Touchstone (registered charity No. 1012053) is a leading voluntary sector agency providing high quality services to improve the health and wellbeing of local people.

Peer and Volunteer Development Worker – Leeds Community Pain Service
NJC Scale Points 18-22, starting at £24,982 pro rata
22.5 hours per week
This role is fixed term for up to 18 months, with the possibly of extension.

Working Location: During lockdown the team are working both at home and at the LMWS office 179-181 Haslewood Drive, Leeds, LS9 7RE. Once normal service resumes there will be an expectation the successful candidate will attend a number of clinics across the city as agreed with the Leeds Community Pain Service.

The Hours: 22.5 hours per week. Currently these are during the day, between Monday and Friday. There may be a future need to provide support for volunteers on weekday evenings if a need is identified for peer support at these times in the future (e.g. an evening peer support group for people who work).

This is an exciting opportunity for someone who is passionate about integrating Touchstone’s values and ethos into an NHS statutory service.

Since 1st January 2019, Touchstone have been integrating peer support into the Leeds Community Pain Service (LCPS) as a subcontractor to NHS Leeds Community Healthcare. The LCPS service helps people experiencing chronic pain develop ways of living a better life with their long-term pain.

The focus for Touchstone over the last year has been to develop peer support options for patients during and at the end of their treatment with the Community Pain Service. The focus for the next year will be to support colleagues to identify patients who have direct experience of chronic pain who may want to volunteer as peer supporters, to provide the volunteers with training and supervision to deliver positive outcomes with the Community Pain Service.

Touchstone’s Peer and Volunteer Development Worker will work alongside NHS employed staff to develop further roles in the service for volunteers and obtain feedback from patients of the service in order to make further changes and integrate service user involvement into their service model.

The Team: You will be part of the Leeds Community Healthcare Community Pain Service Team, they are a multi-disciplinary team which consist of roles such as physiotherapists, nurses, occupational therapists. You will attend their meetings, and post lockdown you will also attend their clinics to integrate the culture of Touchstone into their way of working. You day to day line management will be through their Service Team Manager.

To ensure you are still integrated into the rest of Touchstone you will also be a member of the LMWS Peer Support Team and will have supervision with their Peer Support Co-ordinator once every 8-12 weeks. Their team also consists of a Peer and Volunteer Development Worker, 2 part time Peer Support Workers and currently 28 volunteers. You will work closely with their Peer and Volunteer Development Worker to share learning and resources. You will also access monthly continual professional development (CPD) learning sessions and wellbeing days in the LMWS team, and you will be able to attend any additional meetings you may find useful such as morning check in calls.

Closing date: 17 March 2021
Interviews: 8 April 2021

To apply and for more information:

Please click 'Apply' to be redirected to our website, where you can view further details about the role and download the application pack. Please note, you are not applying at this stage.

Touchstone is an equal opportunities organisation, a Trans Positive employer and applications are welcome from all sections of the community, particularly, BME and LGBT communities and/or people with disabilities who are under-represented within Touchstone. Further information can be obtained from our equal opportunities policy.

Please note that we do not hold a sponsor licence and we do not intend to offer sponsorship for this particular role. You should therefore ensure that you have/will have the right to work in the UK to be able to undertake this role, if appointed, you will be required to provide relevant right to work documents at the point of an offer being made to you.

No agencies please.

Youth Programme Manager

Y’s Girls Peer Mentoring Development

£25,000 - £26,000

37.5 hours per week

If you are looking for a meaningful job, a caring, progressive work environment and an opportunity to reach your fullest potential, consider a career with the YMCA.

We are seeking individuals who are inspired by playing an important role in changing people’s lives and therefore communities. We are all about creating inspirational pathways and opportunities, opening doors and welcoming all to get involved and make a positive difference. Working with us means helping children, young people and families at all levels of ability, from all walks of life, to develop their self-esteem and potential in new ways.

Job  Purpose

This is an exciting new post developing  and delivering our Youth Peer Mentoring Programmes across the YMCA and taking them to the next level so we can reach more young people and impact on their lives.

The post is part of a new national Y’s Girls Mentoring programme and will involve working closely with colleagues in YMCA England & Wales, YMCA Scotland and those other YMCAs across the UK who are delivering the programme.  It will also involve working locally with colleagues in social work, police and education to develop mentoring pathways and community engagement.

The post holder will recruit, train and support a team of volunteer mentors (over 18’s) to prevent vulnerable young girls from developing mild to moderate mental health difficulties by engaging them in a range of positive activities. You will engage with other professionals in joint agency referral, support and evaluation processes and will work with other service providers to provide diversion and prevention opportunities to the client group.

You will work closely with our Peer Mentoring Schools programmes proving line management to the Youth Worker delivering these creating pathways for young people between programmes.

A working week of 37.5 hours, this will involve delivery after school and early evenings two to three times per week. 

• To the successful candidate we offer:
• Flexible working environment
• Opportunities to apply for other internal roles
• An opportunity to work for a company who offer on-going development within your role
• The post holder must be aware of equal opportunity principles and comply with the YMCA’s equal opportunity procedures.
• Job Share will also be considered 

Closing date for the role is 9:00am on Monday 1st March 2021 Applications received after this time will not be considered.

1st stage interviews Thursday 4th March

Please note, that due to the high volume of applications we are currently receiving, we are only able to contact candidates who are successful in progressing to the next stage, if you have not been contacted within 5 days of the closing date then please presume that you have not been successful