***THIS JOB VACANCY HAS NOW CLOSED***
(Interim for 6 Months)
Background:
Fighting With Pride (FWP) is looking for 2 outstanding regionally focused LGBT+ Veterans Community Workers. Contracts are currently limited by funding to a period up to 6 months. These enabling, rewarding and busy roles will make a real difference to the lives of LGBT+ Veterans, serving personnel and their families, around the UK.
FWP is a registered charity and was formed in January 2020 to support LGBT+ Veterans, serving personnel and their families, particularly those affected by the ‘gay ban’.
An increasing number of Veterans are contacting our charity, and we have been provided additional, temporary resources to extend the reach of our exceptional team. You will be getting to know LGBT+ Veterans, introducing them to our events and support, signposting them to organisations where they will receive a warm welcome and helping them develop their self-esteem, self-confidence, independence and resilience.
An LGBT+ Veterans Community Team Manager will support you and you will be part of a welcoming, peer supporting team.
You will have a keen interest in, and thorough understanding of, the challenges faced by the LGBT+ Veterans community (or experience of supporting another related community), previous experience of supporting and developing service users, strong relationship building skills and be a self-starter with a passion for helping people.
Period of Employment:
September 2023 – March 2024. Terms can be varied by negotiation
Location:
We are looking to recruit these Community Worker roles in the North West and South West of England. The successful candidate will work from home and will be supported by an experienced leadership team.
Role Description:
The LGBT+ Veterans Community Workers (VCW) are an important resource for FWP, and the post holders need to be self-starters who can establish their own role regionally, whilst also working with the other regional VCWs as part of a team.
These new roles will be substantially involved in community building in their region, and they will work closely with other regional VCWs and the Team Manager. As awareness grows of FWPs policy work and as each form of reparation is announced, more LGBT+ Veterans will step forward and more support will be needed. We expect this role to be a busy, but extremely rewarding one.
The VCWs will help FWP build its mutual support and befriending network and connect Veterans to our research programmes, which is partnered with Newcastle University. Our research provides the evidence base to shape existing services and create new services that can support recovery in this disadvantaged community.
FWP strongly supports LGBT+ capacity building in other organisations and aims to connect LGBT+ Veterans, through social prescribing and sign positing, to organisations where we know LGBT+ Veterans will get a warm welcome. You will play a pivotal role enabling training and education with our partners. We are here to lend FWP’s lived experience of the ban and help others to develop their services for LGBT+ Veterans, service personnel and their families and we do this through our Pride in Veterans Standard (PiVS). PiVS to which we will lend our lived experience to advise organisations how to quickly develop their services to become visibly LGBT+ inclusive for Veterans. In the process of achieving the Standard, organisations will be helped to develop their web content, policies and practices.
VCWs will be responsible for supporting Veterans in the UK and will visit a wide range of regional stakeholders in the course of their duties including RBL, SSAFA, Veterans Gateway, NHS Mental Health Trusts, NHSE, Stonewall, H4H, Combat Stress, Veteran’s charities and other regional LGBT+ Organisations.
The VCW will be part of a team signposting LGBT+ Veterans to a wide range of health and wellbeing NHS services and other services. FWP will enable LGBT+ Veterans to access services which can support them through the challenges of the reparations process and support the commencement or continuation of recovery.
You will meet with referred LGBT+ Veterans and families and signpost or socially prescribe them to health and wellbeing NHS services that can help, or the services of Veterans organisations such as H4H and Combat Stress. This role will be a catalyst and enabler, helping advance the pace of welcoming back our LGBT+ Veterans to the military family and the protections of the Armed Forces Covenant.
The posts are funded for 6 months completing at the end of March 2024
The VCW will report to the LGBT+ Veterans Community Team Manager.
As a VCW you will need to understand the community you are supporting, including:
Main Areas of Beneficiary Need
- Access to information and signposting
- Prevention of need and deterioration of health
- Debt and financial advice (pensions, compensation)
- Housing issues
- Befriending opportunities
Beneficiary Circumstances
- Hospital, treatment or rehabilitation units or respite
- Persons with mental or physical health issues
- Persons with financial or housing issues
- People who are vulnerable, isolated or lonely
- Vulnerable older people
Geographic Areas
- VCWs will be responsible for the delivery of services in their local region.
Key Responsibilities as a FWP Community Worker
- Be a positive member of the FWP team and a role model and ambassador for the charity at all times.
- Support veterans and their families to understand, participate and navigate the reparations process which is an outcome of the LGBT Veterans Independent Review.
- Working with FWP veterans, serving personnel and families who have contacted FWP or been referred from within your region, to provide a listening and signposting service. You will carry out simple assessments of veterans needs that enables us to connect veterans to appropriate support services best placed to help them.
- Coordinate PiVS within your regional area of responsibility, by providing specialist advice and delivering “lived experience” awareness sessions to regional charities, associations, community groups and organisations supporting LGBT+ veterans, to enable their service to be person centred, welcoming and affective.
- Coordinate outreach communications to LGBT+ veterans, including events and regular news updates, develop regional LGBT+ veteran networks and networking opportunities, and highlight national ones. Support the team in creating community building activities across the UK, such as FWPs Tackling Loneliness Programme in Snowdonia.
- Specifically, provide advice and guidance to LGBT+ veterans on the outcomes of the Veterans Strategy Action Plan and future reparations.
- Develop and maintain relationships with UK Armed Forces EDI teams.
- Maintain records of LGBT+ veteran contact, including actions taken and follow up actions, managing and maintaining FPWs community relationship management database, and uptake of the FWP news updates mailing list.
- Support FWPs research programmes.
- Develop and maintain relationships in a wide range of organisations that
support service leavers. - Undertake appropriate additional tasks, as directed through line management
that support the aims and objectives of FWP. - Maintain and develop FWPs media resources relevant to your region.
- Contribute to maintaining FWPs safeguarding system, as directed by FWPs Independent Safeguarding Officer.
Other Duties
The duties listed are not exhaustive and may be varied from time to time as required by the changing needs of the charity. The post holder will be expected to undertake other duties as appropriate and as requested by their manager.
Person Specification (please address each of these in turn when making an application for this role, in a covering letter or supporting statement on a maximum of two sides of A4, to accompany your C.V.).
- LGBT+ community awareness – Successful candidates require a keen interest in, and thorough understanding of, the challenges faced by LGBT+ Veterans.
- Previous experience of supporting and developing service users – You will have the skills and experience to support and guide service users and to develop their self-esteem, self-confidence, independence and resilience.
- Relationship building – Applicants will demonstrate the ability to build successful, meaningful and long-lasting professional relationships with LGBT+ veterans, partners, and stakeholders of FWP, and the wider FWP team. These relationships will build community confidence, network veterans together and connect them to organisations who can provide help. This relationship building combines compassion, empathy, support and sensitivity with pragmatism and a solution focused approach.
- Trust and honesty – The candidate must have an innate ability to build trust with service users, partners and other stakeholders and maintain a confidential and professional approach at all times.
- Ability to be flexible and adaptable – Successful post holders will be able to respond quickly and flexibly to changing circumstances and enjoy working in an evolving environment. The nature of support work is such that each day can present new challenges and you will need to adapt your work to provide the best possible service.
- A self-starter with a passion for helping people and the ability to work as part of a supportive team – The candidates will be able to work on their own initiative (in-line with the structures and policies of FWP) and as part of a wider team, supported by a Team Manager. They will need to juggle multiple demands in a calm and friendly manner. FWP is a small team, and all our roles have flex in their ways of working. FWP support and help each other to meet the daily challenges.
- Good communication and interpersonal skills – Applicants will have good communication skills, both verbally and in writing, as well as strong interpersonal skills. They will have the ability to break down barriers when working with veterans and their families. This will be accomplished by an engaging and positive approach.
- IT systems experience including Microsoft Office suite, or equivalent.
- Full clean driving licence and the use of a car, would be an advantage but is not essential
If you are interested in joining this friendly and supportive team please read the full job description. Please then apply, sending your C.V. and a maximum of two sides of an A4 covering letter, addressing each aspect of the Person Specification (contained in the job description) to Julia Muir at julia.muir@fightingwithpride.org.uk by 0900 on Monday 21 August 2023.
