Charity and Voluntary Jobs in Northern Ireland

Honeycomb is delighted to be partnering with a Nationwide Charity to recruit for a Volunteer Coordinator for their new office based in South Down. This is a Full time and permanent opportunity.

The Client

Our client is the only charity across the UK focused on the abuse of older people and building a safer ageing agenda. The charity has a life-changing helpline which supports older people, families, professionals and practitioners by providing advice and guidance. The charity also works across all four nations to develop campaigns whilst lobbying for legislation change to protect and enhance the lives of older people at risk of abuse. The charity is undergoing a significant modernisation and change agenda and this is already seeing demonstrable benefits and impacts. This role fills an important part of the strategic jigsaw of the charity.

The Role

The Volunteer Coordinator will play a key role in shaping Northern Ireland's response to meeting the needs of the vulnerable older population and their communities. Coordinating the Helpline and direct support services, the postholder will lead a team of Helpline volunteers, as well as shaping new projects delivering support from prevention right through to recovery. Typical duties will include:

Day-to-day support and supervision of Helpline volunteers in Northern Ireland, including:

• Ensuring volunteers provide appropriate responses to Helpline calls, e-mails, letters and online contact
• Ensuring the quality of written responses from the Helpline
• Providing advice and guidance to staff and volunteers on complex calls
• Ensuring staff and volunteers maintain and submit accurate Helpline enquiry records
• Supporting staff and volunteers to provide practical and emotional support to callers, responding in an empathetic and supportive manner
• Ensuring staff and volunteers explain adult safeguarding and protection frameworks and other options for support in a person-centred way
• Helping staff and volunteers to identify callers who may benefit from casework to provide further support
• Ensuring staff and volunteers have all necessary call handling equipment and call logging and reporting pathways
• Delivering training to new Helpline staff and volunteers, and/or arranging training from other Hourglass staff or external training providers.
• Taking Helpline calls and coordinating shift patterns to ensure there is adequate cover at all times.
• Supporting the UK-wide Helpline to provide support to callers in England, Wales and Scotland. This will involve taking calls, as well as coordinating Northern Ireland staff/volunteer availability.
• Notifying a member of management of any circumstances in which there may be immediate risk to a caller and to act as authorised.
• Undertaking regular quality assurance, including call monitoring, volunteer appraisal, and regular auditing of volunteer support and training materials.
• Working with and supporting the Service Performance Manager with statistical and other analysis of helpline calls and activity in NI and providing regular reports as requested.
• Promoting, raising awareness and continually developing the Helpline service across Northern Ireland, and notifying the Development Manger of potential funding sources.
• Undertaking case work and follow-up work to support Helpline callers/enquirers who require more comprehensive support.
• Develop comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the routes and support options open to those requiring casework support to provide a tailored and wide-ranging service.
• Making adult protection referrals where necessary (and/or support staff/volunteers to do so) on behalf of callers who request or require such support.
• Developing a database of local signposting agencies to ensure Hourglass can refer callers to other sources of support where we do not have the immediate expertise in house.
• Developing a network of Pop-up Advice and Support clinics to ensure safer ageing is highlighted across Northern Ireland, and that Hourglass can bring its expertise to hard to reach areas and communities.
• Recruiting volunteers for a range of community response roles, with a particular focus on hard to reach and under-represented communities
• Supporting with the development of the' new online Knowledge Bank to act as a repository of information and resources relating to the abuse of older people and safer ageing. This will include an instant messenger service and chatbot function to provide instant facts/resources.
• Ensuring there is a range of appropriate information materials to meet the needs of various audiences and stakeholder, including online content, information booklets and other formats.
• Actively and regularly promoting the charity and their services across Northern Ireland via various outlets, including information leaflets and posters, social media, websites, and delivering presentations.
• Identifying and providing information, reports, case studies and 'good news' stories for newsletters, our website and media etc. Working in collaboration with communications staff and relevant managers to identify older people who may be willing to speak to the media.

Essential Criteria

• Degree level education or equivalent experience
• Experience of supervising or supporting staff and/or volunteers, including recruitment, ongoing support and supervision.
• An ability to listen constructively, analyse objectively, and provide advice and guidance in a person-centred way
• Strong organisational skills, and an ability to manage own workload, prioritise tasks, meet deadlines, and respond to emerging issues
• Excellent interpersonal skills and an ability to liaise and communicate effectively (both orally and in writing) and work collaboratively with colleagues and partner agencies
• Self-motivated, requiring minimal supervision.
• Project and/or event management skills
• An ability to constructively challenge and advocate on behalf of service users
• Able to cope with challenging or emotional calls/situations; and ability to deal appropriately with sensitive issues, working within the organisation's confidentiality and data protection requirements
• Ability to travel throughout Northern Ireland and occasionally into the Republic in order to fulfill the duties of the role.

Salary

Salary for this role is £25,750

To speak in absolute confidence about this opportunity, please send an up to date CV via the link provided or contact Louise Quinn, Professional Services Manager at Honeycomb 028 9620 7050

Even if this position is not right for you, we may have others that are. Please visit Honeycomb to view a wide selection of our current jobs www.honeycomb.jobs

Experience: 0 yrs