Volunteer Manager

Volunteer Manager

Mercury House, Durham (Hybrid Worker)

Fixed Term 10 Months, Part Time (22.5 hpw)

Salary circa £21,178 pa (pro rata), negotiable based on skills and experience, plus Great Benefits!

Empowering customers to live rewarding and happy lives. That’s when it hits home.

We have a fabulous job opportunity for you to join our awesome (and growing) team. You’ll support Volunteers to access opportunities within Home Group through our open access ‘Happy Days’ groups, ‘out and about activities’ and ‘physical activity sessions’, allotment projects and walking groups which run throughout County Durham.

You’ll link in with our support coordinators and other support staff, working alongside our new befriending coordinator and help Rachel, our Client Services Manager, to drive and support the ambitions of the health and wellbeing patch.

Leading a team of Volunteers, you’ll help us deliver efficient, high quality, cost effective and customer centred services. You’ll help empower our customers to live independently and make it a great place to work for our colleagues.

About the role

You’ll have overall responsibility for managing our Volunteer services and supporting volunteers to carry out befriending activities with your customers. You will also lead our ‘out and about’ activities such as physical activity sessions, allotment projects and walking groups.

Many of our volunteers are former customers who offer peer support and befriending to other customers so really understand aspects of mental health. We also have many volunteers who have little or no experience of mental health but want to learn and make a difference within their communities. You’ll inspire, lead and nurture our volunteers to feel amazing about their roles and being able to give something back to society.

You’ll work with our partners to attract volunteers to help your customers to improve their mental health and wellbeing as well as helping them achieve independence

About you

As our Volunteer Manager, you’ll be a role model for our volunteers, promote customer involvement in our services, and empower volunteers to self-manage their mental wellbeing. You’ll coordinate our team of volunteers through their journey with Home Group, from recruiting and inducting them to supporting and supervising and offering practical support.

You’re passionate and motivated to help vulnerable people make positive and lasting changes to their lives. You’ll impress us with your ability to work on your own initiative, positively influencing people from all different backgrounds. We help change our customer’s lives for the better.

You’ll play your part by assisting in the delivery of tasks that are based on our volunteer’s personal support plans, and their needs and aspirations. You’ll work with our Support Coordinators and external agencies to assess and engage support for our volunteers.

You’ll build positive and supportive relationships with customers working with their Support Coordinator to develop a person-centred support plan with realistic and positive goals. We empower our customers to develop the independent living skills they need, to successfully move on. Together we’ll make a difference!

It would be amazing if you have worked in this type of environment before, however it’s your “can do” positive attitude and enthusiasm that are critical to make this role a success. We can nurture your talent, just let us know in your cover letter why you have a passion for working here!

Here at Home Group, we have invested heavily in our future and use current and up to date equipment and have a digital first agenda. You’ll be issued with the latest kit, which could include a Surface Pro and mobile. So, it’s important to us that you are technologically savvy (or at the very least not a technophobe!)

As this is a community-based job, you need to be able to drive, as well as having access to a vehicle insured for business purposes. Don’t worry, we’ll pay you expenses to cover this use!

When you join, you’ll need to have a valid EnhancedCheck under the Disclosure and Barring Service. The great news is that we will pay for that to be done if you don’t have a transferrable one.

About our team

Your fabulous team are super passionate about supporting customers to reach their goals and celebrating their achievements. To us we’re not just a team we’re a ‘work family’.

There are 21 of us in the Health Patch team and we don’t just love to support our customers, we’re there for each other too! Linda has been with our services for over 12 years and is our guru for the Home Achievement Programme. John B and Damian are our Physical Activity experts and John L is our peer support trainer and expert.

You’ll also join the wider Health Patch management team and work for our Senior Client Services manager Edd who has been with the services over 10 years in various roles. Edd is passionate about volunteering which he does at his local cricket team in his spare time.

Where you’ll work

You’ll work across County Durham, liaising with our colleagues and coordinating our volunteers within services and the community. The great news is that you will have the flexibility of working either from home or in one of our local offices and we’ll give you the technology and kit to make that easy.

You’ll have the chance to shape your own diary. However, you’ll likely spend around 2 days or so per week on the road going to different venues or signing up new volunteers and working from home the rest of the time.

Working hours

It’s the team’s unwritten rule that you attend the important appointments in life, be it your child’s school play, your partner’s graduation, or to get your new fridge delivered. You can elect to fit these around your working day or use your flexi to take the time off. Our focus is on getting the job done, not your working hours!

Be yourself at Home

Home Group is committed to tackling prejudice and discrimination, not just for our customers, but for our colleagues too! We’re super proud of our internal Diversity Networks and allies (Multicultural, LGBTQIA+ and Disability) which support colleagues from different backgrounds to be their true selves. We recognise and celebrate our differences, together we make Home Group a great place to work!

Oh, did we mention that we’re 5th in the UK’s “Best Super Large Places to Work”, 5th for “Best Super Large organisations for Women”, 9th for “Best Super Large organisations for Wellbeing”, 40th in Stonewall’s Top 100 employers and hold Investors in People Platinum Standard....? It’s our brilliant people and culture!

Want to know more?

If you’re not reading this advert on our careers pages, press the APPLY NOW button to access lots of useful stuff! You can download the Client Services Manager job description, and find out more about Home Group. We’ve also got some short films that show you what it’s like to work here, and we know you’ll want to find out more about our award winning benefits and rewards!

Applying for this job

Don’t delay applying for this brilliant job, as we may close it early if we get lots of applications! Just upload your CV and if you have one, your covering letter (this will help us learn more about you!). If you need them, we’ve also got some great templates to help you.

Do let us know if you’d like us to make any adjustments to support you in your application!