Salary: Associate Organiser step 1 (£26,623 per annum FTE)

Based: Essex – required to travel

Contract: Permanent  

Hours: 20 hours per week (flexible, core days are Tuesday-Thursday)

Deadline: 6 June 2022, 23:59pm

Interviews: 15/16/17 June 2022 (Provisional)

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 £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), and Sponsor Refugees, 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 nearly 9,000 accredited Living Wage Employers across the UK.  

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. 

In Essex, the key role of the associate will be to work with a small number of current organisations and explore how to diversify the alliance to lead powerful change in the county. Members of Citizens Essex are working together for a Safer Essex, a Welcoming Essex, a Fairer Essex, an Accessible Essex and a Healthier Essex. We help deliver modules on community organising at Essex University and Anglia Ruskin University and are helping the Salvation Army establish Malachi housing schemes in Southend and Basildon. The Church of England are strategic partners with Citizens UK Communities for Ukrainians scheme. We are looking to prioritise the recruitment of schools and academy trusts in the coming year. In 2021 we helped secure half a million pound for safer streets in Chelmsford.

Main Responsibilities 

Key Tasks could include (all with support and investment of an experienced Senior Organiser): 

Support the building of institutional depth in some member institutions (0.2):

• Support an identified number of Church of England, Methodist & Salvation Army congregations across Essex to build grass roots membership and experience of community organising

  Support Essex-wide campaigns (0.1):

• Develop the Essex-wide Living Wage Team and support them in shaping and implementing their strategy to achieve the Real Living Wage for care workers in Essex

• Support member organisations that are working on housing issues (e.g. the Salvation Army and YMCA Essex amongst others) for example through the Malachi Project, to develop their community organising skills and apply them to other issues around housing across Essex

Support local development (0.2):

Develop a Chelmsford Citizens leadership team by bringing current institutional leaders together

Build relationships with other diverse organisations which represent the wider range of communities within Chelmsford

Assist Southend Community Sponsorship in rebuilding a core team and in their sponsorship application process

Broader Responsibilities

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

Build relational power to further the goals of CUK:

• 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 in order to develop relationships with leaders and understand their concerns. 

• Tell a wide range of Community Organising stories effectively in order to influence others and achieve CUK’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 BBOs 

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

• Organise a small cluster of up to 5 standard member institutions or 1 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 the Cycle of Action in order to create change 

• Support member institutions in running listening campaigns,   

• Organise neighbourhood 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 & financial management  

• Recruit new dues paying institutions; work together with a more senior Organiser to negotiate annual membership fees and letters of understanding 

• Contribute substantively to fundraising by securing £30k pa overall, pro rata, 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 and fee collection 

Contribute to effective teamwork 

• Be proactive concerning personal professional development and wellbeing; i.e. by reading widely, 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 a team 

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

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

• Schedule an average of at least three 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 

REQUIREMENTS (ESSENTIAL = E,  DESIRABLE = D) 

QUALIFICATIONS 

Bachelor’s degree in any subject (D)

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

EXPERIENCE 

Previous campaign experience  (D)

Evidence of having acted in a leadership role with peers or in 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 a work or project environment; 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 from one’s own  (E)

Excellent concern for impact – ability to adapt own behaviour in order 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.