Yorkshire Programme Manager

Join our team to help us build sustainable community-led social action in West Yorkshire!

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

We are looking for someone with experience of leading community building and organising initiatives, who is skilled in engaging and working collaboratively with diverse communities, has a deep understanding of asset based community development, brings a self-motivated, action-oriented approach, and a genuine commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion.

ABOUT THE ROLE

The Yorkshire Programme Manager will be responsible for managing our Stronger Communities work in West Yorkshire. At present this is primarily focused around Bridging & Belonging, an established project that is entering a new phase supporting community-led action in Batley, Dewsbury and Heckmondwike following a period of community listening. The postholder will join a project with strong foundations, trusted relationships and a clear direction. Working alongside colleagues, residents and local partners, the role will lead the next phase of the project while keeping local people at the heart of its priorities and activities.

Over the coming years, the work will support community-led action that strengthens neighbourliness and hyper-local connection, creates new ways for people to connect across communities, and develops projects built around shared interests, shared places and shared concerns. It will also back activity that celebrates local strengths, makes space for difference, and builds a stronger sense of belonging. As part of this, the role will:

• Develop a More in Common Creative Collective with residents and partners, using arts and creativity to challenge division and share local stories;

• Develop a Community of Practice that brings together staff, partners and community members to share learning and build relationships; and

• Run Let’s Talk, a facilitated conversation series that helps people address tensions and divisions through careful, relational dialogue.

ABOUT YOU

We’re looking for someone who is deeply committed to mobilising community power and supporting community-led change through asset and strengths-based practices. You will have a relational way of working that starts with listening, trust-building, and identifying the strengths, interests and leadership that already exist within communities. You will be an experienced practitioner and line manager in one or more of the fields of community development, co-production, community arts, and participatory & community-led research. 

Above all, you will bring values that align strongly with The Jo Cox Foundation’s vision and Jo’s ‘more in common’ ethos. This will be reflected in your belief in the strengths of connected communities, and your commitment to bringing people together across difference.

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.

Within West Yorkshire, we support communities to participate in our national programmes – the Great Get Together and the More in Common Network – and we also deliver specific local projects with and for communities in the region. 

“I am Batley and Spen born and bred, and I could not be prouder of that. I am proud that I was made in Yorkshire and I am proud of the things we make in Yorkshire. Britain should be proud of that, too.”

Jo Cox, Maiden Speech 2015

Currently, our main focus in the region is our ‘Bridging & Belonging’ project. The first stage of this project ran for 18 months between May 2024 and December 2025. This involved a series of local listening events. What we heard was clear: people in North Kirklees want more chances to connect with one another and to shape what happens in their neighbourhoods, using their own ideas, skills and experience to make a positive difference.

Stage two has now begun: a four-year project funded through the National Lottery Community Fund’s Reaching Communities programme. This phase will strengthen neighbourliness, reduce division, and support community-led action that builds stronger, more connected communities. It is rooted in asset-based community development and creative, participatory community organising, with a focus on helping local people start, grow and sustain social action that brings people together across lines of difference.

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.