Female Gangs Worker

**About Us**:
**THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF SHOFA’S MARKET**

Children’s Services in Westminster City Council is a world of extraordinary stories. Where courageous and inspiring professionals bring everything to their work.

Sometimes this even includes heartbreak. Shofa is a shining example. Shofa’s brother suffered with his mental health and died tragically young. She uses his memory as motivation to give Westminster Youth Council members the opportunity to have a voice and get involved in decision making. This passion resulted in in her innovation: The Westminster Youth Market. Here local teenagers learn about entrepreneurship and develop their personal skills. This is an inclusive platform where everyone’s contribution and abilities are celebrated. Inspired by a promising life cut short, Shofa believes without vision there is no direction and every young person should be supported to realise their dreams.

**The Role**:
Join us as a Flexible Gangs Worker in our well-respected Integrated Gangs & Exploitation Unit (IGXU), and you could make your own powerful contribution - not only to children and young people who are at risk of being drawn into gang violence or sexual exploitation, but to the communities who are blighted by these activities.

As a vital member of our innovative and creative team, you will transform the life outcomes of children and young people by helping them escape damaging lifestyles, deciding which interventions and services are needed in order to put them on a better path. Ensuring their voices are heard at every turn, you will support young men and women in understanding their rights, risks and life choices, helping them make effective decisions on everything from relationships and sexual health through to conflict negotiation, personal safety and self-esteem.

Working with partners from a variety of agencies, you will take the lead in advising on complex matters, and you will develop new interventions, activities and toolkits that will enable local organisations to better identify and tackle sexual and criminal exploitation. With safeguarding underpinning every decision, this is a unique chance to work with some of Westminster’s most vulnerable residents, with a particular emphasis on helping girls and young women realise their future aspirations.

Please refer to the **Job Description** for more information.

**About You**:
This role would be well-suited to a woman who is passionate about making a difference to young girls and women. To make the most of this exceptional role, we will expect you to have a background in safeguarding children and young people at risk of sexual exploitation and gang violence. You will therefore have a good knowledge of child protection legislation and the youth justice and welfare systems, and you will have a great knowledge of the statutory, voluntary and community sector organisations who are equipped to support vulnerable young men and women.

With the flexibility to occasionally work out-of-hours including evenings and weekends, you will be a flexible team-player with exceptional verbal and written communication skills. Comfortable working in a politically sensitive field, you will have previous experience of delivering presentations, training and workshops to a variety of audiences, ranging from 1-1 sessions with young people through to partners in local organisations.

**What We Offer**:
Westminster is an amazing place. We are home to more than 200,000 residents from all backgrounds, over 50,000 vibrant and vital businesses and three-quarters-of-a-million people work in Westminster. Westminster City Council’s strategy is to work towards a Fairer Westminster. A Fairer Westminster is one in which our communities are at the heart of our decision-making and help to determine the city’s future. By working directly with our communities and other partners, we can build a more inclusive city that celebrates our diverse communities, and where residents, workers and visitors from all backgrounds will feel welcome and safe.

As a forward-thinking Council we appreciate that people work in different ways, therefore our staff benefit from working a range of flexible working patterns as well as Agile working.