Youth Service Development Officer

Role: Youth Service Development Officer

Hours: Up to 37 hours, predominantly afternoons and evenings, including occasional weekends where necessary.

Salary: £24,000 – £28,000 per annum pro rata – dependent upon experience

Contract Term: Permanent

Annual Leave:  25 days pro-rata plus public holidays

Based at: The Venture Community Hub (TVCH) in Gloucester, with travel throughout the district required.

Responsible to: Chief Executive Officer

 

About Us:

The Venture started 41 years ago with an adventure playground and indoor play space, designed and built by local young people and families. The Venture Community Hub (TVCH) has gone from strength to strength as a trusted community organisation in Gloucester supporting children, young people and their families from across the city through a wide range of open access provision, community engagement and participation opportunities.

We are passionate about supporting the resilience of young people and their families through grassroots playwork and youthwork, providing safe and consistent sources of connection and support for young people to grow and thrive.

Through our multidisciplinary team and volunteers, we deliver a range of funded programmes and work closely with a network of 30+ partners, nurturing relationships with local communities.

In June 2024, in partnership with the Gloucestershire Gateway Trust, we were awarded the Universal Youth Support Services contract for Gloucester and the Forest of Dean. Our role is to facilitate the best possible provision for children and young people within Gloucester. This will be achieved through direct support to existing youth providers, facilitating youth forums and co-production with young people and families, as well as those with the ideas and energy to drive change in their local communities.  Together, we will deliver quality, universal and open access YSS provision across FoD and Gloucester through an inclusive, innovative, collaborative and asset-based approach.

 

The Role

 

The introduction of this new and exciting role reflects our passion for local youth work and the crucial role it plays in providing support for young people and the communities in which they live. Through our longstanding connections, we know the important role that grassroots community groups and local providers play. We will be working closely with them to develop a Youth Support Service that is collaborative, and representative of young people’s needs  across the district.

The postholder will focus on capacity building to deliver high quality youth work.  This includes working with youth workers and both new and established local providers, to grow our approach to open access youth services; detached street-based outreach; a professional’s peer network (Youth Work Alliance); and grant dissemination decisions that are decided with young people.

 

The Youth Development Officer will develop and draw on the above mechanisms to

  • lead on workforce development, including developing training pathways
  • support delivery of a Quality Assurance Framework; and
  • manage a commissioned activities fund.

Direct support to young people, team members or local providers will vary as we support young people and their communities to shape the provision that best meets local needs; Critical to this work therefore will be for the post holder to support development of strategies for capturing and communicating the power of young people’s voices and connecting young people directly to change.

Main Tasks:

– Support TVCH and its partners to build and update a Gloucester asset map to identify community assets and gaps, informing the decisions we make with young people about grant disseminations to local groups.

– Lead the development of a Youth Work Alliance as a source of peer networking support across the district, sharing good practice, learning from outcomes, shaping opportunities.

– Work with partners to build on and deliver high quality open access youth groups and street-based outreach.

– Co-develop the quality assurance framework alongside youth and community providers, and how we report, celebrate and learn from quantitative and qualitative information.

– Alongside the Venture Community Hub team and local providers, develop innovative ways to capture and amplify the voices of young people.

– Support the creation of training and development pathways for young people and professionals, including a Youth Work Apprenticeship scheme.

– Attend and support the development of local networking meetings with professionals, countywide organisations or multi-agency partnership groups, schools and communities, to build on partnership work and opportunities for children, young people and families.

Job / Person Specification:

 

TVCH considers it to be essential that the post holder has the following skills, knowledge and experience:

 

Skills

 

  • The ability to build positive and productive relationships with community organisations, professionals, colleagues, young people and families.
  • Excellent communication skills (both verbal and written) and the ability to communicate and present to a variety of audiences.
  • Strong organisational skills.
  • A positive proactive approach and ability to generate creative and innovative solutions.
  • The ability to inspire and motivate others and earn trust.
  • A proven ability to build strong partnerships and foster collaborative ways of working.
  • A flexible approach to work given evening and occasional weekend work required
  • Confidence in dealing with safeguarding concerns in a proactive manner.
  • Confident user of a wide array of IT software, including databases and MS Office applications.

 

Knowledge

  • Knowledge of youth work principles and purpose (National Youth Association).
  • Knowledge of challenges young people in Gloucester face and support in place.
  • Understanding of the principles of Asset-Based Community Development to build opportunities.
  • Knowledge of participation approaches to working alongside young people.

 

 

Experience & Qualifications

 

  • 3 or more years working with young people and families.
  • Commitment to undertaking Level 3 Youth Work qualification if not already achieved.
  • Proven success building effective relationships with young people and other organisations/services.
  • Delivering innovation resulting in improvements to young people’s lives and the wider community, ideally through demonstrating co-production principles.
  • Experience of organising, running and evaluating events, workshops and activities.
  • A full driver’s license with access to vehicle is required.

Safeguarding:

TVCH is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people, and adults with care and support needs. We expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. The successful candidate will be required to:

– Undergo an enhanced DBS check

– Provide satisfactory references, including one from the most recent employer

– Complete safeguarding training appropriate to the role

– Adhere to our safeguarding policies and procedures at all times

Equal Opportunities:

TVCH is an equal opportunities employer. We welcome applications from all suitably qualified persons regardless of their race, sex, disability, religion/belief, sexual orientation, or age.

TVCH is committed to ensuring that significant levels of support and training will be provided to the successful candidate.

How to Apply:

To apply, please complete the application form and return it to dawn@theventurecommunityhub.co.uk by 4pm on Monday 4th November 2024.

Shortlisted candidates will be invited to an interview, which will include:

– a face-to-face interview with a panel

– a candidate led conversation with a group of young people (based on a topic that will be shared in advance of the interview)