Campaign Coordinator

Cambridge City Foodbank is looking for a Campaign Coordinator to join our team for an 8-month fixed-term contract to organise and mobilise people who have experienced poverty to take action as part of the Guarantee Our Essentials Campaign.

As a Cambridge City Foodbank employee, you will work closely with Trussell to deliver a local campaign strategy, influencing Cambridge MPs to support an Essentials Guarantee, and mobilising people with lived experience to take part. This role is at the heart of Cambridge City Foodbank’s work to end the need for food banks, and part of Trussell’s national Campaign Coordinator programme. The role is grant funded by Trussell and you ill be working with a small team of Campaign Coordinators at other UK food banks.

The Campaign Coordinator will be supported to use organising principles as part of their role. You will travel between different locations in the community, including Foodbank Welcome Centres and Fairbite Food Clubs, meeting people who are struggling to afford the essentials, arranging 121 conversations with them, and developing their commitment and confidence to take part in the campaign. You’ll also maintain relationships with local stakeholders and bringing people together to plan campaign actions.

Find out more about Guarantee Our Essentials on the Trussell website.

DUTIES:

The Campaign Coordinator will:

- Build a network of people with lived experience of poverty and mobilise them to take part in campaign actions, including  attending the national lobby day in Westminster.

- Lead community outreach including visiting Foodbank Welcome Centres and Fairbite Food Clubs and leading door-knocking sessions, connecting with people facing poverty and recruiting them to join the campaign.

- Hold 121s with people with lived experience of poverty, building their capacity for leadership and their commitment and confidence to take part in campaign actions.

- Involve people with lived experience and community stakeholders in designing and carrying out local campaign actions.

- Support local influencing work, engaging with MPs and Councillors to further the aims of national Guarantee Our Essentials campaign.

- Deliver Trussell’s local campaign strategy, working with the Organising and Local Mobilisation team at Trussell, and engage with the training and support on offer, including work with other Campaign Coordinators in the Trussell network.  

Personal Specification:

Technical skills and minimum knowledge:

• Experience mobilising people to take action as part of a campaign for change.
• Experience of working with people facing poverty, and knowledge of the main drivers of poverty in the UK.
• Experience communicating with people with different backgrounds, abilities and experiences.
• Experience facilitating meetings and planning engaging group activities.
• Ability to build relationships and gain trust of people with lived experience of poverty and using food banks.
• Ability to motivate and inspire others.
• Ability to travel around Cambridge.

 Behaviours and competencies:

• Friendly and trustworthy.
• Confident in communicating with people from a wide range of socio-economic backgrounds in a friendly, non-judgemental manner.
• Commitment to the vision and values, and respect for the ethos, of Cambridge City Foodbank and Trussell.

The post holder will be expected to work in person across Cambridge a minimum of three days a week, and be based from our office in North Cambridge when required. 

Our Vision, Ethos & Values:

Our Vision is to end the need for UK foodbanks. Each day we meet the need for emergency and affordable food, and tackle the causes of poverty, by harnessing the power of the community. We are an independent local charity and member of the Trussell network.

We value dignity, justice, compassion, community and impact, in all that we do. We serve local people regardless of background, inspired by our Christian ethos and values.

As part of our commitment to inclusion, diversity and equity actively encourage applications from under-represented groups such as returning parents or carers who are re-entering work after a career break, people who are LGBT+, from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) backgrounds, with a disability, impairment, learning difference or long-term condition, with caring responsibilities, from different nations and regions and those with a lived experience of poverty as well as any other under-represented group in our workforce. We are committed to ensuring the safety and protection of our employees from all forms of harm.

In 2023: our amazing team of 200 volunteers provided 16,000 3-day emergency food parcels to people across Cambridge (36% were children) and distributed 170,000 Kilos of food.