This role requires close work with volunteers at one of NACRO’s young persons’ Foyers, based around England and Wales. The role will focus on organising and ensuring the successful execution of programmes by volunteers. The programmes will involve a mixture of learning, skills and health-based activities and ensuring and improving the well-being of the youngsters. The main purpose of the role is to oversee the successful and safety-conscious operation and delivery of activities in the Foyers’ Learning Centre.
Project workers are expected to form a series of close links with a wide variety of community based organisations and employers. This helps to forge the main focus of the Foyer, which revolves around ‘living, learning and work.’ Ideally, candidates will have had experience in dealing and networking with local authorities and will be equipped with a cannon of relevant contacts. Preferable previous experience would also be in a managerial position or in a role of senior responsibility. The position is also subject to a CRB check and experience with working with children would be an obvious advantage.
The role is central in ensuring the Foyer service meets both the ‘Supporting People’ requirements and the Foyer Federation’s Accreditation scheme. Candidates should be familiar with the objectives of both of these plans. Supporting People is a national scheme that aims to aid people with housing and related issues. The initiative is committed to providing a better standard of living for vulnerable people and preventing problems that can predict homelessness, hospitalisation, or institutional care. It focuses on helping these people live more independent lives as well as securing and maintaining their tenancies. It services over 1.2 million people in England and Wales.
The Foyer Federation’s Accreditation scheme is a way of ensuring that certain objectives are being targeted. Since the start of the Foyer movement, it was pressured into defining what its key intentions were. These were helped into realisation by tests that relate to the aims that this position focuses towards. Firstly, an emphasis is on helping homeless people between the ages of 16 – 25 become independent. This is reliant on the fact that they were dependant on something, from drugs to crime. Secondly, the scheme needs to be holistic, meaning that the programme must be fully comprehensive. This must therefore include making affordable accommodation, guidance, training, personal development and job searching facilities accessible for youngsters whom require the organisation’s support. The Accreditation process requires each Foyer to complete a rigorous self-assessment against these performance criteria.
Evidence of a reasonable level of education, an undergraduate degree would be preferable though.
Working in a youth setting, and as part of a strong group dynamic.
People skills, team/team building skills, organizational skills, written and verbal communication skills.