Female Community and Youth Volunteer Co-ordinator

Community and Youth Volunteer Co-ordinator – The Parasol Project

Fixed-term contract for 3 years. This is a full time role and requires absolute availability during school holidays (when activities will be running). Other working times including Wednesday evening Youth Group and office hours are subject to some flexibility with prior agreement with the Executive Director.

About the Parasol Project

The Parasol Project is a small, Oxford based, inclusion charity that has been supporting disabled children, teenagers and young adults in accessing high quality, age appropriate activities alongside their non-disabled peers for over 20 years. Our provision includes a variety of indoor/outdoor education and learning activities such as free play, arts/crafts, residentials, adventure sports (canoeing, laser tag and go-karting) music, dance, drama, film making, bushcraft, healthy eating, cooking and gardening projects. We run most of our activities during the school holidays, except for term time dance and youth groups.

One of the magical and unique things about The Parasol Project is its emphasis on inclusion. We champion equality and have created a unique ethos and culture that is present in all our work. We believe very strongly that whilst children may need to be streamed for educational purposes we don’t feel that it should always be the case that children are segregated when it comes to play, social and leisure activities.

The Parasol youth volunteering project was established over 18 years ago to help disabled and disadvantaged young people develop self-confidence, independence and communication skills and gain valuable work experience within a safe and supportive environment. This project has become the cornerstone of our Teenage service and is now a five-tier volunteering programme that helps our activities run more efficiently and effectively.

The role

The Volunteer Co-ordinator has historically been a crucial but temporary role during summer holidays only. Thanks to recent funding, we now have a fantastic opportunity to recruit a full-time Volunteer Co-ordinator for 3 years.

The main purpose of this role is to expand our existing volunteer programme, making it year-round. We now have an opportunity to grow our team of disabled & non-disabled volunteers, increase the number of placements we offer and build a comprehensive volunteer training programme.

The Volunteer Co-ordinator will also act as deputy to the Teenage Service lead during holiday and evening activities, sharing responsibility for the emotional wellbeing (and sometimes personal care) of both volunteers and young people. (Training provided). As our teenage service lead is a man, we are recruiting a female Volunteer Co-ordinator to ensure we can meet the needs of all young people we work with. (This post is exempt under Equality Act 2010, Schedule 9, Part 1)

Experience and person specification

We are willing to consider candidates from any background provided they can demonstrate both the relevance of their skills and experience, a commitment to respond to Parasol’s inclusive vision and their suitability to work with children and young people.

The ideal candidate will be a skilled team leader with youth work experience. Excellent organisational and communication skills, including IT skills, are essential.