Job Title: Associate Organiser, West London Citizens

Salary: £32,015 pa, including London Weighting (FTE)

Hours: 3-4 days per week, flexible working available

Contract: 24 months (June 23 - May 24) with option to extend

Base: West London

Interview Date: 5th of June 2023 (The interview will include a relational meeting, a panel discussion and a task)

Start date: By July 2023

Citizens UK

Citizens UK is a people power 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 £2 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.

West London Citizens is an alliance of 28 members working on a range of issues, from local campaigns to upgrade parks to multi-borough campaigns to secure the Living Wage for Health workers.

Associate Organiser Purpose

The principal responsibility of an Associate Organiser is their own development: learning the craft of Community Organising under the guidance of an experienced Community Organiser. They work intensively with a small number of member organisations under close supervision, growing their experience, skill, and responsibility incrementally. An Associate Organiser is working towards becoming a competent practitioner of the craft of broad-based community organising methodology, and focuses on the building of relational power, the recruitment and retention of dues-paying institutions, the development of leaders, the strengthening of member institutions, leader-led public actions, and the winning of systemic change. 

This role is a partnership with the Young Hammersmith and Fulham Foundation (YHFF) which aims to make Hammersmith and Fulham the best place in London to be a young person. Besides an organiser development program through Citizens UK, the Associate Organiser will benefit from additional coaching and mentoring from YHFF.

Broader Responsibilities of an Associate Organiser

Working as an Associate Organiser in West London for Citizens UK your main responsibilities will include::

Build relational power to further Citizens UK goals:

• Actively participate in the development of a comprehensive power analysis appropriate to the desired sphere of influence for each project/assignment

• Establish working relationships with identified leaders and demonstrate ability to move them into action, including as part of the wider alliance; taking the initiative to establish new relationships as required.

• Conduct one-to-ones to develop relationships with leaders and understand their concerns.

• Tell a wide range of Community Organising stories effectively to influence others and achieve Citizens UK’s goals

Identify and develop relational leaders prepared to act with others for the common good:

• Identify and discern actual and potential leaders with the passion and ability to drive change

• Proactively create opportunities for leaders to develop, in particular tertiary or new leaders; nominate for training on the core taster curriculum

• Successfully deliver training workshops in local institutions and on the core taster curriculum at a local level

Strengthen institutions and develop Broad Based Organisation:

• Ensure good understanding of the basic interests and traditions of typical member institutions

• Organise a small cluster of up to 7 standard member institutions, including a strategic partner to work together for the achievement of common goals

• Support pre-existing core teams and create/develop new core teams to provide leadership at institutional and cluster levels

 Support leaders through a ‘Cycle of Action’ to create change:

• Support member institutions in running listening campaigns

• Organise neighbourhood and borough actions; demonstrating increasing independence in working without the need for close supervision

• Take the lead in supporting groups of leaders through the cycle of action on neighbourhood issues; aiming to achieve neighbourhood wins

• Evaluate the effectiveness of actions; demonstrating ability to incorporate lessons learned into future actions

Contribute to CUK’s financial viability through effective fundraising and financial management:

• Recruit new dues paying institutions; work together with a senior organiser to negotiate annual membership fees, write membership plans and letters of understanding.

• Contribute substantively to fundraising by securing £30k pa overall, at least half of which should be ‘hard money’ from retention and recruitment of member institutions.

• Liaise with the Finance & Operations team to update the membership database and ensure timely invoicing for membership fees.

Contribute to effective teamwork:

• Be proactive concerning personal professional development and wellbeing, i.e., by reading widely on organising, developing a healthy work-life balance, and demonstrating ability to reflect on own organising craft & improve on self-identified weaknesses.

• Demonstrate ability to work effectively with colleagues and participate in teams.

• Produce all required reports and follow CUK’s procedures on time and to the required standards.

• Demonstrate being an organised organiser.

Participate in the development of the craft of Community Organising and play a role in the Guild of COs:

• Schedule an average of at least 3 1-2-1 relational meetings into your daily schedule as a core part of your professional practice.

• Commit 10 working days pa (pro rata for part-time staff) to the preparation, delivery and evaluation of Citizens UK National Community Leadership Training or other local or regional trainings.

• Participate in a Guild Team and help it develop as a Community of Practice that enables Organisers across the UK to develop their skills and experience.

Person Specification (E=Essential, D=Desirable)

 QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor’s degree in any subject (D)

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

EXPERIENCE:

• Previous campaign experience (D)

• Evidence of having acted with peers or through local community activities (e.g., organising clubs or societies) (E)

• Experience of project management; evidence of having delivered work on time and to standard (E)

• Able to demonstrate previous experience of ‘learning by doing’ in work environment or on a project; evidence of being open to feedback and comfortably coachable (E)

KEY SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE:

• Excellent interpersonal awareness – ability to listen well and appreciate a viewpoint or opinion that is different to your 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 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.