Politics Jobs
We are looking for a Community Organiser to join the Thames Valley Citizens team in Reading, building the power of local communities. The role will work across the whole city and will support existing member institutions, as well as focus on recruiting new ones, particularly ‘anchor institutions’ such as schools/colleges, faith institutions, and unions. Primary responsibilities will include recruiting new members; developing core teams in member institutions and supporting community leaders to take action on issues of shared concern.
With your passion, energy, and commitment to democracy, you will support communities to build the power they need to win justice and make a real and lasting impact. Join us in the fight for a wealthier, healthier and fairer Reading.
A Community Organiser is responsible for the day-to-day development or maintenance of a Citizens alliance or small chapter. Supported by a more experienced Organiser, they have considerable independence and responsibility for external political and media relationships. They take responsibility for financial issues and staff and community training; and may oversee a budget or manage a colleague. A Community Organiser is a practitioner of the craft of broad-based community organising methodology, and focuses on the building of relational power, the recruitment and retention of dues-paying institutions, the development of leaders, the strengthening of member institutions, leader-led public actions, and the winning of systemic change.
Citizens UK
Citizens UK is a people power alliance of diverse local communities working together for the common good. Our mission is to develop leaders, strengthen civic organisations and make change. Our 550 member communities are deeply rooted in their local areas and connect every day to the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. Through the method of community organising we enable people experiencing powerlessness to develop their leadership and come together with the power and strategy to make change.
This leads to hundreds of neighbourhood improvements - from zebra crossings outside primary schools to renovated public toilets in cemeteries. And it leads to some of the biggest campaign impacts in the UK, such as winning over £2 billion of wages through the UK Living Wage campaign, securing a legal cap on the cost of credit to control exploitative lending, and ending the detention of children for immigration purposes. We enable local campaigns to grow into large-scale social change projects such as the Living Wage Foundation, Parent Action, Sponsor Refugees, and Refugees for Justice, that form an integral part of our theory of change. The most prominent of these is the rapidly growing Living Wage Foundation with a network of over 13,000 accredited Living Wage Employers across the UK.
Thames Valley Citizens is a chapter of Citizens UK comprising Citizens MK (in Milton Keynes), Reading Citizens, and Oxford Citizens). Reading Citizens is one of Citizens UK’s newest Alliances, launched in 2023. It is a leader-led alliance. In Reading, we are currently focusing on growing the Alliance’s foundations by recruiting more civil society institutions to join existing members. We are building the power of civil society by developing a broad alliance of institutions, strengthening community leadership, and supporting people to take action on what matters most to them.
Main Responsibilities
Working as a Thames Valley Citizens Community Organiser in Reading, reporting to a Regional Supervisor, your main responsibilities will include:
Community Organiser for Reading Citizens:
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Work as part of a team of organisers across Thames Valley and across the South East of England (Thames Valley, Essex, and Sussex)
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Recruit civil society institutions into the alliance
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Support existing institutions across Reading Citizens to focus upon institutional development and strengthen civil society.
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Build relationships and support our strategic partnerships with Reading University and the Students’ Union.
Build relational power to further the goals of CUK:
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Develop a comprehensive power analysis for Reading Citizens
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Develop and grow a substantial network of key influencers at a local level, including journalists; taking the initiative to establish new relationships as required
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Conduct at least 3 121s a day in order to develop relationships with leaders; ensuring a deep understanding of their concerns.
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Tell a wide range of Community Organising stories effectively in order to influence others and achieve CUK’s goals
Identify and develop relational leaders prepared to act with others for the common good:
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Identify and discern actual and potential leaders with the passion and ability to drive change
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Achieve significant development of primary and secondary leaders; nominate new leaders for training on the core taster curriculum and for National Training
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Successfully lead training on the core taster curriculum at a local level and teach a variety of sessions on the National Training course
Strengthen institutions and develop BBOs:
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Ensure good understanding of the basic interests and traditions of typical member institutions
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Organise a full local alliance or a large cluster of up to 15 standard member organisations or up to 5 strategic partners to work together on shared issues, including a Leadership Team
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Support pre-existing core teams and create/develop new core teams to provide leadership for multi-institutional campaigns
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Run institutional development campaigns in a range of types of organisation
Support leaders through the Cycle of Action in order to create change:
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Take the staff lead on major actions and campaigns at a local level; aiming to achieve multiple large local wins
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Develop and facilitate action planning teams at local level
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Develop strategies for significant local impact; with comprehensive plans and tactics
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Organise and support local actions, ensuring publicity, and facilitating negotiations
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Evaluate the effectiveness of actions; demonstrating ability to incorporate lessons learned into future actions
Contribute to CUK’s financial viability through effective fundraising & financial management:
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Recruit new dues paying institutions; negotiating annual membership fees and letters of understanding as required
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Contribute to fundraising by securing £40k-£60k per annum overall, at least half of which must be ‘hard money’ from the recruitment and retention of member institutions.
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Manage the budget at Alliance/campaign level, incl. setting/ monitoring of budgets, and ensuring dues are collected in a timely manner
Contribute to effective teamwork:
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Be proactive concerning personal professional development and wellbeing, i.e. by reading widely, developing a healthy work-life balance and demonstrating ability to reflect on own organising craft and improve on self-identified weaknesses
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Demonstrate ability to work effectively with colleagues and participate in a team; contribute to the learning of other Organisers
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Lead other Organisers or Associates in a manner that supports high performance by providing clear expectations and providing proactive support, encouragement, and mentorship
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Effective line management of associate organisers
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Produce all required reports and follow CUK’s procedures on time and to the required standards
Participate in the development of the craft of Community Organising and play a role in the Guild of COs:
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Schedule an average of at least 3 1-2-1 relational meetings into your daily schedule as a core part of your professional practice
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Commit 10 working days pa (pro rata for part-time staff) to the preparation, delivery and evaluation of Citizens UK National Community Leadership Training;
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Participate in a Guild Team and help it develop as a Community of Practice that enables Organisers across the UK to develop their skills and experience.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion:
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Displays self-awareness of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion issues and good practice.
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Considers the impact on chapter and direct reports.
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Leads and acts within their area of responsibility and influence.
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Acts as a champion for those who might otherwise be marginalised
Person Specification:
Essential (E)
Desirable (D)
QUALIFICATIONS
Bachelor’s degree in any subject or equivalent (D)
Evidence of further and continuing study including a possible professional qualification (D)
EXPERIENCE
At least one-year employment track record of successful Organising (E)
Experience of carrying out a power analysis and using the results to initiate new relationships (E)
Experience of successful fundraising (E)
Experience of setting up a new or consolidating an existing project (E)
Clear evidence of campaigns won and volunteers developed (E)
KEY SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE
Ability to inspire, motivate and lead (particularly people who are different from you) (E)
Ability to organise yourself and others and to work responsibly in an unstructured environment (E)
Financial management skills including ability to set and manage a budget (D)
Ability to use creative strategies to support and develop leaders within unheard and diverse communities. (E)
Ability to plan and organise under pressure (E)
Ability to build trusting relationships and communicate to a wide range of diverse people and institutions (E)
Ability to teach and run workshops (E)
Ability to develop the potential of others (E)
Ability to communicate well verbally and in writing (E)
A good knowledge of Reading and its diverse communities, social dynamics, and challenges (D)
PERSONAL QUALITIES & VALUES
A passion for justice (E)
A positive enthusiasm for working with faith congregations, trade unions, schools and other community organisations (E)
An interest in and experience of politics and public life (E)
Able to work in a team (E)
Willingness to work within accountable relationships (E)
Self-motivated and adaptable (E)
Interview date: 16/01/2025 (subject to change)
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Thank you!
Closing date: Tuesday 14th January 2025 at 9am
Working arrangements: Remote working, permanent, regular or ad hoc (with frequent travel to London if not London-based) Please note that we also have approximately 3-4 team retreats per year which could be located anywhere nationally.
We have an exciting opening for someone to join our team as the Head of our Campaigns By You (CBY) team. We need a campaigns expert who understands politics, digital campaigning, platform management, partnership working and how to win both national and local grass roots campaigns.
The Head of Campaigns By You leads the CBY department, crafting plans and supporting the team to run impactful national and local campaigns launched by supporters and partner organisations, which aim to shape the country to be fair, respectful and sustainable. This role oversees the development, outreach and growth of our CBY platform to ensure that we’re giving the best possible support to petition starters and attracting a growing number of petition starters and partner organisations who share our values.
The Head of Campaigns By You must overview and lead the CBY team’s campaign outputs and the performance of the tech platform to ensure organisational health and sustainability. They manage risk, and are the escalation point for moderation decisions on what we host. They balance the CBY campaign team’s campaign portfolio to ensure that it’s engaging thousands of supporters and fundraising effectively in order to create political impact – and they lead the team to collaborate across the wider function and organisation. This is not a hands off role, you’ll be expected to lead the team by example.
Your background and experience
We are looking for someone who understands 38 Degrees, our model and our organisational culture already, and our fierce determination to change our country – campaigning to do so without fear or favour whoever is in power. You will have worked at, or with, a similar organisation to us, where our supporters are our purpose, and you’ll be ready to engage in discussions about campaigning tactics and way of working from day one.
The CBY platform is central to our mission to give people power in order to make the country fair, respectful and sustainable. You understand how to translate complex issues into everyday understandable language and you’re experienced in running digital and offline campaigns that create change in local, national, political and corporate issue areas.
You’ll have experience of working in productive and positive environments, and you’ll have insight into how teams can be set up for success in a campaigning space.
You’ll be adept and experienced at project management, understand the pressures the team face working in a fast paced reactive environment and be able to get the best of people in this context to help deliver on longer term, strategic goals alongside making the most of quick reactive opportunities.
And most of all, you will be a positive, practical person who can work with others, bringing them with you, to solve problems in a collaborative way.
About us
38 Degrees is one of the UK’s biggest campaigning communities, involving over a million supporters who campaign to make the UK a better place. We’re united by a shared vision to create a fairer and more respectful UK and a more sustainable world.
In the space of a week, millions of supporters could be campaigning on anything from protecting our NHS and stopping cuts to Universal Credit, to saving local green spaces and protecting our democracy.
38 Degrees is fiercely independent. We are primarily funded by small donations from hundreds of thousands of members of the public from all over the UK. This independence means we never have to hold ourselves back from taking on those with power and can truly listen to our supporters.
Why you’ll want to work here
The 38 Degrees culture is honest, kind, supportive, courageous, and respectful. We move fast, and frequently change plans to respond to events. We work hard but we also have fun. We regularly enjoy team away days and social hours.
Benefits include:
27 days holiday per year (plus bank holidays); Office closure between Christmas and New year; 9-day fortnight (office closed every other Friday); 4pm closure on the alternate Friday; Flexibility to work 90 days per tax year (30 day maximum per travel in any location as per approval process); One month paid sabbatical leave after 5 years of service; Employer pension contribution; 24 hour employee assistance programme; Enhanced family leave policies; Cycle to work scheme; Employer paid annual flu vaccination; Rental deposit loan; Contribution to eye tests/glasses; Learning and development budget.
Our commitment to Diversity & Inclusion
We’re especially keen to hear from people who’ll bring lived experience of the issues we work on and who’ll make our team more diverse as a result. So if you’re Black, Asian or from any other minority ethnic group, if you’re disabled, LGBTQIA+, or if you’re from a working class home, your application will be especially welcome. And thanks to our flexible home working approach and network of offices, we have a staff team that is increasingly based across the UK. We’re keen to continue diversifying geographically, so that we’re rooted in our supporters’ communities.
To make sure that we are able to reach our goal of a diverse team we have equal opportunities monitoring requirements. Your application will not be complete without the equal opportunities monitoring form.
38 Degrees is committed to inclusive working practices, so during the application process we commit to:
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- Paying for childcare whilst you’re at 38 Degrees interviews or tasks
- Paying for your travel costs to the office and back – and for overnight accommodation if you’re travelling from a long distance for an interview although at present the majority of interviews are held online using zoom.
- Making any reasonable adjustments – for example ensuring we have a BSL interpreters organised in advance if you’d need one
- If there anything else you’re concerned about or think we could provide, please let us know.
To be successful in your application you must meet the essential requirements for this role and answer the questions below which are part of the selection criteria. Without completion of this task your application cannot be considered.
The successful candidate must have the right to work in the UK at the time of appointment.
Application Questions (max word count: 2000 words across all questions)
1. Tell us about a digital campaign you have been part of, including what you were trying to achieve, how you developed a strategy, how you brought team members together to action the plan, and what the results you achieved.
2. 38 Degrees is a digital-first, people-powered campaigning organisation where millions of people do something small to add up to bigger political and corporate change. Tell us about a time you’ve worked with a similar model – and why you think this specific form of campaigning can make a difference in the country.
3. Alongside offering free petition technology to individual members of the public, our CBY platform enables us to partner with other organisations so that they can run campaigns on our systems. Knowing what you do about 38 Degrees and our political positioning, who do you think would be a good new partner organisation for us to approach to work with and why?
4. You’ve noticed a news story blowing up this morning about unfair conditions for delivery drivers, it’s headline news across the country. We want to get a petition live by this afternoon and ideally have someone with a personal story as the petition starter. What sort of person would make the best story teller, and how would you go about finding them and persuading them to start a petition?
Thank you!
Heritage of London Trust (HOLT) restores the buildings and monuments that tell the story of the city and the people who live within it. Founded over 40 years ago, our mission is to rescue characterful and neglected historic sites all across the city. We focus on sites at risk in areas of least investment - in local communities that most need our help - ensuring a sustainable future for every project we work on. To date, we have restored 850 sites across London.
In 2020 we launched our ground-breaking Proud Places youth programme to inspire and engage young people with the world around them, helping them develop knowledge and skills now and for the future. We work with mainstream schools across London and are the only UK heritage organisation to specialise in working with excluded pupils, young people at risk of gang exploitation and young refugees. To date we have worked with 8,000 young people and the programme continues to expand.
As our programme work has grown, so has our team and investment into our communications capability. This is an exciting opportunity for a skilled communications professional to make a meaningful impact on London’s people and places. The Head of Communications is a newly created role reporting directly to the Director (Chief Executive).
With over 40 active projects and a vibrant youth engagement program, HOLT offers a wealth of compelling stories to share. As Head of Communications, you will focus our communications strategy to promote our mission, connect projects with diverse audiences, and engage a broad spectrum of supporters. The Head of Communications will bring expertise, fresh perspectives, and a focus on growing media relations. We have warm relationships with journalists and media contacts, which we are keen to build on as our work grows. A natural writer, you’ll produce high-quality content for our website and social media, liaising with our talented design team on videos, photography, and other assets. You’ll build our profile, showcase our work, and advance our social impact and reach.
We are a committed team with an entrepreneurial, creative approach; we find joy and purpose in our work and strive to create a collaborative, stimulating environment. We are seeking a warm, imaginative, and persuasive communicator with a keen eye for storytelling who can champion our work across press, digital, and social media platforms. Working closely with the Director, you will lead a small team and collaborate with senior colleagues in Fundraising, Programmes, and Trustees to capture and communicate our impact effectively.
While communications experience in arts, heritage, or youth engagement is an advantage, the qualities we value most are creativity, curiosity, proactivity, and collaboration. A commitment to our mission and a deep interest in serving young people, London, and its communities are essential.
To learn more about this fantastic opportunity, please download the full appointment brief, where you will also find contact details of our talent consultant Ami Jenick at People Beyond Profit, should you wish to have an informal and confidential conversation about the role.
Closing date: 12 January 2025
People Beyond Profit Conversations: 15- 21 January 2025
HOLT First Interview: 27 January 2025
HOLT Second Stage Conversations: W/c 27 January 2025
Thank you!
Develop strategy, shape programmes, build partnerships, manage staff , support volunteers, raise funds: -all part of the director's role leading the organisation's efforts to improve the lives and opportunities of refugees, asylum seekers and vulnerable migrants across Oxfordshire.
Our director retires in May after five succesful years and we seek a dynamic and experienced leader to sustain, supportand refresh the organisation's work.
Based in Oxford and splitting time between office, home and places where we work, the new director will lead a team of about 30 staff and 200 volunteers delivering a wide range of programmes meeting the needs of new arrivals, longer term refugees, adults and children.
The new director will have strong all- round leadership experience, a supportive andcollegiate management style and knowledge of refugee related issues.
Interviews will be held in Oxford on 11th February. Please let us know if you would not be able to make this date.
Shortlisted candidates will be able to speak to the outgoing director ahead of the interviews.
Registered Charity
21 - 50
We support asylum seekers, refugees and vulnerable migrants to settle and thrive in the U.K.
Thank you!
Actively Interviewing
This organisation is scheduling interviews as applications come in. They're ready to hire as soon as they find the right person. Don't miss your opportunity, apply now!
Chief Executive Officer
Are you a visionary leader passionate about empowering young people?
We are seeking a new CEO who shares our passion for the work we do and who can provide strategic leadership, and inspire staff, trustees, and stakeholders to achieve our ambitious goals.
Salary: £65k to 70k per annum
Location: Remote/Bristol - min 3 on-site days per month (with some travel across Bristol, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset)
Hours: Full-time
Contract: Permanent
Closing date: 10 January 2025
About Us
Off The Record (Bristol) isn’t just a charity providing mental health services, it’s a mental health movement mobilised to support, promote and defend the mental health, rights and social position of young people!
We support young people aged 11-25 in Bristol, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset. Our beliefs, collectively developed across the organisation, underpin our work as a mental health social movement. At all times, Off The Record (Bristol) strives to give a choice and a voice to young people.
About the Role
Reporting to the Board of Trustees, you will ensure the charity is well-positioned to meet the needs of the young people we serve while maintaining financial sustainability and operational excellence.
We are very proud of the growth and increased impact we have achieved over recent years, but we know that our infrastructure hasn’t kept pace with the services we now offer. We need to consolidate so that we can increase our impact and we are looking for a CEO who will lead us through this next stage and who will also relish the challenge. We seek an individual with passion, energy, and the ability to collaborate to springboard Off The Record (Bristol) upwards and onward for the next phase of its evolution.
Key responsibilities include:
· To provide Off The Record (Bristol) with an over-arching leadership and strategic focus.
· To develop the overall capacity and operational capability of the leadership team.
· To establish and manage key relationships, partnerships and contracts with various stakeholders across the voluntary and public sectors.
· To ensure and oversee a strategy for diverse and sustainable income generation that supports Off The Record (Bristol) strategic plan
· To ensure and oversee robust financial management of resources.
About You
We are looking for an experienced Senior Manager, with a good understanding of services for children and young people services and mental health, with effective internal and external communication and relationship building skills and of course, you must be aligned with our strong values base. This is an immensely rewarding role which would perfectly suit a person of vision, positivity and proven delivery.
This is an opportunity to lead a respected charity at an exciting time in its journey. You’ll work with a passionate team and a supportive board, making a tangible difference in the lives of young people in Bristol.
We recognise that tackling systemic inequality, prejudice, racism and oppressive practice requires each of us to actively engage, self-examine and make changes where necessary, in order to improve access and ensure an equitable experience for all in society, and all of those who come through our doors at Off The Record (Bristol).
You will be asked to submit a CV and a cover letter. Please use the cover letter (max 2 pages) as an opportunity to add to the information you have shared in your CV.
· Preliminary interviews with Eastside People - Ongoing and in the week commencing 13th Jan
· First panel interview – week commencing 20th or 27th Jan
· Final assessment day – week commencing 27th Jan or 3rd Feb
You may also have experience in other areas such as CEO, Chief Executive Officer, Chief Exec.