Volunteer and community involvement is a core part of what we do here at Sands. From Sands United Teams, Support Groups, knitters, Parent Speakers and event volunteer, volunteers are at the heart of Sands delivering peer support, and building a local community for bereaved parents.
Sands Groups are volunteer led, and community driven.
Sands has a vision to grow community-based peer support, community activity and volunteer involvement across the organisation. This requires an investment in enabling, innovation in peer support and volunteer involvement and partnership working.At the heart of this is our Befrienders.
Befrienders are in every Group across the UK and enable online support groups too.
This post is all about developing, delivering and managing our fantastic volunteer befriender programme across Sands. Ensuring that Sands befrienders are enabled to provide warm, supportive, evidence-based and values-driven peer support to bereaved families across the UK.
This maternity cover post will have two key focus areas
- Maintaining key components of the befriender programme, including regular communications and meeting with Befrienders, driving recruitment opportunities, supporting innovation in Befriending and troubleshooting in partnership with volunteers.
- Deliver a fixed timeline project focused on developing the Befriender programme.
Responsibilities
Best practice in peer support and befriender programmes
- Manage the direction and growth of the Befriender programme
- Work with the Development Leads and Community Development Officers to create plans for regions to support existing Befrienders and grow the peer support offer across the UK
· To engage, inspire and support existing Sands befrienders, providing a positive volunteer experience from recruitment to saying goodbye
- Be the point of contact for Befriender safeguarding issues. Be proactive in addressing and be an escalation point for challenges, risks and safeguarding issues.
- Practice and support excellent standards in all aspects of inclusion and diversity, particularly in reaching marginalised groups in recruitment and enabling volunteers to provide inclusive support spaces.
- Lead on development of processes, guidance and resources, ensuring good governance and risk management of the Befriender Programme
- Work with the Volunteering Coordinator to ensure delivery of key processes, process development and improvement to enhance the volunteer experience.
· To identify learning and development opportunities for befrienders and create a culture of continued learning for all Befrienders
Develop and innovate
- Be an opportunity spotter, picking up innovation opportunities to grow and develop the Befriender programme, alongside relevant Sands’ staff teams.
- Manage short- and long-term projects and where appropriate join cross organisational working groups to represent the Community and Volunteering Team. Including projects that may have budgets.
- Advocate the voices and needs of Befrienders, bringing in knowledge and feedback to enable good decision making and volunteer participation in new ways of working
- Through supporting approaches to recruitment and partnerships, ensure that individuals with a wide range of bereavement experiences are at the heart of Sands’ volunteering
· Build a data driven understanding of gaps in service and representation, and make promotion and recruitment decisions to support growth for under-represented towns/regions/groups
· Support continuous improvement and accurate delivery of processes in the welcome journey for new befrienders, including in recruitment, on-boarding and off-boarding processes in partnership with the Volunteer Coordinator
· Use the CRM to record accurate information and help make data informed decisions
Internal and external partnerships
- Work with the Bereavement Support Services Team (BSS) to ensure collaboration across the Befriender programme and national BSS support groups and ensure the Befriender programme continues to be rooted in trauma-informed practice.
- Work with the Training Team to ensure that training and learning experiences for Befrienders are up to date, relevant and accessible.
- Work with the Philanthropy and Partnerships team and the Head of Community and Volunteering to maximise compelling cases for support, storytelling and funding opportunities at a national and local level.
· Work with the Engagement Team to ensure Sands befriending is represented in an engaging and positive way across Sands social media and the media
Registered Charity
51 - 100
We are here to support everyone touched by pregnancy loss or the death of a baby. Always.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Thank you!
About the role
Our exciting three year strategy sets out our ambitious goals to drive impact at scale for victim-survivors. We are now looking for an exceptional candidate to lead some of our financial services relationships and consultancy work and support SEA in its mission to raise awareness of economic abuse and transform responses to it within the financial services sector.
Working closely with colleagues across SEA, you will foster and maintain relationships across the financial services sector, seeking opportunities to generate income for the charity and supporting our Head of Financial Services to deliver lasting change and impact.
Together we can transform frontline financial services, in practice, product and process, and save lives.
About you
At SEA we put the lived experience of victim-survivors at the heart of all that we do, including our work with financial services firms. You will be a subject matter expert on customer vulnerability and financial services firms’ regulatory requirements, as well as having a thorough understanding of industry rules and good practice. You will combine this with experience of working with vulnerable customers, including victim-survivors and bring expertise on economic abuse to ensure this is embedded within financial services’ firms’ responses.
About SEA
We are the only UK charity dedicated to raising awareness of economic abuse and transforming responses to it. We work to save lives and stop economic abuse forever.
Our vision is a world in which all women and girls achieve economic equality and can live their lives free of abuse and exploitation. Not only surviving but thriving.
Our mission is to raise awareness of economic abuse and transform responses to it.
To achieve this, we must ensure that the policies and practices of financial services firms, domestic abuse support services, public services and government reflect the needs of all victim-survivors of economic abuse.
We are committed to centring victim-survivors in all that we do and broadening our understanding of the needs of survivors, particularly those who are marginalised within society. We work alongside the Experts by Experience - a group of victim-survivors whose voices and experiences shape our work.
Our primary focus is on influencing the women’s, public and financial services sectors, to create a model for improved support for victim-survivors of economic abuse, calling on government to facilitate these changes and work with them to improve their systems and practice.
What we offer
- 25 days annual leave plus Statutory Bank Holidays
- Home working (UK based)
- Flexible working
- 5% Employer Pension Contribution
- 5 Wellbeing Days
- Reflective practice
- Employee Assistance Programme
- Enhanced sick pay, family leave and carer’s leave
- The chance to be part of our highly professional, supportive team
To apply
Please apply via our website
Applications open from 9 April and close at 11.59pm on 20 May 2026. Interviews will take place virtually, week beginning 1 June.
Direct applications only – no agencies please.
Surviving Economic Abuse (SEA) is committed to developing an inclusive team which reflects the diversity of the communities we support. Our culture celebrates diverse voices, and we particularly encourage applications from Black and minoritised applicants and disabled applicants who are under-represented at SEA.
SEA is a Disability Confident Committed, and Kinship Friendly Employer.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.