West Mercia Youth Justice Caseworker

Hereford & Worcester 

Ref: YHW-241

Are you a proactive, compassionate and collaborative individual with a proven track record of working positively with socially excluded children and young people and the ability to engage successfully despite ‘challenging’ behaviour?  Looking for an exciting new career opportunity?

If so, join St Giles as West Mercia Youth Justice Caseworker where, as a key part of the Youth Justice Team, you will provide 1:1 mentoring and group work sessions for children and young people at risk of serious youth violence, gang activity and exploitation.

About St Giles Trust
An ambitious, well-established charity that helps people facing adversity to find jobs, homes and the right support they need.  Central to our ethos is our belief that people with first-hand experience of successfully overcoming issues such as an offending background, homelessness, addictions and gang involvement, hold the key to positive change in others.

About this key role

Within this role as the West Mercia Youth Justice Team Caseworker, you will establish positive and professional relationships with the children, young people, parents/carers and professionals accessing the service, building trust and create a safe space in which the children and young people can explore challenging and potentially traumatic issues and topics.

We will count on you to plan and deliver tailored group and one-to-one mentoring sessions that tackle mentees’ perceptions of gang involvement, violence and exploitation, encouraging them to develop a positive self-identity, healthy relationships, to feel safe and to raise their aspirations.  You will also maintain accurate records of one-to-one mentoring work, session work and data collection, assist with providing monitoring information and the evaluation of the project, plus contribute to multi-agency meetings, utilising expertise around lived experience and local knowledge.

What we are looking for

• Personal experience of the criminal justice system or lived experience of the issues facing this client group (i.e. involved in gangs or knife crime)
• Experience of delivering sessions to groups of young people
• Proven record of working in a high intensity environment, being self-motivating, with an ability to effectively manage your own wellbeing
• To have a relevant qualification to a good standard or be willing to work towards one
• The ability to confidently speak in front of large groups delivering key messages
• Excellent interpersonal, relationship-building and communication skills, verbal and written

As an organisation that works with children and adults at risk we are committed to safeguarding, protecting and promoting the safety of our clients and successful applicants will require an Enhanced Child and Adult with Child Barred DBS Check.

We actively encourage people with personal experience of the criminal justice system or lived experience of the issues facing this client group to apply for this role.

In return, you can expect a competitive salary, generous leave allowance, staff pension, flexible working, a mentoring programme, an advice and counselling service, clinical therapist sessions, life insurance (4 x annual salary), duvet days, season ticket loan, employee perks programme, eye care voucher and much more.

We are an equity and inclusion confident employer. We welcome all applications and we particularly encourage applications from people of the global majority (black, brown, multi- heritage) and those who identify as disabled, neuroexpansive, neurodiverse, with any protected characteristics and/or social barriers or challenges. We value the empowering and informative impact that all lived experiences and diversity of thought can offer the organisation.

St Giles will guarantee to interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria set out in the Job Description for the vacancy.

To apply please request an application form from our HR Team, via the apply button, stating the job title and ref number.

Closing date: Sunday 27th October 2024 at 11pm

Previous applicants need not apply.