Salary: £26,623 (+£3,000 London Weighting)  

Hours: 37.5 hours per week, 5 days per week (open to alternative working patterns) 

Contract: Permanent 

Based: London / open to home-based from other UK locations with ability to travel to London 

Deadline: 23 April 2023 (Midnight)

Interview: 4 May 2023 (Provisional)

CITIZENS UK 

Citizens UK uses broad-based organising to build people’s power, lead change for the common good, and strengthen civil society institutions.  

 We have diverse alliances across the UK made up of over 550 civic organisations who develop their own local agendas whilst also uniting around campaigns across the country.  Organisations work together to make change by winning concrete commitments from public and private sector power holders.  

Over the last thirty years, this has driven some of the biggest campaign impacts in the UK, such as winning £1.8bn in additional wages for low-paid workers. Some of our local campaigns have grown into large-scale social change projects including the Living Wage Foundation, Parents and Communities Together (PACT), Sponsor Refugees, and Refugees for Justice.  

 PURPOSE

We’re looking for a proactive and relational Communications & Campaigns Officer to join our communications team. This role will work across all our campaigns, with a focus on supporting our regional chapters with their communications and acting as an ambassador for storytelling and strong internal communications. 

Line managed by the Press & Campaigns Manager, you’ll work to embed good communications practice across the organisation, and help us tell the stories of our campaigns – from Making London a Living Wage City, to supporting refugees to find a home in the UK, to getting schools and colleges involved in community organising.  

Our external affairs work is fast-paced but committed to the distinctive ethos of Citizens UK – where local leaders and people experiencing injustice are in the lead. 

This role will appeal to someone who is interested in working with a diverse range of people, both internally and externally, to create strong communications content. From managing our internal newsletter, to supporting a regional chapter use social media effectively, you’ll be a key contact for our staff to help them deliver effective communications. You’ll have a creative eye and look for opportunities to translate our campaign goals into compelling stories that put the communities we work with at the centre. 

MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES 

Situational Awareness and Research 

• Demonstrate understanding of the perceptions of external stakeholders and how to influence or garner support using communications, and storytelling in particular 

 Strategy Development 

• Contribute creative ideas for Citizens UK communications in line with wider strategy, helping to reach new targets and grow awareness of campaigns and the Citizens UK brand  

• Demonstrate ability to adapt communications strategy to the starting position and interests of the audience 

Reputational & Risk Management 

• Help with occasional out of hours activity during significant events, ensuring enquiries are handled in a timely manner  

• Identify issues related to risk management and reputational risk, ready to respond appropriately (as part of the team) to risks as they emerge  

Materials Development & Dissemination 

• Create compelling content, including website blogs, newsletter stories, and other content to reach Citizens UK’s organisational and campaign goals  

• Lead on creating content relevant to external hooks (e.g. awareness months, religious holidays, sector campaigns etc.)  

• Supervise the work of junior staff or contractors ensuring a high standard of content  

Digital, social media and website 

• Work with colleagues to develop integrated campaigns, helping to align press, digital, marketing and public affairs activity  

• Gather and create digital content to support Citizens UK communications objectives, with a focus on sharing stories from local community leaders  

External Relationships  

• Develop strong relationships with community leaders across Citizens UK membership institutions, working with them to tell their stories 

 Campaign and Events Management 

• Help to maintain a forward planning communications timeline to generate content around major campaign moments and events  

• Deliver key campaign objectives to time and budget; incl. reporting on KPIs 

• Occasional travel to regional chapter events to support their communications output 

Internal Comms & Knowledge Management 

• Manage the communications request form, working with the communications team to fulfil requests from across the organisation for comms support 

• Manage the staff newsletter, including sourcing content from across the organisation, sending the newsletter monthly and evaluating the newsletter’s performance 

• Gather stories and campaign wins from across the organisation with the aim of developing content across press and digital with the wider team 

• Support colleagues, chapters and campaigns with their overall communications strategy 

• Run periodic training/briefings for colleagues and Citizens UK community leaders  

• Champion communications and encourage greater communications activity throughout the organisation  

• Evaluate the impact of internal activities through regular reporting and/or KPIs 

• Support the Digital Marketing Officer to maintain the brand centre, ensuring knowledge of what staff require from communications is fed back into strengthening our offer of branded products and templates 

Internal Relationships 

• Build strong working relationships with organisers and leaders across all 17 chapters, working to support the relationship between organisers and the communications team 

• Work closely with the communications team to integrate storytelling into the different communications disciplines (press, digital, marketing and general communications) 

• Build strong relationships with leaders, colleagues and key spokespeople across Citizens UK 

• Periodically update key comms files and assets; ensuring that informed consent is obtained if required  

PERSONAL SPECIFICATION (E= Essential, D = Desirable)

EXPERIENCE 

 t least one year of experience working in a communications role as part of a busy team (E)

Knowledge and demonstratable experience of how an integrated communications campaign is planned and implemented (E)

A strong ability to identify and shape stories for impactful communications (E)

Demonstratable experience of writing engaging storytelling content  (D)

KEY SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE 

Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to produce high-quality communications content (E)

Ability to grasp new, complex information quickly and distil into communications content for a generalist audience  (E)

Ability to conceptualise and produce engaging content around key campaigns for internal and external audiences  (E)

Ability to manage external agencies and stakeholder engagement   (D)

A passion for social justice and communities (E)

Interested working with diverse people of all backgrounds (E)

Inclusive (E)

Self-motivated (E) 

PERSONAL QUALITIES AND VALUES 

Adaptable and innovative (E)

Creative and curious (E)

A willingness to learn about and embed the practice of Community Organising (E)

A strong team player (E) 

Accountable (E)

Relational (E) 

Kind (E)