Support, Development and Volunteering Outreach Worker (Closed)

The Support, Development and Volunteering Workers role is to contribute to the support, development and volunteering services which are central to the work of Community Action: MK. The post holder will work as part of a team who are dedicated to delivering excellent infrastructure services to groups in Milton Keynes. The hours of work are 29.6 hours per week on a permanent contract (Dependent on Funding)

The main duties are as follows –

Undertaking a programme of outreach visits to frontline groups
Ensuring that referrals to specialist support services e.g. funding advice, training etc are carried out in a timely and appropriate manner

To keep accurate and effective records about dialogue with groups and feed this into our intelligence gathering systems to ensure we are able to spot themes and issues affecting the sector.

Organising networking opportunities for frontline groups
Coordinating formal and informal training programmes to develop and implement capacity building support and quality standards for the provision of support services

Organising groups to participate in, and promotion of, the Governance Toolkit.

Specific duties and responsibilities:

To raise awareness of Community Action: MK’s available support for the VCS in MK through:

Visiting/ engaging with a target number of groups and collecting information on their composition, activities, strengths, weaknesses and support/development needs through our Healthcheck process.
To both offer to, and collect information from groups on a range of technical, developmental, management and structural matters with the aim of identifying their infrastructure support needs.
To actively work with members of VCS organisations to ensure messages from the sector are channeled into a strategic voice to influence decision making.
To be responsible for promoting a community development approach that empowers local groups to build their organisational skills.
To identify areas of developmental support needs common to organisations within a specific area, to identify methods for meeting those needs and to work with appropriate partners to deliver appropriate support.
To keep detailed records on all groups visited (this will include detailing every intervention with the group either by phone, in person or by electronic means) and entering these onto our Data Recording System to the agreed standards.

To coordinate: Networking opportunities for frontline groups which are focussed on a range of appropriate topics and issues. Formal and informal training programmes to develop and implement quality standards for the provision of support services using our Code of Governance Self Assessment tool.

The provision of training programmes for frontline groups on appropriate topics
Effective dialogue collection from groups and contribute to the organisational intelligence collection.
A programme of Volunteer Drop-In sessions across a range of venues in Milton Keynes and liaise with partner organisations to develop and promote volunteering opportunities.
Funding Advice and other 1:1 sessions with groups who send enquiries to Community Action: MK.
To work in partnership with organisations which interact with local community groups and voluntary organisations to support the needs of groups.
Effective and sector relevant information being shared with groups through newsletters, website, and social media platforms.
Monitoring and evaluation systems as specified

To be able to use Technology, in particular, Google systems, Social Media, Funding Central, and our Volunteering and Database system called Simply Connect.
To work within Community Action: MK’s policies and practices paying due regard to Health and Safety Procedures and Equal Opportunities.
Any other duties appropriate to the post.

The successful applicant will need an understanding and passion for Community Action MK’s Community Development principles and experience of partnership working and relationship building with key stakeholders, including local authority, academics, and other community sector workers and residents.

Closing Date for Applications is at 12:00pm on the 10th April 2019