Community Links Development Worker

The Church Partnership team is responsible for managing and developing CAP’s network of centres and the staff that run those centres. We are committed to empowering the local church and therefore invest in the support required for a church to run a CAP service well. The Community Links Development Worker will establish relationships between local centre staff and national and local statutory and third-sector bodies to build strong referral networks for CAP services to provide a growing stream of clients for our debt help service.  

 

The Community Links Development Worker (Scotland) reports to the Area Manager who is supervising the project.

 

Passion

The Community Links Development Worker will be passionate about supporting & developing the centre network to offer the life-transforming CAP services through local churches and give our clients/members the opportunity to hear and respond to the love of Jesus.

 

Personality

To be successful the Community Links Development Worker  will need to work well within a hybrid and multi-disciplinary team, with the passion and skill to engage and empower the frontline staff to deliver CAP’s vision with the local church. They will strive for excellence whilst being compassionate, relational and professional.

 

Responsibilities

 

Centre Relationships

• To build strong working relationships with local debt centre staff

• To understand each centre’s goals and local debt help context

 

Building Local Referral Networks

This role will be responsible for supporting and training the local CAP centres in building strong referral networks. To do this, the postholder will initially lead, but will also train, mentor and support frontline staff to become self-sufficient in this area. There activities will include:

• Establishing relationships with key workers in local statutory bodies such as DWP and Social Work Teams.

• Establishing relationships with key workers in local voluntary organisations, such as food banks and faith groups.

• Presenting regularly to such groups on CAP’s debt help offering, emphasising the unique space CAP occupies in the debt help sector

• Helping debt centres establish drop-in presence in key locations where potential clients can be met and booked in for appointments

Success will partially be measured on how self-sufficient centres become over time.

 

Measurable Outputs:

 

• Each prioritised Scotland centre has an active publicity plan that involves centre staff alongside the Community Links Development Worker

• Regular contact is maintained with each significant Job CentrePlus in the area

• Regular contact is maintained with each significant Food Bank in the area

• Significant voluntary organisations, as agreed with the Scotland Network Manager, are identified and relationships are established and maintained

• Debt Centre bookings in target areas are increased through activity linked to this role. 

• Training developed and made available to the whole Scotland network

 

Culture

• Clearly live out and embrace the cultural values of CAP.

• Clearly demonstrate a heart and passion for the charity.

• Sincere acceptance, understanding and practice of the Christian ethos and purpose of the Charity.

 

Other Responsibilities Include:

 

• Being willing to pray with staff and be fully engaged with our Christ centred  culture.

• To encourage friends, family and other contacts to support the charity through the Life Changer program, and other fundraising initiatives.

• Attendance at annual CAP staff conferences .

• Complete all compulsory CAP training within given timescales.

• Leading a culture of prayer with the frontline staff

• Leading a culture of Evangelism & Discipleship

 

 

 

Christian Commitment

• The Community Links Development Worker must be able to give both verbal assent to and practical demonstration of Christians Against Poverty’s Statement of Faith and Core Values

• Must be able to actively participate in prayer and worship, whether individual, small group or corporately, as an expression of one's own personal faith and in line with CAP’s Statement of Faith.

 

The Community Links Development Worker will be expected to travel across Scotland and attend regular training, conferences and meetings, including trips to CAPs Head Office in Bradford. 

 

All adults working in, or on behalf of CAP have a responsibility to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and adults. This includes: a responsibility to ensure a safe environment in which CAP Services can be delivered. Identify children and adults where there may be safeguarding concerns and to follow the CAP Safeguarding Policy in addressing any concerns appropriately.

 

Because this role can involve working with vulnerable people, you’ll need to have a disclosure check via Disclosure Scotland. 

 

The above job profile is a guide to the work you may be required to undertake but does not form part of your contract of employment and may change from time to time to reflect changing circumstances. 

 

Skills required

 

• Excellent verbal communication skill

• Good written communication skills.

• A confident communicator who promotes CAP’s culture at all times.

• A confident communicator who can explain CAP’s offering to other organisations.

• Emotionally and spiritually mature.

• Ability to develop strengths and skills in others to maximise performance.

• Excellent organisational and time management skills

• Adaptable.

• Ability to prioritise time, tasks and attention effectively.

 

Educational requirements

 

• Standard grade / Nat 5 / GCSE Maths and English

• Strong verbal and numerical literacy

• Full driving licence

Experience:

• Experience of having to work using your own initiative

• Experience in training and developing people

• Experience of leading volunteers to meet key objectives or targets

• Experience of making connections with multiple organisations, including cold calling

• Experience of networking within the third sector

• Evidence of passion for the poor, evangelism and outworking of this.