Assistant Support and Outreach Worker - North East

Assistant Support and Outreach Worker - North East

Location: North East - Chester Le Street based
Contract: Part Time - 1 Year Fixed Term Contract
Salary £20,878.05 pro rata PA 

Big Issue Changing Lives CIC is looking for a Assistant Support and Outreach Worker to support the direct the direct delivery of services to individuals participating in Big Issue enterprises, including selling the Big Issue magazine.  The core of the role is facilitating access for members of our vendors and potential vendors to the Hand Up Service and other local services, resources and networks required to address the barriers they are facing to moving forwards out of poverty. You will also play a key supporting role to the Support and Outreach Workers in the North East Team.

This is a self-starter role in which you’ll be responsible for connecting with potential service users within the community, introducing the service to them, sharing information from our Hand Up plus services and supporting them to engage with the core Hand Up service. You’ll be working within a small team of Outreach workers and will work to maintain a set of Service Standards which help maintain the quality of the service nationally.

The role is highly flexible and no two days are the same. You’ll bring your own experience and knowledge to the role which will be vital in supporting our vendors. We will support you to build on that through an ongoing training and development programme which aims to ensure all Hand Up Service Team members have up to date, relevant, knowledge in key areas including housing, benefits, debt, immigration and more. In the course of a day, you’ll usually be working with service users across multiple of these issues and supporting engagement with a wide range of external agencies such as health services, local authorities, charities and more, to get access to services for those you are supporting. 

Your main roles and responsibilities will be:

• Undertake phone and in person outreach to introduce the Hand Up service to our vendors. 
• Join meetings with Vendors and Outreach Workers to support with action planning and provision of support and guidance 
• Support the local Hand Up Service to build current knowledge of local and national agencies that can support our vendors 
• Support the organisation and delivery with our Vendors of 1-2-1 and group training sessions and drop-ins  
• Ensure that your work meets service standards and targets and complete surveys with vendors as required
• Adhere to all required policies and procedures including with regards to safeguarding, lone and safe working, case work management and expenses and finances
• Undertake any other duties as required by your manager (within reasonable expectations)

You need to be:

• Passionate about and committed to supporting those living in poverty 
• Confident communicator face to face and on the phone with ability to convey information clearly
• Able to build rapport with diverse individuals from the outreach community
• Knowledge and understanding of the challenges and inequalities that individuals facing poverty face and may face in the UK.
• Excellent time management and very organised, with the ability to complete tasks by agreed deadlines 
• Good data entry skills
• Able to represent the organisation to other professionals and partner agencies 
• Able to work with individuals in both one to one and group formats 
• Able to follow guidelines and work within policies, seeking support from line manager as needed
• Willing to work in flexible locations including our community office, as well as visiting vendors at pitches and attending community meetings. This role is not suitable for home- based working.

Desirable:

• The ability to speak Romanian and/or Romani
• Knowledge and understanding of the Roma community in the region.

Please use your cover letter to demonstrate how you meet each of the following requirements. We recommend addressing each requirement specifically within your application.  Voluntary experience and lived experience are welcome as evidence of your relevant experience, knowledge and skills, as well as any work experience. 

Salary and Benefits offered:

• Salary of £20,878.05 pro rata per annum
• Incremental holiday entitlement starting at 25 days per year plus bank holidays (pro-rata for part time staff) plus paid leave to care for a sick child or grandchild and a sick or elderly relation
• Company Sick Pay
• Enhanced contribution to our workplace pension
• Enhanced maternity pay
• Training and development opportunities including an open learning library and management training schemes
• Health benefits include life cover, a health cash plan scheme which provides access to counselling and a range of therapies

Please note that we reserve the right to review and amend our staff benefits and they do not form part of any  contract of employment
 

Workplace details:

This role is based at our Chester-Le-Street office and you must be able to attend this office on a regular basis, but you will be mostly be working out and about within the community.

Closing date - 20th October 2024 (23:59pm). Please note that we may interview before the role is closed so please apply asap. 

Big Issue Group is striving towards Equal Opportunities. We particularly welcome applications from those who are underrepresented in our sector, such as women in senior roles, and people with disabilities and from Black and Minority Ethnic communities.

Since 1991, The Big Issue has fought poverty by creating opportunities and supporting people to take control of their lives. Over time our organisation has grown and now The Big Issue Group consists of The Big Issue Company Ltd and Big Issue Invest Ltd (our social investment arm). In addition, we also have our sister charity The Big Issue Foundation.

Benefits

As well as a salary commensurate with our sector, we are proud of our family-friendly staff benefits. 
We offer 3 days paid leave in a rolling year to care for a sick child or grandchild, 3 days paid leave in a rolling year to care for a sick or elderly relative, an incremental holiday scheme, life cover, a healthcare cash plan, access to an open learning library and other learning & development opportunities, an enhanced contribution into our workplace pension and a generous maternity package. We particularly welcome applicants from those who are underrepresented, such as disabled people and people from Black and Minority Ethnic communities.

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