Community Organiser Newcastle

Salary: £33,417 per annum

Location: Newcastle + flexible working practices

Contract: Permanent

Hours: 37.5 per week

Closing date: Monday 25th March 2024

Interview dates: Interviews will be held week commencing 15th April

Are you passionate about fighting the UK housing emergency? Do you want to use your skills to connect with local communities to do this? Do you want to work for one of the UK’s leading housing and homelessness charities?

About you

You will be passionate about making the voices of those most affected by the housing emergency heard. You believe in the power of people coming together as a community to make a tangible difference.

You will have:

• Experience working or volunteering in a campaigning environment
• Excellent listening skills, with the ability to build strong relationships with a variety of stakeholders
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to negotiate and influence outcomes on behalf of Shelter and the local community you are working with
• An understanding of how to build an effective strategic campaign
• An eagerness to learn

About the role and team

This is an amazing opportunity to work with communities facing housing injustice to tackle the housing emergency. You will be part of our Community Organising programme which listens to, supports, and works alongside communities to campaign for change on the housing issues which matter to them. Whether you are having 1:1 meetings, delivering training or developing campaign strategies with people, you will be able to build on the existing approaches, skills and knowledge within Shelter in campaigning, advice or community networks, and use those resources to build the power of the UK housing rights movement. You will also be working with a team of Organisers and Campaigners across the UK to help influence and shape how Shelter campaigns to end the housing emergency.

About Shelter

A home is a fundamental human need. Yet millions of people across the country struggle daily with homelessness, bad housing conditions, soaring rents, discrimination and the threat of eviction. So, we are striving for change, with individuals, in communities, and across society, and leading the way to a safe home. We need ambitious, motivated individuals who are passionate about our cause to join us at this exciting time.

At Shelter we are united by our purpose to defend the right to a safe home. Our enemy is the social injustice at the core of the escalating housing emergency. We believe that to win that fight, we must be representative of the people we are here to help and those who support our movement for change. In all our decisions, we take pride in being inclusive, fair, equitable and transparent. We are committed to combatting racism both within and outside Shelter and welcome you on our journey to becoming a truly anti-racist organisation.

How to apply

Please click ‘Apply for Job’ below. You are required to submit a CV, and responses to points 1-4 of the ‘Person specification’ section of the job description of no more than 350 words each.

Please provide specific examples following the STAR format to ensure you demonstrate how you address the behaviours below throughout your responses:

• We prioritise diversity and have an inclusive and open mindset
• We work together to achieve our shared purpose
• We enable decision making

Any applications submitted without a supporting statement will not be considered.

Drop in Sessions:

We would also like to invite interested candidates to an informal drop in session to hear more about the role before they apply if they’re interested, which will be held in the North East Hub on 14th March from 2-4pm. The address of our Hub is Shelter North East, 76-80 Clayton Street, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 5PG.

For candidates unable to make that date, we are also happy to speak on the phone prior to application to explain details of the role further if interested. Please contact Head of Campaigns Jack Madden to arrange the call campaigns@shelter.org.uk

Benefits

We offer a wide range of benefits, including 30 days of annual leave, enhanced family friendly policies, pension and interest free travel loans. We are committed to offering fully flexible working to help all employees maintain a work-life balance. Our employees also have access to a tenancy deposit loan, payroll giving, cycle to work scheme and an employee assistance programme.

Shelter does not accept unsolicited CVs from external recruitment agencies nor accept the fees associated with them.