Together We Can! Project OverviewTogether We Can! is a 3-year intergenerational, community-building project within the Firs & Bromford neighbourhood (east Birmingham), undertaken as a partnership between Worth Unlimited, Open Door Community Foundation, and Firs & Bromford Neighbours Together. It brings together youth work and adult-focused community-building work to maximise the opportunities for intergenerational (as well as cross-cultural) interaction and relationship-building, as we seek to support both young people and adults on a developmental journey from ‘first contact’, through ‘clearing obstacles’ and ‘pathways in to participation’, towards being able to ‘make meaningful contributions’ (within the neighbourhood and wider), and to develop skills, confidence and connections to initiate and lead their own groups and activities. Across the two ‘age bands’ (young people and adults), TWC! pursues two parallel ‘strands’ of work: ‘street connecting’ (making connections with, and between, local people, and growing new forms of associational life from those connections), and ‘support and development’ (supporting local people to grow in the confidence, skills and connections needed to be able to participate in and contribute to the life of their neighbourhood, and wider).

Street Connector Mentor (ODCF)Purpose of role

To lead on TWC!’s ‘street connecting’ work with local adults, finding, supporting and mentoring local people to make connections with, and between, their neighbours, and to grow new forms of associational life from those connections.

Key responsibilities:

Connecting with growing numbers of local people through active presence and engagement around the neighbourhood, door-knocking, etc.

Finding, recruiting, mentoring and co-ordinating the work of local ‘connectors’ (individually and in groups), offering encouragement, support and creative training/reflection opportunities, to help them develop their confidence, skills and connections in their connecting role.

Supporting local ‘connectors’ to plan, deliver and evaluate micro-local events, activities and projects.

Supporting and mentoring local individuals and groups with ideas, to develop new groups, activities and projects.

Administering a ‘small grant pot’ to support ideas for groups, activities and projects

Co-ordinating the growing local ‘talent pool’ of people, passions, skills, etc., and identifying and growing connections within it.

Working with colleagues, partners and external evaluators to oversee ongoing monitoring, evaluation, learning and organisational growth and change.

Working with colleagues to communicate and promote ODCF’s groups and activities. Working to ensure the safeguarding of vulnerable adults.

Main duties:

Regular and active presence and engagement around the neighbourhood, including visiting ongoing groups and activities, door-knocking, etc.

Regular 1-to-1 and group sessions with local connectors, offering support and learning, training and reflection opportunities, and facilitating the planning and delivery of street-level events, activities and projects

Researching and developing resources for mentoring and training local connectors Recording and following up contacts made through street connector work and events,

including maintaining a database of contacts, and identifying possibilities for new connections between people

Ongoing 1-to-1 mentoring work with local people and groups, to support the development and establishment of new groups, activities and projects

Working with FBNT to administer a ‘small grants’ pot for local ideas, including facilitating SOUP events, and keeping basic accounts

Using social media, website and other communication methods to record and promote TWC! activities

Line manage and supervise all volunteers within the ‘street connectors’ strand of work Ensure all recruitment of volunteers is in line with ODCF’s volunteer and safe recruitment

policies Working with colleagues, partners, and external evaluators to develop and deploy

monitoring and evaluation tools, prepare reports, etc. Supporting CSDW in running 4 monthly Hodge Hill Cuppa sessions Working alongside youth strand of TWC! to offer and develop intergenerational support and

activities Attending regular supervisions with line manager, and team meetings with ODCF and/or

TWC! colleagues Working with line manager to identify and engage in ongoing training and development

opportunities Working alongside TWC! colleagues to deliver the overall aims of the TWC! project Working with FBNT to support their work, where this aligns with the ethos and priorities of

ODCF Working alongside colleagues to develop ongoing funding streams and one-off funding bids

Person specification (see also Appendix A, below):

has a vision and passion for building connections and community within a neighbourhood sees the potential in all people, and able to encourage and release that potential excellent listening skills excellent communication skills, verbally, in writing, and visually makes connections quickly with a wide variety of people, across differences of age, gender,

ethnic, class and cultural backgrounds friendly, outgoing personality, unafraid to talk to strangers knowledge and understanding of ethnically-diverse, outer urban estate contexts experience of mentoring individuals experience of facilitating small groups, and delivering training in an informal education

context high levels of self-motivation, and able to take and see through their own initiatives able to work well as part of a team, both supporting and drawing on the complementary

gifts of colleagues aware of her/his own limits, and able to step back and give others the freedom to

experiment, learn and grow willing and able to immerse themselves in the life of the Firs & Bromford neighbourhood basic budgeting and accounting skills unafraid of rejection, hard work, and disappointment – as well as enthusiastic about

celebrating successes willing and able to reflect both positively and critically on their work an understanding of good practice around safeguarding and supporting vulnerable adults willing and able to work flexible hours and some weekends committed to the aims and core values of ODCF (see Appendix B, below)

Starting salary: £24,000 pa (with 2% pa rise subject to satisfactory progress)

Please fill in the attached Employment Application Form, and return it by Wednesday 12 th November, 6pm, to Revd Al Barrett, hodgehillvicar@hotmail.co.uk, with ‘Job Application: Street Connector Mentor’ in the subject line.

If you would like to visit the area, or find out more about the role, please contact Al Barrett via the email address above.

Appendix A: ‘Anatomy of a community-builder’

Taken from O’Leary et al, Appreciating Assets, IACD & CarnegieUK 2011available at www.carnegieuktrust.org.uk

Appendix BOpen Door Community Foundation – aims and core values

We seek to make a distinctive and significant contribution to the wellbeing of people in our neighbourhoods through:

Contributing to the nurturing and sustaining of places of welcome and hospitality, and relationships of trust and friendship

Unlocking and connecting local people’s passions, knowledge and skills Working with people to help them overcome barriers to them making confident

contributions within their neighbourhood Being a ‘seedbed’ for innovative forms of local, associational life

We also seek to work, in collaboration with partner organisations, to nurture a wider learning community of neighbourhoods and faith communities, growing relationships of mutual learning and support to enable locally-rooted initiatives to incubate and develop.

We take an intentional approach in all our work which:

is local neighbourhood focused is ‘bottom-up’ and asset-based is holistic, or ‘ecological’, in relation to both people and neighbourhoods is relational, mutual and ‘co-produced’ is inclusive of all local people, seeking to break down barriers which divide and ‘label’ people challenges inequalities of power and value, seeking justice, especially for the most

marginalized in society embraces messiness

and complexity as inevitable and valuable

is constantly learning and critically reflecting

positively values the traditions of people of faith, and seeks to nurture the social, physical, emotional, intellectual, occupational and spiritual wellbeing of all (see right)

Diagram from

www.yukonwellness.ca