Volunteering Matters – Ipswich, Suffolk £25,000 per annum 35 hours per week – (Flexible days/hours) Home based and Hybrid– access to good WIFI required, regular in-person activity in Ipswich required – approx. 3 days per week Fixed term until December 2025 Reference: 0966 Required as soon as possible We’re looking for an individual with experience in youth and community development, facilitation, partnerships and communications. This role will have a specific focus in Ipswich, working with young people and partners to create activity that leads to place-based change. Hosted by Volunteering Matters, the Town of Social Action Engagement Lead works as part of the wider iWill team from Volunteering Matters and UK Youth. The post will liaise with the Volunteering Matters Delivery Leader in Ipswich to ensure local activity is coordinated and will report to the Head of Partnerships and Impact at the iWill Movement. This is a 12-month role with the opportunity for it to be extended subject to project funding. In Ipswich, you will be responsible for capitalising on the energy and momentum which has seen it declared as a ‘Town of Social Action’. You will continue to deliver engagement approaches to support and embed iWill as a trusted brand for organisations and young people in driving social change in Ipswich. You’ll be responsible for delivering a Community of Practice Network for the 30 plus Power of Youth Charter signatory organisations in the town to understand emerging practice, build connections and develop the connectivity between organisations and youth voice. You will play a key role in ensuring the programme of youth-led Hacks across Ipswich are created and delivered with young people, partner stakeholders and anchor institutions. For the role to be truly transformational the Town of Social Action Engagement Lead will need to: believe in the Power of Youth. be a key advocate for the views and experiences of young people, using the role to work with and platform young people always maintain total independence in the spirit of the movement, serving young people and their youth social action first, wherever that may be be willing to enable and platform young people to tell their own stories, even if abdicating personal power ensure that young people’s views, experiences, and work is communicated clearly to wider stakeholders across the UK to inform the evolution of the iWill Movement. Key Duties: Engagement Partner Collaboration: Identify and establish new partnerships with local organisations who demonstrate a commitment to the Power of Youth, increasing engagement in Town of Social Action activity Create and establish a Community of Practice Network amongst Power of Youth Charter Signatories within Ipswich. Generate partner commitment to iWill campaigns and initiatives, such as iWill Week. Youth Engagement: Recruit and support local young people to develop ideas and activity, to platform their stories, and to influence local change. Identify and coach young leaders to drive system change, develop skills and utilise their experiences to inform local and national agendas. Support young people in participating in iWill campaigns and initiatives, such as Power of Youth Day. Event Organisation: Work with young people to plan, administer and deliver stakeholder events that showcase youth social action and foster collaboration in the community, eg. Workshops, Hackathons, study visits, network events. 2. Communications Identify and capture engaging stories and case studies, featuring young people and local partners, for digital /social media content. Work with young people to create and share their own content, empowering them to tell their stories. Ensure local communications align with national iWill messaging and campaign moments. Feed into national iWill digital channels to support the aims of the iWill Movement (iwill website, newsletters, and social media channels). 3. National Collaboration: Work as part of the iWill central coordination hub to align local work with national campaigns, including iWill Week and Power of Youth Day. Contribute to national reporting and evaluations, ensuring local impact is recognised. Supporting the delivery of iwill Week and the Power of Youth Day. Experience, skills and attributes: Essential Strong engagement and relationship-building skills with young people and partners Experience in Youth and community development work, including group/sessional delivery Engaging with and coaching young people and partners to share their stories- with a focus on amplifying marginalised voices A track record of building and sustaining community groups and local partnerships Experience of network management- including liaison, facilitation, and communications activity (physical and virtual environments) Event coordination- including co-design with young people, promotion and administration Experience of reporting on projects and campaigns. Desirable Experience developing and delivering communications strategies Ability to create compelling digital content for a variety of audiences Experience of working with digital and traditional media to gain positive coverage Experience of campaign management, from initiation through to final reporting and evaluation. This role is primarily home-based but will require a regular in-person activity in Ipswich, and occasional travel to London, and elsewhere in the UK. Flexible working hours will be required to accommodate evening sessions and in-person meetings in Ipswich with partners and young people. The role requires reliable internet access, and ability to work independently whilst also part of a busy remote team. The role is part of the UK wide iWill team and will report to the Head of Partnerships and Impact, and work closely with the Digital Communications Manager at iWill, and the Delivery Leader for the East at Volunteering Matters. Duties may vary in line with the needs of the Movement as appropriate. IT equipment and infrastructure will be supplied. The role will require a DBS check. Secondments and job shares will be considered. For more information: Please visit our website - Town of Social Action Engagement Lead - Volunteering Matters. How to apply: 1) Prepare an up-to-date CV 2) Prepare a supporting statement. Your supporting statement should NOT be a simple cover letter. Instead, it should be a detailed description of why you are a suitable candidate. You should consider the job role, and the skills and experience that we are looking for. A minimum of 1 A4 page is recommended. 3) Send CV and Supporting Statement by email to - joinvolunteeringmatters.org.uk in advance of the deadline quoting job reference: V532. Closing date: 5pm, 8 January 2025. Interview date: week commencing 13 January 2025. Diversity and Inclusion: Volunteering Matters welcome all applicants and are keen to ensure our team reflects the diversity of the UK and the communities we serve. We encourage applications from disabled, LGBTQ and Black, Asian and Minoritised Ethnic backgrounds. Disability Confident and Reasonable Adjustments: We guarantee to interview anyone with a disability whose application meets the minimum criteria for the role. Please provide evidence in your application, which demonstrates that you meet the level of competence required in the “Experience/Skills and attributes” section of this job description. To be considered for a guaranteed interview or to discuss any reasonable adjustments during the process, please state this in your application. About iwill Since 2013 the iwill Movement, supported by over 1,000 organisations from across the UK, has aimed to make participation in social action - such as volunteering, fundraising, mentoring, and campaigning - the norm for young people aged 10 to 26. iwill has laid the foundations to transform the role and perception of children and young people within society. It has inspired more organisations to embed youth social action into their culture and practice; sparked new partnerships and networks; generated investment to create more youth social action opportunities; and increased collective understanding of how to deliver high-quality youth social action opportunities. The iwill Movement is now entering a new phase of expanding, further developing and escalating activity. The new phase will be looking to drive forward place-based change within Ipswich and Blackpool. About Volunteering Matters At Volunteering Matters we believe everyone in the UK should have the opportunity to thrive. So we bring people together to overcome some of society’s most complex issues through the power of volunteering and social action. Volunteering Matters has supported the iwill Movement since 2013. A founder signatory to the iwill charter, Volunteering Matters delivers many award-winning youth social action programs across the UK, has two current young volunteers that are iwill Ambassadors and supports all iwill Movement communications through events such as iwill week. About UK Youth UK Youth is a leading charity that exists to ensure all young people are equipped to thrive and empowered to contribute at every stage of their lives. We work with others to ensure that the youth sector is strengthened, supported, and that provision is youth-led, evidence-informed and delivers high-quality outcomes. UK Youth plays a unique role in addressing; the lack of investment in the youth sector, the lack of cross-sector understanding in how youth work makes a difference and the limited opportunities to embed effective solutions. These factors lead to mass inequality of access to youth services for young people. Working through networks of youth organisations and supporters, we galvanise a movement of people to support our shared vision. The UK Youth Movement is open to all and currently stands at over 7,000 youth organisations and nation partners, collectively reaching 4.1 million young people. Our mission is to work as a nationwide movement deliver innovative youth services, grow effective practice and campaign to increase support for youth work. To find out more, visit the UK Youth website .