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Communications and Public Engagement Lead

WHY IS THIS ROLE IMPORTANT FOR THE CENTRE’S WORK?

The Centre for Homelessness Impact is the UK’s What Works Centre for Homelessness. We want evidence to become the new normal in homelessness, just as it is in public health and education. Evidence-led communications and storytelling is central to our engagement, because the right words can make behaviour change engaging, help ideas stick and move people to action, whether inside an organisation or out in the world. We need someone who is an excellent communicator to drive our communications to help us bring evidence to life. And we need someone with the skills or experience to develop new and existing relationships with key stakeholders to maximise the impact of our work. The role will include helping to plan and implement impactful and engaging audience-specific events that reach key audiences. You will be part of a small team with big ambitions, committed to working with others to achieve our goal.

THE COMMUNICATIONS AND PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT LEAD IS RESPONSIBLE FOR: 

• Helping to shape and implement an effective communications strategy for strengthening the Centre’s vision, championing evidence-led policy and practice in homelessness, and helping build the ‘what works’ movement in homelessness

• Leading interaction with the media, both national press and broadcasters and specialist media, to raise the profile of our work including by pitching CHI content to targeted media outlets in a way most likely to reach priority audiences

• Developing and deploying strategies to reach targeted audiences of leaders, policy-makers and practitioners who work in or influence homelessness policy in national, regional and local government

• Building relationships with journalists, media executives and content creators interested in evidence-led reporting 

• Engaging in all the Centre’s internal and external communications channels, to ensure content is relevant, engaging and impactful for current and new audiences 

• Understanding policies that impact on homelessness in the UK and engaging with decision-makers at national and local level in all parts of the UK who influence these 

• Working closely with colleagues on research, evaluation and implementation projects to get insights to inform our policy and public affairs work 

• Writing briefing papers summarising research evidence and our project findings into clear concise prose and write and submit responses to public consultations on relevant policy

• Supporting the development of our events programme as a distinctive brand, whose hallmark is a combination of rigour and authority combined with a person-first lens of lived experience, by planning, delivering and executing varied and impactful online, in-person and hybrid events 

RELEVANT EXPERIENCE AND BEHAVIOURS

You will:

• Show experience in developing and implementing communications strategies and/or plans

• Simplify the complex and communicate in a clear and inspiring way across a variety of media and demonstrable experience of successfully working on several projects simultaneously, with close attention to detail

• Segment priority audiences and develop and deliver key messages tailored to their priorities and needs 

• Create and manage our content pipeline ensuring that we are regularly communicating with our audience on our website, via our newsletters, on social media and through direct engagement about insights from our work

• Design a variety of written summaries and multimedia assets and visuals to support the dissemination of our reports and policy papers and work with freelancers for more complex projects

• Upload content to our organisation’s website, and other internal and external communications channels

• Track the performance of our website, downloadable resources, newsletters and social media channels to gain further insight into our audiences and digital marketing performance

• Be committed to the aims of the Centre, and ensure the voices of people with experiences of homelessness inform all elements of our communications work

Nice to Have:

• Experience of developing or implementing communications and / or public engagement strategies in homelessness or related policy fields

• Proficiency in Google Suite or Mailchimp

• Experience of using Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign or Canva, or willingness to learn

• Experience of working with national, specialist and sector media to secure coverage for activities similar to our research and implementation work

Working here

As a member of the team, you will have access to a wide range of employee benefits including:

• Interest-free loans for travel season ticket, cycle to work, and deposit to secure a tenancy

• Pension scheme with an employer contribution of 8.5%

• 30 days’ annual leave which increases with service to 33 days

• Enhanced maternity, paternity, shared parental, and adoption pay

• Employee assistance programme

TERMS OF APPOINTMENT

Permanent role. Full and part-time considered.

Salary: £35,000 to £45,000 (pro rata if part-time) depending on experience and location. 

Location: Flexible, remote or hybrid for London-based staff.

Staff outside London work remotely from home, and we offer a hybrid working environment for staff based within commuting distance of our central London offices, usually with at least two office-based days in an average week.

This role will require some travel with overnight stays.

DEADLINE

The closing date for this role is Sunday, 18 October. However, we reserve the right to close the application process at any moment, if we receive a high volume of suitable applications.

First round of Interviews to take place online on Tuesday, 3 November. A second interview will take place in the following week.