Youth Participation Lead

Youth Participation Lead 

£27,000 to £34,800 plus great benefits (Work Level 6B)  

Remote, in this role you’ll work from home but will be required to come into our Manchester office every 6 weeks and travel to facilitate residentials with young people and members of our team up to four times a year. This role will include some evening and weekend work.

You’ll be required to complete a DBS check once you start in role.  

The Co-op Foundation is looking for a Youth Participation Lead to join the team and lead our work with young people. The Co-op Foundation is the Co-op’s charity. We’re a grant making and campaigning organisation with a co-operative difference. We care deeply about how our funding and campaigning can shift power to young people and we trust our partners to do what matters most in their communities. 

As Youth Participation Lead, you’ll work closely with a youth development agency and our team to plan and facilitate online and face-to-face sessions with groups of young people. Over time you’ll contribute to providing appropriate support, coaching and pastoral care to the young people. We’ll look to you to integrate the voices of young people across all aspects of the Foundation’s work – building strong connections into our day-to-day activities. 

What you’ll do 

·        Support and drive forward the integration of youth-led activity across the Co-op Foundation team  

·        Be responsible for co-producing our youth participation strategy alongside young people and the Co-op Foundation team 

·        Co-ordinate, engage, inspire, and support our Future Communities Collective – a diverse group of young people that are active in our work and decision making, including keeping young people safe 

·        Plan, organise, and deliver online and in-person training, engagement and social events with young people  

·        Support Co-op Foundation to learn from the experience of working with young people and share this learning externally – for example through presentations to funder networks 

·        Manage a budget and draw in additional expertise and skills to support the young people’s learning and development, briefing and overseeing external contractors where necessary 

·        Build excellent working relationships with key leaders and partners within Co-op and across the funding and youth sectors 

·        Support young people to participate meaningfully in decision making, including grant making (participatory grant making) 

This role would suit people who have 

·        Experience of working with young people and a passion for championing youth voice 

·        The ability to engage and build strong relationships with a range of internal and external partners and young people  

·        Experience of planning and delivering creative online and in-person workshops or events with young people 

·        Experience of supporting young people to make decisions 

·        Excellent communication and facilitation skills with the ability to create a safe space for young people to engage and contribute 

·        Experience working in a safeguarding role  

Why Co-op?  

If you have the skills that we need, we can offer you a competitive salary and great benefits package which includes 30% off Co-op branded products in our food stores (as well as other discounts on Co-op products and services). 

·        An annual bonus (based on personal and business performance) 

·        28 days holiday (rising to 32 with service) plus bank holidays  

·        A pension with up to 10% employer contributions 

·        Access to a subsidised onsite gym (at our Manchester HQ) 

·        Coaching and training to support your career development 

·        Wagestream app – giving you access to a percentage of your pay as you earn 

At Co-op, we’re proud to do things a different way. As one of the world’s largest co-operatives, owned by millions of members, community is at the heart of what we do. Since our Co-op was founded in 1844, we’ve had a clear social purpose, and everything we do as a business helps to build a fairer world for our members, customers, colleagues, and communities.  

Building a diverse environment 

We’re actively building diverse teams and we welcome applications from everyone.  

If you have a disability, we can make reasonable adjustments to our recruitment process according to your needs. We're also part of the Disability Confident scheme, meaning we'll always offer an interview to disabled candidates who apply through the scheme if they meet the minimum criteria for a job. 

We'll ask whether you’d like to be considered under the Disability Confident scheme when you apply. 

If we invite you to take part in the recruitment process for any of our jobs, we’ll ask you if you need any reasonable adjustments to enable you to participate. 

Please note that we may close applications for this role early.  

As part of your application, you'll need to complete an online assessment. This assessment typically takes between 45-60 minutes.