Support worker jobs in whitehaven, cumbria

Overview

High energy costs are a nightmare for millions of UK households, while huge profits are made at our expense. Poor housing and heating systems are a key part of the problem, along with dependence on polluting, climate-changing fossil fuels. FPA is a campaigning organisation that sets out to attack the root causes of fuel poverty along with the specific injustices facing people and communities. We want to see the UK’s energy system decarbonised as rapidly as possible, with a just transition for communities and workers.that includes affordability. 

Working closely with pensioners groups, trades unions, disabled campaigners, tenants’ organisations and others on the frontline of fuel poverty, we’re using protest and direct action to fight for real, sustainable solutions to the cold homes crisis. We are looking for a committed senior organiser, who shares our passion and values, to bring energy and imagination to developing our base and supporting our members to build their power.

About the role

Fuel Poverty Action (FPA) was started in 2011 by climate activists who wanted to ensure that the green energy transition doesn’t happen at the expense of those with less social and economic power. Rather, they saw the break with fossil fuels as an opportunity to end the scourge of fuel poverty in the UK - a chance to rethink priorities and design inequality out of the energy system.

Immediately, they were drawn into community-based struggles for energy justice, against false, profit-driven solutions and maladministration of ‘green’ measures with no accountability to tenants and residents.

Over the years others joined the fight, growing FPA to a small membership-led organisation comprising people at the sharp end of fuel poverty - people of all ages and backgrounds, mainly located in London. Since 2022, funding has enabled us to employ a small, dispersed team who are accountable to directors and a membership that is now UK-wide. 

We are now looking for an experienced, senior organiser to help FPA grow and evolve our membership network further. We want to reach more people and support members to be active within FPA so that we can build our political impact and remain meaningfully member-led. 

We are seeking a flexible person with significant leadership experience who will be confident working as part of a small team, capable of outward facing work and internal management. You will have experience of organising in collective campaigns,  including digitally, and a background in grassroots or community-based action, with a strong commitment to inclusive and anti-oppressive practice.

As the Organising Lead, you will join our Campaigns Lead and Operations Lead as the third pillar of our self-managing Coordination Team. While line-managing other colleagues and enabling the contributions of members who are unpaid, you will yourself be a member of FPA, and answerable to the group. 

We use the digital platform Action Network to run campaigns and communicate with FPA supporters. Our ideal candidate would have the skills to incorporate ladders, tags and custom fields into our digital campaigns to maximise online to offline impact and convert list growth into membership. They would also actively maintain relationships with existing members who are not always confident with online communication tools. 

There is a lot of scope to bring new ideas and perspectives to shape our work.

What you might find yourself doing:

Strategy development: Leading on creation of a new membership growth and retention strategy in collaboration with existing members

Growing our base: Boosting in-person recruitment and using Action Network to build a digital pipeline into membership

Communications: Ensuring members are connected and informed through one-to-one calls, emails, members’ section of the website, WhatsApp groups and other platforms. 

Member development: Building one-to-one relationships with members, understanding their interests, linking them to opportunities and providing feedback and follow-up

Member activation: Supporting members to participate in our own and allies’ events, actions and mobilisations, digitally and on the ground

Speaker invitations: Representing FPA at events and in media as well as supporting members to do so

Capacity building and training: Providing tools, advice and training to members and supporters, including to FPA’s local groups in Glasgow, Manchester and London

Administration: Managing onboarding systems and securely maintaining records

Organisational management: As part of the self-managing Coordination Team

Line management: Providing light touch management for one or more colleagues

Online meetings: Including prospective member induction interviews and regular members’ meetings which you organise and facilitate

About You

Essential requirements. You’ll thrive in this role if you:

• are highly organised, comfortable self-managing and detail-oprientated in routine admin tasks

• have demonstrable skills in organisational and people management that are relevant for a remote team

• are instinctively collaborative and able to communicate warmly, openly and honestly with colleagues

• are self-motivated, flexible and positive about remote team working, ready to take responsibility for pacing yourself and maintaining your well-being at busy times

• have excellent communication skills, including verbal, written, editing, IT skills, and listening 

• are agile in your use of digital platforms to communicate with different audiences

• have a strong affinity with FPA’s aims, objectives and organisational values of solidarity, empathy and respect

• have a proven understanding of anti-oppression work and commitment to tackling all institutional forms of oppression, bigotry and exclusion 

• have excellent relationship-building skills, with the ability to communicate complex ideas clearly and sensitively, and work effectively with diverse individuals, including those directly impacted by injustice and oppression 

• are confident and creative in your approach to running online and in-person meetings

• have several years of experience in organising or campaigning on issues of poverty and/or the climate, housing or energy 

It is also desirable (but not necessary) for you to have:

• experience of using Action Network or similar platforms to build an activist pipeline

• the skills to craft compelling calls to action and design digital content optimised for engagement

• experience of providing training tools, skills and hand-holding to those at the sharp end of the polycrisis

• links and ongoing relationships with networks and movements with similar aims or values to Fuel Poverty Action

• experience of horizontal organisations and ways to promote staff wellbeing and sustainable remote working 

Compensation Policy 

We’ll compensate team members on the following basis:

• All salaried team members are contracted on the same terms and conditions

• We have a 30 hour week maximum for all team members - most commonly worked as 4 x 7.5 hour days

• Team members are paid an equitable and sustainable compensation rate which is the pro rate equivalent to a full-time (5 day) salary of £40-45,000, regardless of role or level of experience

• Our compensation rates have been set following Platform’s best practice Social Justice Waging System:

Annual salary (30 hours per week):

• Band 1 - No dependents or children and inherited wealth: £32,000 

• Band 2 - One or more children or dependents and inherited wealth OR No inherited wealth but no children or dependents: £34,000

• Band 3 - One or more more children or dependents and no inherited wealth: £36,000 

Further details

• 3% employer-matched pension

• Genuinely flexible working

• 25 days holiday per year, plus bank holidays

• A progressive parental leave policy

•  £15 / month working-from-home broadband stipend 

We have no central office or workspace budget, so it is imperative that you are comfortable working from home

Some costs-paid travel and monthly evening and occasional weekend working will be required

We particularly welcome applications from marginalised groups, especially people of colour and other ethnic minorities, people who identify as LGBTQIA, disabled people and those who identify as working class or have done so in the past 

The appointment will be for one year with a hope of extension, funding permitting, and a four month probationary period