis Centres working to end child sexual abuse, rape, sexual assault, sexual harassment and all other forms of sexual violence.

The 24/7 Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Line is a national service led by Rape Crisis England & Wales and funded by the Ministry of Justice.

We are looking for a thoughtful, committed and experienced *professional who can lead RCEW’s approach to survivor engagement within the 24/7 Support Line in line with our values and centred in care and safety for all survivors. 

*This role is restricted to applicants who are female. This is a Genuine Occupational Requirement (GOR) in accordance with Schedule 9, Part 1 of the Equality Act 2010. Due to the nature of the role, the post holder will be required to provide direct support to women and children who have experienced sexual violence and abuse. The role involves working in women-only spaces and delivering trauma-informed services where privacy, dignity, and the ability to build trust with service users are essential. We consider that being female is an occupational requirement for this role, and that applying this requirement is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim, namely the provision of safe, appropriate, and effective support services to survivors. This requirement has been carefully considered in line with equality legislation and is applied only where it is necessary for the effective delivery of the service.

Job Summary

The Survivor Engagement and Outreach Coordinator will lead our work with survivors to ensure that the 24/7 Support Line is a supportive and an effective service.  The post holder will re-establish the service’s Survivor Reference Group (SRG) which is the lead mechanism to shape the way we design, deliver and promote the 24/7 Support Line. They will work alongside people with lived experience in a respectful and supportive way at all times and ensure that all survivor engagement is centred in care, safety and ethics.

The post holder will also lead our outreach activities connecting with other organisations to promote the 24/7 Support Line in order to build collaborations with other survivors particularly from underserved and marginalised groups of people.

The post-holder will have a proven track record of lived experience engagement, and a good understanding of latest best practice including survivor-centred and trauma informed approaches. They will have excellent people skills including emotional intelligence, strong communication and facilitation skills, and be well versed in child and adult safeguarding. They will be committed to equality, diversity and inclusion.

Key Responsibilities

Working with survivors including the Survivor Reference Group (SRG)

•  Lead on the re-establishment and effective running of the Survivor Reference Group (SRG), including recruitment, induction and session planning and delivery.
•  Develop and/or update policies, procedures and practice to inform and support a survivor-centred, and trauma informed effective running of all engagement.
• Ensure that SRG meetings are facilitated safely, inclusively, and in line with best practice in the field of survivor engagement.
• Collect qualitative insights from SRG sessions to inform service improvements, and coordinate with the service’s operational teams to ensure they shape service development.
•  Ensure survivors are informed about how their contributions have influenced service changes. Where their contributions have not been able to influence the service, be transparent as to why, and learn and reflect about how to shape the approach to balance what could be seen as extraction with advocacy.
• Identify opportunities and liaise with other relevant organisations to design and deliver ad-hoc survivor engagement sessions with groups who may not otherwise join the SRG, but who are wanting to engage in a more limited way to share their views and recommendations.
•  Work to best practice in child and adult safeguarding while also centring survivor-centred approaches in all responses. 
• Always ensuring ethical practice. This includes but is not limited to informed consent.  
• Where necessary, work in collaboration with other colleagues to prevent and respond to complex safeguarding issues; and ensure that learning from concerns and complaints inform all efforts to improve the 24/7 Support Line service.  
• Work in collaboration with other colleagues to inform and improve our approach to ethical storytelling so that our survivor engagement work including the SRG safely features in promotional materials. Ensuring ethical practice includes but is not limited to informed consent.

Outreach work to other organisations and survivors

• Liaise with colleagues and partner organisations to ensure that the most marginalised voices are represented and included  in all engagement. This may mean adopting more agile and adaptive ways of working
• Build relationships with other suitable new organisations to help promote the scope and role of SRG in the 24/7 Support Line in order to learn about other survivor engagement models and reach other  survivors.
• Deliver outreach information sessions to other organisations and community groups about the 24/7 Support Line to raise awareness amongst underserved communities.
• Work with the other staff at RCEW as necessary including those in data to interpret trends in service demographic data, and in communications to develop specific outreach and other strategies to engage survivors and which aligns with broader promotion of the service.

Synergy with the wider work of RCEW

• Participate in team meetings, cross-organisational projects, and wider organisational activities as required.
• Maintain effective communication and collaborative working relationships with colleagues across the organisation and partner network.
• Keep up to date with relevant legislation, safeguarding guidance, sector developments, and wider organisational priorities relevant to the role.

This list is indicative only, not exhaustive. It is intended to reflect a range of duties the post-holder will be expected to perform but additional duties commensurate with the role may be required. The job description will be reviewed from time to time and may change in light of experience and changing circumstances, in consultation with the post-holder. We ask all employees to uphold our organisational values, support our mission and purpose, and to maintain respectful and collaborative relationships with colleagues at all levels of the organisation.

Person Specification

• Track record in leading survivor engagement programmes of work in the violence against women and girls or other relatable sectors.
• Proven experience in facilitating lived experience groups, advisory panels or other participatory projects or programmes in an accessible and inclusive way.
• Experience in outreach, engagement and partnership working, particularly with marginalised or underserved communities.
• Practical experience of safeguarding adults and children, ensuring safe and ethical engagement preferably in the context of VAWG.
• Experience of trauma-informed principles and practice and how to apply this to service delivery and survivor engagement.
• Experience of upholding confidentiality and managing data protection when working with  vulnerable groups of people.
• Ability to respond to challenges, feedback, and survivor needs in a respectful, flexible and solution-focused way.
• Up-to-date working knowledge of best practice in lived experience engagement including in survivor-centred or survivor-led approaches.
• Extensive knowledge of the barriers survivors (particularly women) face in accessing services and lived experience opportunities, and strategies to ensure inclusivity.
• Understanding of intersectionality and how this impacts a survivor experience and their ability to access and engage with services.
• Experience of working with different groups of people including those who may require reasonable adjustments to actively participate.
• Strong organisational skills, with the ability to manage multiple tasks and projects concurrently.

Personal Attributes:

• Emotionally intelligent and trauma-informed, to engage with survivors in a sensitive, non-judgemental and empowering way.
• Trustworthy and ethical, with a strong commitment to confidentiality, safeguarding and ethical engagement with lived experience groups.
• An excellent communicator, to facilitate meaningful discussions and engage sensitively and effectively with survivors, colleagues and external stakeholders
• Empathetic in their approach while also able to actively uphold professional boundaries at all times.
• Committed to inclusion and accessibility, with a passion for ensuring that all survivors have a voice in shaping service design
• Actively anti-racist and anti-oppressive in all interactions.
• A strong belief in survivor-led service development and a commitment to meaningful engagement rather than tokenism.

Success in the role of Survivor Engagement and Outreach Coordinator is determined by the ability to build trust with survivors, facilitate meaningful and ethical engagement, ensure that survivor voices influence service development, and expand outreach efforts to reach and support diverse and underserved communities. Key metrics of success include:

• There are high levels of satisfaction from members of the SRG and they feel that their involvement is meaningful and impactful.
• SRG members feel that the group and any other engagement with them is safe, accessible and inclusive.
• Outreach sessions are considered to be useful and impactful by participants.
•  All engagement is ethical and complies with good practice in safeguarding and informed consent.
• Service improvements are meaningfully shaped by survivor voice.

 Eligibility

Applicants must have the right to work in the UK. Evidence of this will be required prior to appointment.

 Additional Information

Please note: We reserve the right to close this vacancy early should we receive a sufficient number of applications. We therefore encourage interested candidates to apply as soon as possible.

Due to the volume of applications received, only candidates selected for interview will be contacted.