Befriending Coordinator

Role: Community Liaison and Engagement Officer (West London)

Reporting to: CEO

Term: Fix-term 1-year with the possibility to extend

Salary: £27,000 pro-rata, part-time 3 days per week  

Location: Hybrid, London (multiple locations)

• Are you a people person with a strong ability to build meaningful relationships in a community?

• Are you an engagement expert or have an engagement background where you have defined and delivered the needs of a community?

• Are you experienced in building a rapport with people from diverse backgrounds? 

• Do you understand the needs of 16-25 year olds and want to be instrumental in helping them into employment?

If so, this role is perfect for you!

About Shadow to Shine:

Shadow To Shine is a youth charity that provides employability training, mentoring and opportunities for professional development to talented young people in London who face systemic barriers getting into their desired industries.

Even as a grassroots organisation, we are committed to knocking on the doors of the biggest corporations in the world, to bridge the gap between London’s youth and their dream jobs. Working with some of the largest and most noteworthy corporations in their respective industries, such as tech giant Samsung, entertainment powerhouse Sony and high fashion Vogue- we offer our young people real opportunities to network and access working environments/opportunities that would usually be inaccessible to them.

We aim to uplift, inspire and empower the next generation by giving them the skills, connections and opportunities to move towards their professional and entrepreneurial goals. 

We have so far worked with nearly 500 young people to help them shine!

Our services include:

• Employability programmes

• Entrepreneur programmes

• Mentoring

• Sharing opportunities

• Careers support

• Industry insight workshops

Mission: We exist to bridge the gap between young people and their professional goals. 

Vision: We do this by providing training, mentoring and work opportunities which contribute to their long-term career aspirations.

Values: 

Dependable: we will not over promise and under-deliver

Honourable: we will always display integrity when deciding on affiliates and partners to work with

Non- judgmental: We will not discriminate against our mentees on their pasts. We focus on future potential.

Empowering: We inspire positive change, by enabling our mentees to succeed.

Dedicated: We will remain committed to helping young people change their lives.

The Role:

Here at Shadow To Shine, we are looking for a Community Liaison and Engagement Officer (West London) to work in the West London area with a special focus on: Westminster, Kensington & Chelsea, Hammersmith & Fulham, Brent and Ealing. 

Your role will be an on the ground presence in West London, strengthening our relationship in the local Boroughs. You will meet with local community leaders, youth groups, councils, schools and businesses to share the Shadow To Shine mission and hear the needs of the local community so we can focus our services where they’re most needed. 

You will engage with young people (age 16-25)  in these boroughs delivering taster sessions and workshops, encouraging them to sign up to our longer employability programmes and corporate partner opportunities.

You will play a key role in enhancing our West London links to ensure there is meaningful local engagement.

You might speak to local businesses to source work placements for young people and attract new mentors, or, you could be speaking to local schools to arrange launching one of our programmes there, on another day you could be meeting local community leaders to offer our employability programmes free of charge to the youth they engage.

You will be the face of Shadow To Shine in West London and we’d expect you to make strong links with local councils in these Boroughs, engaging with teams who focus on youth engagement and employability.

We want to make sure the local West London community is at the core of what we do and you’ll be instrumental in ensuring we achieve that.

The role will require a combination of 

Engagement and Building relationships

• Speaking to local stakeholders

• Creating new relationships

• Maintaining relationships

• Engaging local youth

• Be the first point of contact for Shadow To Shine in West London

• Build positive working relationships with the community

Delivery

• Workshops, talks, presentations sharing Shadow To Shine’s work to youth and other stakeholders

• Organise talks and sessions 

Monitoring and Evaluating

• Tracking your relationships and reporting your activities to the CEO

• Tracking how many opportunities or outcomes flourish from your relationships

• Gathering feedback from stakeholders and accurately sharing your findings 

• Keeping a database of contacts 

General Responsibilities

• Administration

• Self-sufficiency

• Participation in meetings as required

• Compliance with Shadow To Shine’s policies 

About You:

We are looking for a friendly Community Liaison and Engagement Officer (West London) who is experienced and confident building relationships, networking and engaging with multiple stakeholders.  You will bring your own areas of interest and expertise to the role, to help build on our varied and dynamic team.

Key skills required to succeed in this role include:

• Excellent listening skills, empathetic, caring, and non-judgmental.

• Interpersonal skills which allow you to develop and maintain relations with multiple stakeholders

• Exceptional organisational skills

• Strong administrative skills 

• Confidence in training, mentoring or capacity building

• Comfortable working in different cultures and religious contexts. Previous experience in youth employability is a bonus

Requirements:

It is essential you have the following skills and character traits:

• Proven experience in community engagement

• Proven experience communicating with different stakeholders

• Excellent safeguarding knowledge

• Lived experience of the young people we’re supporting

• Confident delivering workshops to young people

• Very punctual with great time management skills

• Well presented and will accurately represent Shadow To Shine to the community

• A passion for supporting young people into employment

• Empathetic and understanding of diverse needs

• Experience working with microsoft office (Outlook, Word, Teams, Excel)

The following skills and character traits are desirable:

• Pre-existing relationships and ties to West London

• Experience working in a small grass-roots youth charity

• Experience in the employability space

• Experience building corporate relationships

• Experience creating partnerships with schools

• Pre-existing contacts in the youth space

Benefits of Working with Shadow To Shine

• Competitive pay

• Flexible working

• Chance to engage with amazing young people

• Training/upskilling opportunity 

• Small-friendly team

• See the impact of your work very quickly, watch young people progress

Application Details

To apply for the role, please submit a CV and covering letter of no more than one side of A4

When writing your covering letter, you should focus on providing evidence and specific examples that demonstrate how you meet the person specification and your suitability for the role. We value transferable skills and encourage applicants who do not have direct experience to provide examples from other areas that meet the requirements.

Please ensure that you provide a phone number and email address so that we can contact you easily and in confidence.