Neighbourhood Connector

Step Up MCR Neighbourhood Connector

Salary:
£27,000 per annum

Working Hours: 35 hours per week, may include some evenings and weekends
(open to flexible working)

Contract type:
Permanent (the role is funded for three years by The National
Lottery Fund's Reaching Communities programme)

Location:
Remote working role with travel required throughout the Manchester wards Ancoats & Beswick and Clayton & Openshaw

Reporting to:
Step Up MCR Programme Manager

Applications close at 5pm on Friday 14th July. Interviews will be held on Monday 24th July.

About Step Up MCR
Step Up MCR is a people-powered initiative that looks to create lasting change in communities from the inside out. With a focus on Ancoats & Beswick and Clayton
& Openshaw, we work to build more connected communities by increasing local giving to grow community-led projects and activities. This could be a local resident who wants to give their time and expertise to start a new project, or a local business looking to see the impact it is able to make in the community.

As well as supporting giving to established local organisations and projects, Step
Up MCR aims to be the catalyst for new and emerging ideas to develop and grow into sustainable projects.

We do this by working in partnership to connect them to support where local residents, businesses, voluntary groups or public sector bodies are able to give, and provide a platform to raise their profile.

The Role

We are excited to be growing the Step Up MCR team and increasing our visibility in our communities alongside a new Neighbourhood Connector.

We are delighted to have received three years of funding for the role from The National Lottery
Community Fund to continue developing our place based giving approaches.

To grow Step Up MCR's place based giving offer to community-led projects, the

Neighbourhood Connector will provide Step Up MCR with greater capacity to provide some direct support to active residents, and broker and align support from new and existing local partners.

You will work alongside Step Up MCR's Programme Manager to engage communities in Ancoats & Beswick and Clayton & Openshaw, supporting an arts
- led approach to community building. You will have a strong presence in the community at weekly drop-ins, engagement events, and resident meetings, supporting people to grow new and existing community-led initiatives.

As well as being a catalyst for new and emerging community-led health and wellbeing initiatives, the role will be key to connecting residents with existing local projects to engage with and volunteer to, improving local health outcomes, increasing local giving and inspiring action.

As such, the post-holder will actively engage in local networks and develop a knowledge of referral partners and support pathways.

The Neighbourhood Connector will support with the development of a toolkit of helpful resources that combines Step Up MCR's offer with those from local partners, which could be anything from training and opportunities, pro-bono support, or specific resources, skills and knowledge to give a local project the step up it needs to grow.

The role will provide a friendly and accessible approach to project development, checking in regularly with projects, tracking progress and connecting with other locally available support through our partnership (via our Project Champions model).

The Neighbourhood Connector will support and deliver on Step Up MCR'S core offer to community projects

This includes:
-
Connections:

- connecting to local businesses and partners to get community-led ideas off the ground. Our partners may be able to give the time, money, resources, space, or expertise to develop community ideas.

-
Tailored Case Work Support:

- getting the wheels turning on community-led ideas with one to one support from a Project Champion who can help to map and track progress.

-
Access to Opportunities:

- such as capacity building, mentoring, coaching and training.

-
Fundraising Support:

- support with crowdfunding campaigns and links to corporate sponsors.
-
Promotion to Step Up MCR Audiences:

• we will shout out about local projects through our quarterly community newspaper, our website, e

- bulletins and events raising awareness of local projects, and ambitions for community led activity.

Role Responsibilities

• Unearthing bright new ideas for community health and wellbeing projects through community engagement activities, dropins, events and providing greater presence of Step Up MCR at a neighbourhood level.
• Being a 'roving listener' for residents to express ideas for communityled projects, social enterprises, organisations and businesses.
• Engaging residents to become more active and engaged in the community as participants or volunteers at local community projects.
• Supporting creative and artsled approaches to community engagement, working with Step Up MCR's Programme Ma

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