Role purpose

To ensure food banks can engage in community organising, campaigning and influencing, so contributing to programme and organisational outcomes and the fulfilment of our long-term vision of a UK without the need for food banks.

Responsible for developing, managing and evaluating projects; directing the work of a team of experts to support food banks; and liaising with teams across Trussell and external partners to ensure that food banks receive high quality support and advice.

Key Responsibilities

·       Manage community organising UK-wide  

Manages the design and delivery of Trussell’s community organising (e.g. Community Power Project), ensuring food banks organise effectively and so contribute to project, programme and organisational outcomes. This includes planning, managing and delivering high-quality project activity, evaluation, data collection and impact reporting, and providing and directing expert and relational support so food banks can undertake meaningful community organising, equipping them to take action within their communities to reduce hunger and hardship.

·       Lead targeted food bank mobilisation for Trussell campaigns

Leads the design and delivery of targeted mobilisation work for Trussell campaigns. This includes collaborating across programmes to feed into campaign strategy development and ensuring alignment with organisational priorities, so that food banks are able to play an active and effective role.

·       Manage relationships across Trussell

Manages, builds and maintains strong cross-organisational relationships to support Organising and Local Mobilisation activity. This includes ensuring organising, campaigning and influencing work is delivered collaboratively and effectively and with impact across the organisation and the community of food banks to achieve project, programme and organisational outcomes.

·       Manage external relationships

Manages and develop key relationships with partner organisations, stakeholders and sector specialists to ensure Trussell maintains the expertise required to support food banks with community organising and campaigning.  This includes identifying possible partnerships, stakeholder management, securing specialist insight and representing Trussell to external partners to support food banks to campaign for change to prevent hunger and hardship.

·       Lead monitoring, evaluation and impact reporting

Lead the monitoring, evaluation and impact reporting of community organising, influencing and mobilisation activities to improve delivery and impact. This includes ensuring data, insight and evidence from activity are collected, analysed,  inform learning, improve practice and strengthen decision-making in order to provide a strong contribution to project, programme and organisational outcomes.

·       Lead and support OLM managers

Lead and support OLM managers to build an effective and positive culture where activity is aligned with our programme outcomes. This includes providing coaching, support and supervision to line reports, and oversight of their activities so this contributes to the programme’s outcomes.

Person Specification

Core knowledge

·       Excellent knowledge of organising, and mobilising or campaigning.

Essential skills

·       Project management skills including ability to create, manage and lead multiple projects concurrently, identifying conflicting demands and establishing clear priorities in order to meet objectives and deliver outcomes for projects and programme.

·       Excellent verbal and written communication skills, and the ability to influence and motivate others.

·       Able to build effective relationships with people from diverse backgrounds and with differing life experiences, including in contexts where Christian faith plays a major part, and in which people of all faiths and none collaborate to make a difference together

·       Ability to work in a fast-paced and high-performing organisation, combining problem-solving with collaborative interpersonal skills.

·       Demonstrates empathy for people from disadvantaged, marginalised or socially-excluded backgrounds.

Key experience

·       Experience of developing and managing successful organising or campaigning strategies

·       Significant experience of communicating to a range of audiences and able to seek and balance a range of views and stakeholders, influencing where required.

·       Experience of monitoring and evaluating campaigning, influencing and organising activity.

·       Leadership and management of a dispersed team

·       Experience of delivering campaigning work as part of a coalition or in partnership with other organisations and/or experience of supporting others to do the same

·       Experience of managing large and complex projects