Senior Communities Officer

Join our team to help us build stronger communities across the UK

This is an incredibly exciting opportunity for someone looking to play a key role in a small but influential national charity building a positive legacy for the late Jo Cox MP.

We are looking for someone with excellent relationship building skills, experience of workshop facilitation and/or training delivery, and a genuine commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion to help advance our communities work.

Through this role you will play a key part in continuing Jo Cox’s legacy over the years to come.

ABOUT THE ROLE

The Senior Communities Officer will play a key role in strengthening and growing the More in Common Network, which currently consists of 17 volunteer-led groups and 5 larger partnerships that work year-round on community cohesion in their local areas.

You will deliver training and facilitate workshops, working with the Communities Manager to ensure More in Common Network partners receive ‘resisting division’ training, alongside a train-the-trainer offer to support them to further disseminate the training. You’ll also help us evolve our training model, identifying and responding to opportunities for collaboration and sharing resources. 

You will help us build a More in Common ‘Movement’, by organising and facilitating a Community of Practice for training recipients. You’ll also support individuals to join the movement, form Groups, develop Partnerships, and take action. And by being the first point of contact for our Network partners, you’ll provide them with support and encouragement to meet their own objectives.

ABOUT YOU

You will be an experienced trainer and facilitator, who is passionate about working with diverse communities. You will have a relational way of working and will genuinely enjoy building meaningful relationships with people from different backgrounds and with different perspectives. When working with communities, you’ll recognise that this means starting with listening, trust-building, and identifying the strengths, interests and leadership that already exist. You’ll have excellent organisational skills, and an ability to prioritise effectively when faced with competing demands.

Above all, you will have strongly held personal values which align with The Jo Cox Foundation’s vision and Jo’s ‘more in common’ ethos. These will be reflected in your respect for others and the desire to make a truly positive contribution through your work.

ABOUT THE JO COX FOUNDATION

Jo Cox was driven by her belief that a fairer, kinder and more tolerant world was possible and dedicated her career to helping those less fortunate than herself, whether in Batley and Spen or around the world. She believed passionately that even the greatest challenges could be overcome. 

On 16 June 2016, on her way to a constituency surgery to meet with local residents of Batley and Spen, Jo was murdered because of her beliefs. In the days after Jo’s murder, tens of thousands of people gathered across the UK and chose connection over division. 

Since 2016, The Jo Cox Foundation has continued this legacy. We believe connection is fundamental to societal strength. It makes us healthier, more cohesive, and more resilient; whereas disconnection creates a vacuum where polarisation thrives and community trust erodes. We work with communities and across society to strengthen connection, trust and respect by:

• Working alongside communities to build relationships and support community-led action.

• Catalysing a movement rooted in the belief that “we have more in common”, bringing people together to build confidence, support connection and create change.

• Advocating for change that increases connection, respect, and safety across our communities and politics.

BUILDING STRONGER COMMUNITIES

We nurture stronger communities through our local work in West Yorkshire and two national programmes: the Great Get Together and the More in Common Network.The More in Common Network programme is a key part of our communities work. Its purpose is to build stronger, more connected and resilient communities across the UK. 

The programme consists of a national network of smaller, local, volunteer-led Groups and larger, regional, cross-sector Partnerships. While every Group and Partnership in the network is different, they are united by a long-term vision for strong and connected communities where everyone has a sense of identity and belonging.

The programme currently consists of one workstream, with additional workstreams planned. This current workstream involves capacity and relationship building for the Network, including delivering ‘communities resisting division’ training and More in Common in Action (MiCiA) events.

WORKING AT THE JO COX FOUNDATION

Our core values at The Jo Cox Foundation include empathy, ambition and collaboration - and we work hard to apply this to our relationships with our staff as well within the work that we do.

As a remote organisation, we recognise the challenges that this brings, so we carefully consider how we can build a team culture where everyone feels accepted and included. We do this through a combination of frequent team days (with a mixture of remote and in-person days) and through regular and ongoing ways for the team to connect, both for work and to socialise.