Kurdish & Arabic Advice and Advocacy Worker

Job Title:                                          Kurdish &Arabic Advice and Advocacy Worker

Starting Salary:                               £32,076 (pro-rata)

Hours of Work:                                part time 3 days per week

Duration of Contract:                      2026 renewable subject to funding

Accountable to:                                Senior Advice Officer 

Purpose of Job

The post-holder will be responsible for providing frontline services to women and those from Middle Eastern who are experiencing domestic violence, are at risk of honour killings and forced marriages female genital mutilation/other forms of gender abuse. This will entail provision of practical and emotional support to ensure that they and their children are able to access services to remain safe. The post-holder will offer information, advice, advocacy, casework, outreach and networking, and will liaise with all appropriate services to make sure that these women’s needs are appropriately met.

Duties and Responsibilities

To receive initial requests for Advice and Advocacy, assess users’ problems and needs and ensure appropriate responses to their needs. To carry out risk assessments and draw up safety plans for service users, including arranging for safe accommodation/refuge and  referrals to specialists agencies (e.g. law centres and solicitors)  in accordance to IKWRO’s  referrals procedure. To liase and network with other agencies and professionals as part of casework duties in order to ensure that their services become available and appropriately meet the needs of IKWRO’s users. To refer clients on to other agencies as appropriate for specialist help with issues that fall outside the remit of the service, including legal issues such as injunctions, and representation at immigration appeals. To ensure that service users have access to interpreting services when required, accompany them to official bodies. To develop and deliver Advice and Advocacy in an outreach bases to meet the clients’ needs as required.  To manage, brief and arrange for trained volunteers to support advice work, to escort and interpret for users when they need to attend appointments with official bodies.   To maintain accurate and up to date records, files and case notes, writing and typing related reports and correspondence, taking responsibility for individual cases including monitoring these adhering to the standards operating at IKWRO. To gather statistics in order to monitor and evaluate the service, providing reports as required to the IKWRO’s service manager, funders and partners. To develop excellent working relationships with other professionals working with the client group and to network with other professionals in the advice work field. To receive and provide practical guidance to other workers and volunteers carrying out work with this client group. To keep abreast of developments and legislation around issues affecting IKWRO’s service users. To assist with initiatives for the improvement of services offered to IKWRO’s service users  To undertake training and self-development in order to develop skills and increase knowledge and understanding of issues facing women affected by domestic violence, “honour” killings, and forced marriages. To uphold the Aims and Principles of IKWRO and its Equal Opportunities policies.

Other Responsibilities:

To support service users’ in voicing their concerns both to improve services (including IKWRO’s own services) and in raising awareness of policy and decision-makers.  To actively contribute to IKWRO’s campaigning and awareness raising work by feeding casework experiences to inform these activities and by supporting projects and initiatives by IKWRO such as running conferences and training events for statutory agencies.  To adhere to, and to comply with IKWRO’s Equal Opportunities and Confidentiality policies, abide by health and safety guidelines and share responsibility for own safety and that of colleagues. To attend regular supervision meetings with IKWRO’s Senior Advice Officer. To take up training on matters relevant to your work in agreement with your Line Manager.  To participate in team’s rotas  as required (e.g. telephone duties, evening and weekend)  To produce reports and monitoring as required by funders.  To undertake any other appropriate tasks in pursuance of the aims and objectives of IKWRO, that required by the line manager or the Director.  

It is not sufficient to state that you possess the competence: evidence is required.