Senior Manager: Community Engagement & Grants

FUNCTION:To manage the effective implementation of programme delivery and development in your areas. This role will work with staff, schools and corporate partners to ensure that we deliver impact for the girls and young women we serve.

WHERE THE ROLE FITS: Reporting to: Co-Executive Director - Programmes (Interim) Direct Reports: Network Managers (x3)

PAY BAND: £33,600 per annum

CONTRACT: Permanent

HOURS: 5 days per week, 37.5 hours

LOCATION:Home based with regular travel across Merseyside, Tyne and Wear, Tees Valley Regions. Candidates will be required to reside within the region.

WHAT WE DO

Young people from lower income families are 40% less likely to go to University than wealthier peers (Dept for Education, 2020) which can have a lifelong impact on earning potential. Covid-19 has deepened inequalities (Social Mobility Foundation, 2022) and negatively impacted on young people's wellbeing (GirlGuiding, 2020). We believe that no girls should have their futures limited by their gender, sex, ethnicity, background, or parental income and they should be supported to realise their ambitions, to discover their self-worth, and to develop their capacity to shape their world and their futures.

We work in communities of least advantage across England to deliver two core programmes to achieve this vision. Through our mentoring programme we connect 14-19 year old girls with a mentor and a wider network of role models who are women and deliver opportunities which help them to build life skills and nurture their ambitions. Based on the idea that 'you can't be what you can't see', our mentors often help girls to broaden their horizons and create a more positive vision of their futures. After the programme, the mentees can join a free, lifelong network of support - our Ambassador Community, which offers further opportunities to reach their goals, build their confidence and to share their voices and experiences.

Our programmes help girls and young women to develop the knowledge, skills, self-belief and opportunities to thrive, and to be supported as part of a network that champions them and ensures their voices are heard.

THE ROLE

Purpose:To manage the effective implementation of programme delivery and development of Merseyside, Tyne and Wear, and Tees Valley Regions. This role will work with staff, schools and corporate partners to ensure that we deliver impact for the girls and young women we serve.

Manage The Girls’ Network mentoring (and other) programmes in your region:

Partnership development:

• Develop effective partnerships with new schools, recruiting them into The Girls’ Network’s programme to enable your team to meet regional targets. Maintaining relationships for successful renewals.
• Collaborate with fundraising colleagues during the engagement process of new corporate partners, to ensure regional targets and needs are met e.g. income, mentor numbers, programme content.
• Oversee delivery of mentor opportunities for the region’s corporate partnerships, ensuring Memorandum of Understanding are met, referring any issues of concern to the Fundraising team for support and guidance.
• Provide relevant information to fundraising and Monitoring Evaluation Research and Learning colleagues on any Tier 1 partners in the region, to enable production of evaluation reports
• Lead on delivery of the region’s awareness events, acting as the key contact person.
• Collaborate with the Fundraising & Communications team on key campaigns, e.g. International Womens’ Day, to reach key audiences and help build awareness and support income generation.

Mentor Community Development:

• Work with programme colleagues and the fundraising team to identify regional mentoring needs and coordinate the implementation of a mentor recruitment and engagement plan in your region, ensuring your region has an appropriate amount of mentors to run programmes.
• Lead on the implementation and delivery of the region’s events, acting as the key contact person.

Safeguarding support and leadership:

• Provide day-to-day safeguarding support for the Programme team in the North of the country – escalating issues to the Safeguarding lead where appropriate.
• Provide feedback on key safeguarding risks or issues, and needs for development or training to the Safeguarding Lead

Monitoring and evaluation:

• Oversee the collection of regional data and ensure that your staff keep Salesforce up to date with mentee, mentor, schools and partners relationships to effectively track the progress, and impact of mentoring relationships.
• Periodically evaluate and report on the progress and impact of The Girls’ Network initiatives in the region.
• Hold overall responsibility for regional targets, reporting to Senior Leadership Team.
• Manage and allocate the budget for the mentoring programme in the region, to cover workshops, celebration events, travel etc

Line Management of region’s Network Managers:

• Manage Network Managers in the region, through regular 1:1s and accountability of reporting.
• Support the wellbeing and professional development of your regional team.
• Cover or support with programme delivery when needed.

Grow our network in your region:

• Identify opportunities for growth in North region and work with Senior Leadership Team to develop regional strategy
• Advocate and promote The Girls’ Network at every opportunity to raise awareness of the charity and encourage community members to become mentors

Programme Leadership within The Girls’ Network Team:

Learning & Development

• Provide shadowing opportunities to Network Managers in other regions.
• As agreed with the Co-Executive Director - Programmes (Interim), travel to other regions to provide targeted training to other Network Managers.
• Coordinate Network Managers’ induction and recruitment.
• Contribute to The Girls’ Network culture of shared learning

Responsibility for an additional workstream:

• Each senior network manager is responsible for progressing aspects of programme workstream to timelines agreed with the accountable member of Senior Leadership Team. These may vary with need over time. Workstream to be agreed with Line Manager, but may include worksteams such as:
• Programme Process and Resource Development
• Prgoramme Development
• Sales Development etc

WHAT YOU WILL BRING TO THE ROLE

Essential skills, knowledge and attributes:

• You are deeply passionate and driven to achieve equal opportunities for all and will keep the girls we work with at the heart of everything
• You have excellent project management skills, are target oriented and will work towards achieving the Obejctives and Key Results of the role
• You care about the details and have excellent organisational skills, as well as being able to understand and drive towards the bigger picture
• You are excellent at managing a variety of stakeholders both face to face and at distance/online. You have the ability to create and maintain strong relationships with a variety of people from senior leaders in schools, local authorities, corporate organisations, line reports and volunteers
• You have line management experience
• You are flexible in your approach to working with a small organisation and understand the time and resources it takes to deliver

Desirable skills, knowledge and attributes:

• Have experience using a Customer Relationship Management system / Salesforce for tracking communications and income, and to create reports
• You have a high standard of computer literacy (e.g. Excel, Word, PowerPoint) and are able to adapt quickly to new systems as required.
• You are proactive, solution focused and quick to learn
• You are able to plan and prioritise your own workload, supporting others to do the same

OUR BENEFITS

We want to help everyone achieve more at work as well as in their personal lives and in their wider career, so that they feel proud of the part they play at The Girls' Network. We are committed to providing equality of opportunity in employment and to developing working practices and policies that support work-life balance.

Benefits:

• Pension scheme; employer contribution of 3% and employee of 5%
• 27 holiday days per year, plus public holidays (pro-rata)
• Extended and comprehensive sick pay policy
• Enhanced Family Leave pay policy

Learning & Development:

• Annual training budget for development upon completion of your probation period
• Professional development support and allocated time off for training
• Continual learning and development through team days and whole staff training.

The Way We Work:

• Flexible working policy: we respect that people have commitments and provide flexible working hours through discussion
• A positive and supportive team culture, regular check-ins and optional social events
• Working from home allowance to support you with essential tech needs
• We support you with a Girls’ Network buddy who you can reach out to beyond the induction period.

OUR VALUES

• We are young-person centered: our work and our decisions are centered around the girls and young women that we serve
• We are curious: we listen, we learn, and we do something about it
• We are unashamedly ourselves: we are authentic and celebrate each other for who we are
• We are ambitious and courageous: we know that might mean doing things differently or taking a risk. We acknowledge our strengths and when we need help
• We believe in the power of connection: that we can achieve more by working together.

YOU CAN'T BE WHAT YOU CAN'T SEE

We want to ensure that our team is inclusive and representative of the girls we work with, so we particularly welcome applications from individuals who have experienced of one or more of the following: being from a low-income family; have received free school meal; being the first in your family to go to University; identify as Black, Asian or another ethnic minority background. We have an active and cross organisational Equity, Diversion and Inclusion Strategy in place. We are a proud supporter of Show the Salary and The Halo Code.

HOW TO APPLY

Please submit a copy of your CV along with a supporting statement (no more than two pages) outlining how you meet the competencies outlined above 

• Interviews will be held online.
• Final deadline is Sunday 25th February 2024.
• Please email Lydia with any questions about the role, organisation, or to discuss adjustments required for the interview process and beyond.