Job Description
Go-Forward Youth, a company registered in England number 10206917; Charity number
1168878, registered office c/o Bates Wells
, 10 Queen Street, EC4R 1BE
DESCRIPTION
Job Title: Youth Manager, Go Forward Youth
Responsible to: Director
Responsible for:
Work hours: Full time, 37.5 hours
Status: Full time
Salary: 40k Annually
This is an exciting opportunity to join a small charity at a time of big growth. Go Forward Youth was founded by care leavers to provide support to care experienced young people as they transition to adulthood and independence. This is the beginning of a long-term service being delivered and requires developing the plans strategically.
Our services aims are to reduce social isolation and improve outcomes for young adults who have recently left the care system by offering a place for them to turn in moments of celebration, loneliness, crisis and offering programmes that support them to develop the skills required for their independence, including an ambitious mix of enterprise training and work experience. This requires presenting to local authorities and third sector organisations to engage young people and develop partnerships with leaving care teams. Our long-term vision is to combat the stigma that surrounds care leaving so that care leavers feel supported and empowered to achieve their ambitions without barriers to access. We run a busy programme of social activities, personal development, and employability skills training for care leavers across London and we are looking for a hardworking, confident, experienced youth manager, with long term professional experience in youth work, with innovative ideas
Produced December 2022
Go-Forward Youth, a company registered in England number 10206917; Charity number
1168878, registered office c/o Bates Wells
, 10 Queen Street, EC4R 1BE and who take responsibility for the development of the targeted youth support, the outreach work, programme development, and strategic development with the engagement of the young adults as we grow the service.
We currently have two core developing services that focus on two principal areas:
Ø Social support/ peer/ community/ network/ supportive adult role models
Ø Education/entrepreneurship/empowerment/ professional network
1. The GFY, HUB, the Charity’s flagship programme. To create an environment of support for young adults who are ambitious but could be experiencing additional challenges while transitioning into adulthood and who need a network (the right support), and a home-away-from-home (a physical space to go to). When in full operation the HUB will run on Thursday – Sunday 4-9pm
(between) and on weekdays (between) 3-9pm. These times are specific as other services are closed, and when the young people express feeling the most isolated. Includes the developing Youth
Advisory Board (YAB)
2. The OWN IT PROGRAMME, powered by GF +, Own It is an employment, skills and training programme for young care leavers,
A mix of training ILM Level 3 Enterprise (accredited), product development (industry input), enterprise and entrepreneurship training, and work experience. This is outsourced via GF+, the sister enterprise.
Produced December 2022
Go-Forward Youth, a company registered in England number 10206917; Charity number
1168878, registered office c/o Bates Wells
, 10 Queen Street, EC4R 1BE
OUR CORE SERVICES
We are shaping these two relatively new initiatives, we are finding the right young people (where they are), pitching the initiative to them and service providers such as local authorities, leaving care teams.
We ongoingly continue to acknowledge gaps in support provision to young adults, [particularly care leavers] and subsequently create new programmes/ project offers designed by the Youth Advisory Board (YAB. intends to be the collective voice of students, members and alumni who are put to the forefront, with the purpose of developing offers led by them.
Job Purpose:
To support Go-Forward Youth in continuing to develop and deliver a Youth offer targeted at care experienced young people or those on the edge of care.
This is a new role for the charity, developed from a previous voluntary role of youth leader.
Our growing core services to date:
- Annual Christmas in Partnership with Arsenal and Islington Borough Council, usually lead at the Arsenal hub,
- HUB ‘Home-Away-From-Home’ or ‘The space’ (piloted 2019, 2020)
- Education and training support provision. Own It Programme, led by GF +
We have created this role to develop our youth service offer and the management of our service offer, while considering the grow required in the youth delivery team. It is key in this role to identify the institutions and organisations that we have a shared goal and client group (care leavers, young people) and develop partnerships for collaboration and referrals. The home-away-from-home needs to be fulfilling a crucial gap for care experienced young people, in terms of social support, network and education and employment, listening to members say they need to move forward.
This means engaging the right young people, and acknowledging gaps in the youth
Produced December 2022
Go-Forward Youth, a company registered in England number 10206917; Charity number
1168878, registered office c/o Bates Wells
, 10 Queen Street, EC4R 1BE provision and areas we can build on. We work to create an environment that comforts and supports, which is also about accountability, autonomy, empowerment, and aspiration. We are looking for a professional to be part of the team, an individual with long standing professional experience of youth work, that understands the challenges and vulnerabilities of care experience. The role includes, managing our
Home-Away-From-Home; that supports young people on evenings, weekends, when other services are closed. It would have an element of packaging our offer with the support of the team, presenting, pitching to local authorities and funders.
A goal for this role is to sustain and grow the services and the delivery team across the next two years, by evaluating, piloting, and refining existing models and developing ideas and new regular projects. We are looking for individual that can support the charity to sustain existing models and engage members, by having a steady menu of activities, project, and opportunities on offer. It is expected that the youth manager will be the designated safeguarding officer, managing activities, risks on and offsite. With a focus on targeted youth engagement in the community, via outreach work, schools, virtual schools, leaving care teams, community links and stakeholders (As we have recently moved to Camden there are many more opportunities). Managing the operations of the day to day running of youth services in the Space and offsite. At present there is a small staff team leading the developing and running a small number of weekday drop-in services and programme as we develop our offer in (a physical) space. We are looking for leadership and professional experience of being a Youth Manager, identifying gaps in the youth delivery team and managing a growing staff team.
Main Tasks:
Youth Lead, Outreach Work, Targeted Support and Network
1. Being the lead contact for Go Forward Youth services for young people and potential clients (partners, stakeholders, or students) and be able to provide an overview of GFY services
2. Identifying the needs of the young adults who are introduced to the charity, creating a needs’ assessment framework that is not intrusive
3. Building relationships with young people, demonstrating consistency and commitment
4. Strategically finding ways to deliver targeted youth support and developing bespoke programmes, with young adults when there are gaps in support
5. Working in collaboration with the stakeholders, carers’ families, community links and building GFY’s network, by pitching and presenting to stakeholders
Produced December 2022
Go-Forward Youth, a company registered in England number 10206917; Charity number
1168878, registered office c/o Bates Wells
, 10 Queen Street, EC4R 1BE
6. Referring young people to the relevant support service and collaborating in the interest of opportunities than can be made available to a young adult
7. Managing the safeguarding and risk assessment paperwork, internally and with volunteers
8. Encouraging and developing opportunities for peer support and networks
9. Identifying job opportunities internally and externally for alumni and members of GFY projects or programmes
Management
10. To be knowledgeable about the strategic growth and development projection of the Go Forward Youth programmes, and work with the Director to scale up outreach and the programme across the next three years
11. To lead in youth services and the development of the offer
12. To recognise gaps in the youth service delivery team and work with the Trust fundraiser to develop a case for support for any emerging youth work roles.
13. To maintain relationships with internal and external stakeholders by providing updates about the outcomes of the programme and successes of the students
14. To ensure communication is maintained with the young adults we support and those who have been part of the service by making them aware of the other opportunities available to them, so they continue to feel supported beyond their participation in a singular programme
15. To deliver the YAB, and guiding the Chairs of the board by running meetings while they adjust to chairing
16. To develop a membership programme and engagement scheme for young adults engaging with GFY
17. To monitor the core elements of the programme, including the delivery of the formal qualification and work experience elements, making sure that targets are met, and the well-being of participants is maintained
18. To manage and encourage programme participants and ensure they feel supported and confident to participate in the programme, and to act as a point of contact if they have any concerns
19. To identify areas of strategic growth for the programme, including programme development opportunities, and identify gaps in the offer and the support provided to participants.
20. To manage our partnership work where necessary to update Virtual School and Young People’s Advisors (YPAs) on their progress.
21. To support the Director with the preparation and delivery of presentations and work with the Charity Personal Assistant (PA) to provide regular updates and image content to potential clients, stakeholders, or partners.
Produced December 2022
Go-Forward Youth, a company registered in England number 10206917; Charity number
1168878, registered office c/o Bates Wells
, 10 Queen Street, EC4R 1BE
Monitoring, Evaluation, Safeguarding
22. To be aware of and up to date GDPR regulations with content and consent with media (pictures, videos)
23. To manage the communication channels (e.g., email) to facilitate the sharing of information between all relevant parties, including the Director, participants, partners, and volunteers.
24. To review the performance and outcomes of students throughout their participation in our work
25. To monitor the quality assurance of our services and programmes to ensure consistency as they scale up.
26. To support the work of research and evaluation for wider GFY service and pilot projects
27. To maintain and monitor the Charity’s governance policies and the staff handbook.
28. To carry out duties and responsibilities in accordance with the Charity’s
Health and Safety Policy and relevant Health and Safety legislation.
29. To carry out, at all times duties and responsibilities within the framework of the
Dignity for all Policy. (Equal Opportunities Policy).
30. Risk assessing activities on and off the premises
Person Specification:
The successful candidate will have the following skills:
Desirable
Knowledge and experience
- To have in-depth experience of working with young people, particularly young adults that may have early life trauma
- To have knowledge of the care experienced community, strength, and barriers they face
Essential
Produced December 2022
Go-Forward Youth, a company registered in England number 10206917; Charity number
1168878, registered office c/o Bates Wells
, 10 Queen Street, EC4R 1BE
Management and Youth Work
- Experience in managing a team, delivering regular supervision and team meetings
- Level 3 Qualified Youth Manager
- Experience in organising staff rota, delivery of programmes and session 1-1 or groups
- Experience of managing the operations of a buildings, day activities by having cover and trained staff for closing and facilitation of scheduled programmes, on and off site
Safeguarding and risk assessment
- Certified and experienced as the designated safeguarding officer in previous roles, with an up-to-date safeguarding and risk assessment training qualification
Outreach work and Targeted Youth Support
- An awareness of strategic insight into, and a vision for the organisation in terms of where it can scale to, including staffing gaps
Required
- A high level of patience and emotional resilience
- A non-judgmental attitude, regardless of YP needs and situations.
- Good listening skills, and an empathic approach.
- An interest in people and a commitment to helping others.
- The ability to communicate clearly and sensitively with vulnerable young people
- A commitment to providing equal opportunities.
- Time management skills and the ability to meet the needs of several stakeholders and young people at one time.
- The ability to communicate with other support networks and professionals.
- Good written communication skills.
- A respect for client confidentially.
Produced December 2022
Go-Forward Youth, a company registered in England number 10206917; Charity number
1168878, registered office c/o Bates Wells
, 10 Queen Street, EC4R 1BE
- Basic IT skills.
- The ability to maintain professionalism in different working environments.
- To have a creative and energetic approach
- The ability to remain calm in high pressure situations
- A passion for supporting the personal development of others, including the
Director, young people, teacher, and other stakeholders
- Excellent teamworking skills
- The ability to work in small groups on a 1-1 basis.
- A good sense of humour.
Produced December 2022
Job Type: Full-time
Salary: £40,000.00 per year
Schedule:
- Monday to Friday
- Weekend availability
Ability to commute/relocate:
- London: reliably commute or plan to relocate before starting work (required)
Work Location: One location
Reference ID: Youth Manager - North West London
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