We’re Hiring! – Community Development Manager
We’re excited to be advertising a brand new role within our team to start as soon as possible. Continuing the work of the Local Wellbeing Network Coordinator, we’re now entering Year 2 of our project and need a Community Development Manager to take us, and the project, even further.
The post holder will work closely with local residents, the voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise sector (VCFSE) and statutory sector partners to provide a single point of contact, supporting the administration, coordination and implementation of local events in relation to the Local Wellbeing Networks. These take place on a locality level in the form of monthly in-person meetings in the North, Central & South of Islington.
Job Title: Community Development Manager
Reporting to: Deputy CEO, Voluntary Action Islington
Salary: NJC Scale SO2, 27 – £35,300
Hours: Full time – 35 hours per week
Duration: 12 months fixed term contract (extension subject to funding)
Benefits: 28 days per annum (pro-rata) & 6% employers pension contribution
Application deadline: Monday 24th October
Interviews: tbc
Background
The Local Wellbeing Networks have emerged through great changes in Islington, exacerbated by the covid-19 pandemic and an acknowledgement of a disconnect between the local authority, community groups, residents and grassroot organisations. To bridge this gap, Islington Council create the Local Wellbeing Networks project to connect all services in the borough, promote co-delivery to tackle localised health inequalities and capture community voice, ensuring no-one gets left behind.
This is part of Islington’s ‘Fairer Together’ initiative which seeks to build a better, fairer borough for everyone and as such this role works very closely with many Local Authority teams as well as statutory services and VCS groups. This role is also managed by Octopus Community Networks and Voluntary Action Islington and is embedded in the concept of co-production.
The Octopus Community Network (“Octopus”) is a mutually benefitting collaboration between 15 of Islington’s largest multi-purpose community centres working together to develop and deliver innovative community-led health and wellbeing, urban growing, environmental and network building programmes.
About the role
We are looking for a self-starter who will consolidate this area of work and develop it further with tangible actions and outcomes specific to Year 2 of this project. This is an exciting role that takes an asset and place-based approach to building local networks around health and wellbeing and will forge natural links with other networks across Islington, most notably Locality Leadership Teams, the Young Islington Locality Network and Octopus Community Networks and their social action hubs.
The Community Development Manager will:
- Provide the administration, coordination and implementation of the Local Wellbeing Networks which take place on a locality level in the form of monthly in-person meetings. Information linked to previous meetings can be found here.
- Work closely with local residents, and the voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise (VCFSE) and statutory sector partners providing a meeting point and collective voice for all three Local Wellbeing Networks and be recognised as a means for Islington Council and others concerned with health and wellbeing commissioning to engage in meaningful dialogue.
- Develop a Community of Practice (CoP), a community to ensure connectedness across the three Locality areas to exchange lessons learnt, effective practice, exchange progress updates.
- Develop further the successful Community Organisers and Change Makers Programme – and for them to be an integral role in network development.
Key responsibilities will include:
- Develop a project plan for the development of 3 Local Wellbeing Networks and work towards their sustainability (one in each locality – North, Central and South)
- Work closely with Octopus Community Network to develop their Social Action Hub and incorporate the LWN into this initiative even more
- Build, maintain and develop relationships with all types of community stakeholders and maintain a database of all contacts
- Promote engagement and participation for residents and community groups, resulting in tangible action and outcomes & promote co-production as a means to enabling community power
- Build and deliver a communications strategy and campaign for the LWN by providing a range of good quality information including newsletters, website content, printed materials and the use of social media to increase participation in the networks
- Sit on various boards, teams and working groups to advocate for the LWN and embed the project into wider initiatives across Islington
- Efficient administration and project management to ensure a stable delivery
- Curate monthly impact reports to be made available to all stakeholders
- Engage with VCFSE groups/organisations in need of capacity building support and refer them to the wider services of VAI
See full Job Description and Person Specification here: VAI Community Development Manager.
How to Apply
Please send a 2-page supporting statement highlighting why you are applying for the role and how you meet the person specification. Please also send a copy of your CV and the completed equal opportunity form to recruitment@vai.org.uk
We will be reviewing applications as they come in and interview people on a rolling basis.
The closing date for applications is at 1pm on Monday 24 October 2022.
If you have any further queries regarding this role, please contact our Deputy CEO Somanah Achadoo, at somanah.achadoo@vai.org.uk or telephone on 020 7832 5801 or should we say please email at recruitment@vai.org.uk.
Helpful information
Information on Fairer Together Here
Octopus Community Networks Here
Voluntary Action Islington Here
Local Wellbeing Networks Here
