Community Development Worker
Job Description
Job title: Community Development Worker
Company: Riverside
Job description: Job Description:
Job Title: Community Development Worker – The Oval Centre
Contract Type: Fixed Term for 3 years
Salary: £27,893 (£30,829 is achieved after 12 months successful performance in the role)
Working Hours: 35 hours
Working Pattern: Monday – Friday – with occasional weekend working where required
Location: The Oval Centre – Workington
For your application to be considered please ensure you attach a current CV and cover letter.
Applications may close before the deadline, so please apply early to avoid disappointment.
Why Riverside?
At Riverside, we’re a housing association with a difference – enhancing the everyday for all our customers. For 90 years, we’ve been revitalising neighbourhoods and supporting communities by providing the homes they need to live full, fulfilling and rewarding lives.
We have a portfolio of over 75,000 affordable residential and retirement homes across the UK. Our work ranges from homelessness services to social care, employment support to retirement living, and we need the best people on board to help us.
Working with us, you’ll enjoy:
Competitive pay & generous pension
28 days holidays plus bank holidays
Flexible working options available
Investment in your learning, personal development and technology
A wide range of benefits
The difference you will make as a Community Development Worker
You will support the development and growth of The Oval Centre as a community led hub -which supports and builds a more cohesive and resilient community and provides a range of high quality and cost-effective services to the local community, developing new services in response to changing community needs, sourcing funding, and expanding partnerships with key stakeholders and community partners working to enable the delivery of successful programmes and activities and providing access to statutory services. You will be expected to promote community wealth building and provision of socially value led activities. The successful candidate will spend a significant amount of time working from the Oval in Salterbeck, Workington, with the flexibility to work from home regularly.
About you
You will have a successful track record in bringing communities and people together including knowledge of community engagement, project and service delivery. You will have a good understanding of regeneration and community resilience to develop and drive solutions for the community.
Role requires you to:
- Work as part of a team within the Oval Centre to support day to day operations and the development of service provision
- To support and develop community engagement, well-being, and cohesion within Salterbeck and the wider area through providing positive and dynamic opportunities that build community resilience and empowerment for all to be able to make positive choices for their aspiration, health, well-being, and sense of belonging.
- Help to identify, work with, and create groups that will support communities at the grassroots level, building connections and collaborating with like-minded organisations to tackle social isolation, low community spirit and high unemployment.
- Use your local knowledge to identify gaps in provision and liaise with the community, stakeholders, and funders to develop sustainable solutions which promote resilience.
- Build a diverse programme of engagement, educational, social, recreational, and environmental activities to meet the identified needs of the local community, working with the resident’s group and wider partners to coproduce or inform development, and utilising funding to ensure all activities are accessible to all.
- Build capacity within Salterbeck: Recruit adult volunteers and provide or source appropriate training to develop the skills and competencies of individuals and build social capital within Salterbeck.
- Work with stakeholders and the community to maximise the support and networks and accessibility to services available to customers, setting out our commitment to deliver joined-up solutions that improve local areas and the lives of people. Secure the funding necessary to deliver projects and initiatives.
- Involve children and young people in social action projects that will create a greater sense of community and boost social cohesion and integration, improving wellbeing and resilience, and giving young people a ‘voice’ to help improve local services
- Support Digital inclusion – creating a hub which offers people access and connectivity, provide the support for people to use digital devices, and recruit and develop community digital champions to provide ongoing support
- Work alongside the Customer Involvement & Engagement Officers to promote and encourage take-up of customer engagement opportunities to help shape Riverside services.
- Source funding to support the development of large projects within the Oval, including the community café, to help provide affordable food within the community, and development of the outdoor spaces, particularly to support and improve the physical and mental health of residents
- Research and support the development of sustainable community management of the Oval Centre, negotiating the most appropriate model for the centre to be sustainable, and facilitating the work that needs to be undertaken to achieve this, including securing external funding
- Capture outcomes to evidence the impact of our work internally and externally, demonstrating value for money and social value gain whilst working with the marketing and communications team to publicise customer stories and successful projects.
- Contribute to Community Planning by using customer and neighbourhood intelligence, to identify, prioritise and plan projects to support the delivery of corporate and regional objectives.
- Work alongside the housing services and customer safety teams, working together to garner community support to tackle anti-social behaviour challenges.
- Ensure internal business processes are followed in line with the Group’s policies, procedures, and statutory requirements.
- Maintain accurate records using appropriate systems, ensuring the integrity and quality of data, to enable regular analysis to be carried out and reporting to be completed as required.
- Work in an agile/flexible way to deliver a highly proactive service to customers.
- Ensure that all Data Protection requirements are met in accordance with the Group’s policy, procedures, and statutory requirements.
- Ensure that Health & Safety requirements are met in accordance with the Group’s policy, procedures, and statutory requirements.
- Any other duties are required within the general nature and level of the post as agreed with the line manager.
Person specification
Knowledge, Skills, and Experience
Essential
- Strong track record of building networks and meaningful connections between people, stakeholders, and community organisations.
- Confident communicating with both communities and community stakeholder organisations
- A self-starter, who is solution focused and passionate about making a difference
- Demonstrable significant knowledge and experience of community engagement and building capacity locally to deliver needs led activities, projects and services which have a positive impact within the community
- Experience of Recruiting, supporting, and managing volunteers
- Good understanding of the key issues surrounding regeneration and community resilience, including the ability to be creative in your approach and the skills and experience to develop and drive community led solutions which promote resilience.
- Experience of successfully securing and managing external funding.
- Knowledge of impact measurement frameworks and ability to successfully implement them in order to track and measure the impact of projects.
- Proven track record of delivering successful projects, preferably within the housing sector, working collaboratively to achieve results.
- Organisational skills with a proven ability to work independently and off your own initiative.
- Customer focused with excellent communication skills, both verbal and written, showing the ability to meet the needs of a varied customer base.
- Effective stakeholder management, both internally and external to the organisation with excellent influencing and negotiating skills to a senior level
- Proven track record of successfully solving difficult problems.
- Excellent team player who can work flexibly to meet business requirements.
- Excellent attention to detail with the ability to work under pressure, deliver to strict deadlines and manage conflicting priorities.
- Proficient use of a range of IT packages including Microsoft Office and the ability to maximise the use of technology as appropriate.
- Willingness to travel to meet the needs of the role.
Desirable
- Understanding the context of social housing and the challenges it faces.
- Understanding of community management models and frameworks
- Evidence of continued development.
