Job Title: South London Citizens - Mental Health Project Officer

Salary: £26,623 pa + £3,000 pa London Weighting

Hours: 37.5 hours per week (some unsociable hours required, flexibility available)

Contract: 12-month FTC (with possibility of extension)

Based: South London              

Deadline: 6 February 2023, 9am

Interview Date: TBC         

Citizens UK

Citizens UK is a people powered alliance of diverse local communities working together for the common good. Our mission is to develop leaders, strengthen civic organisations and make change. Our 550 member communities are deeply rooted in their local areas and connect every day to the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. Through the method of community organising we enable people experiencing powerlessness to develop their leadership and come together with the power and strategy to make change. 

This leads to hundreds of neighbourhood improvements - from zebra crossings outside primary schools to renovated public toilets in cemeteries. And it leads to some of the biggest campaign impacts in the UK, such as winning over £1.5 billion of wages through the UK Living Wage campaign, securing a legal cap on the cost of credit to control exploitative lending, and ending the detention of children for immigration purposes. We enable local campaigns to grow into large-scale social change projects such as the Living Wage Foundation, Parents and Communities Together (PACT), Sponsor Refugees, and Refugees for Justice, that form an integral part of our theory of change. The most prominent of these is the rapidly growing Living Wage Foundation with a network of over 11,000 accredited Living Wage Employers across the UK. 

South London Listens and Anchor Programmes

South London Citizens (SLC) is working with member alliances, three mental health trusts across South London – South London and Maudsley (SLaM), South West London and St, George’s Mental Health (SWLStG’s) and Oxleas, and the two Integrated Care Systems to which they belong - organising community leaders to take-action on the systemic causes of mental ill health in their communities.

The Project Officer will be responsible for working with the South London Listens (SLL) and Anchor Programme core project team of community organisers and leaders in South London to deliver on a range of strategic, coordination and administrative tasks. Visit the South London Listens website for more information: https://www.southlondonlistens.org

Purpose

South London Citizens (SLC) is working with the three mental health trusts across South London - SLaM, SWLStG’s and Oxleas and the South East London and South West London Integrated Care Boards - organising community leaders to take action on the systemic causes of mental ill health in their communities.

The Project Officer will be responsible for working with the South London Listens (SLL) core project team of community organisers and leaders in South London to ensure the pledges made by the mental health trusts, local authorities, and communities themselves in the 2022 South London Listens Accountability Assembly are prioritised and implemented. The Project Officer will also support the development of the Anchor workplan.

Supporting the Lead Organisers for the South London Listens and the Anchor Programme, the Project Officer will coordinate and help deliver the trainings, support listening campaigns, input into and create engaging communications for South London Listens and the Anchor Programme and deliver on administrative and event coordination tasks.

Main Responsibilities

Working as a member of the South London Citizens Team your main responsibilities will include:

Contribute towards the achievement of SLC, SLL, Anchor, and Citizens UK strategic objectives 

 Work together with the South London Listens Project Manager and the Anchor Lead Organiser to:

• Support the coordination of our work in South London 

• Contribute to a good working relationship with South London Listens and Anchor project managers based at South London and Maudsley NHS Trust and ICSs 

• Understand how own role contributes to the team

• Implement Citizens UK’s policies, procedures, and values in own work.

Supporting project delivery and achieve work targets effectively 

 Help to build and grow the South London Listens and Anchor projects ensuring achievement of project targets and overall goals, specifically:  

• Support in the coordination and delivery of trainings to meet our overall training targets for South London.

• Report on/track key performance indicators according to the project reporting schedule. 

• Event coordination for South London Listens and Anchor actions, trainings, and meetings.

Support the sharing of good practice across all SLC  

 Support the development and implementation of South London Listens and Anchor projects, specifically:

• Carrying out admin tasks to ensure effective coordination between community organisers working on South London Listens/Anchor.

• Supporting the senior team in the running of internal meetings and internal communications to ensure the South London team are on track to deliver their targets.

Learning and expertise

 Develop a solid understanding of the craft of Community Organising to inform Project Management of a community organising initiative:

• Schedule an average of two 1-2-1 relational meetings into your daily schedule as a core part of your professional practice. 

• Take opportunities to learn from the South London Citizens team the craft of community organising, incl. attending local training.

• Keep abreast of new developments within the mental health field

• Apply new learning to work and respond effectively to feedback

Develop and manage external relationships 

Contribute a good working relationship with NHS Trusts/colleagues: 

• Ensure that work in South London contributes to South London Citizens’ wider mental health strategy.

• Respond effectively to queries or requests from stakeholders involved with South London Listens or Anchor programming 

Communications

•  Communicate effectively within the team, ensuring that information and messages are reliable shared

• Support the Programme Managers in providing regular and appealing, communication materials.

• Represent Citizens UK effectively to external audiences in meetings and at events. 

• Deliver any allocated actions from the comms plan on time and to standard. 

Generate income and resources

•  Contribute to plans and proposals to grow sources of income/resource.

• Take careful stewardship of the team\Citizens UK’s resources

Person Specifications (E=Essential, D=Desirable):

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in any subject (D)

• Subject of relevance to community work or community organising is desirable (D)

Key Skills and Knowledge

• Excellent interpersonal awareness – ability to listen well and appreciate a viewpoint or opinion that is different from one’s own (E)

• Excellent concern for impact – ability to adapt own behaviour to address the needs or concerns of someone else (E)

• Good communication skills – able to speak with conviction and passion; and to make a logical argument (E)

Personal Qualities & Values

• A self-starter with ability to take initiative and work independently (E)

• A passion for justice (E)

• A positive enthusiasm for working with faith congregations, trade unions, schools, and other community organisations (E)

• An interest in and experience of politics and public life (E)

• Able to work in a team (E)

• Willingness to work within accountable relationships (E)

• Self-motivated and adaptable (E)

The successful applicant will be required to undertake a satisfactory Enhanced DBS check. DBS checks are renewed on a 3-year cycle.