Befrending Co-ordinator

**As a Befriending and Volunteer Coordinator, I am part of Rethink Mental Illness Brent Mental Health Service.**

Working in our Operations Directorate, within our Community Services Division, I work within a team which provides high-quality, safe and person-centred support in the community - most importantly delivering great outcomes for people bereaved by suicide.

I will work with the following people and teams
- Rethink Community and Navigation Services
- Corporate Resources - Finance; HR&OD and ICT
- Quality and Service Transformation
- CNWL Mental Health Teams

The Brent Mental Health service is commissioned by CNWL to bolster community mental health support to adult patients and service users (18+). within the Brent borough alongside statutory services. Brent is spilt into 3 locality hubs which the service will work across.

The service has 4 main aspects of delivery which are
- Befriending service utilising volunteers
- Peer Navigation Support
- Substance Misuse Support
- Mental Health and Recovery Workshops

The service will be integrated with CNWL to work as one multi disciplinary team to deliver services to people who are known to CNWL services.

The staff team will be a mixture of Rethink staff members and staff from Change, Grow, Live (CGL) who we sub contract the substance misuse elements of the service to.

The service will have a minimum of 12 volunteers at any one time to deliver the befriending aspects of the service.

The aim of the Befriending service is to;
- Identify, train and support volunteers to befriend people with mental health needs
- Match volunteers with people with mental health needs in the community including elements of social prescribing
- Provide support to people with mental health needs who are finding it difficult to cope, manage to day to day matters of take an active part in community life
- Act as community connectors to local services and support people to access and build social and community networks and activities in order to foster social inclusion and improve quality of life
- Reach out to isolated members of the community
- Use innovative technology and other delivery methods to target hard to reach groups

**Who I am?**
- I have a good standard of secondary education with ability to write clear and concise English.
- I have experience of working with people with mental health needs
- I have experience co-ordinating all aspects of the volunteer journey including recruiting volunteers through a range of channels and supporting volunteers to deliver their roles successfully.
- Successful track record of effective working alongside volunteers including use of supervision, coaching techniques.
- Experience of facilitating groups or delivering training to groups or individuals.
- An understanding of engagement strategies with ability to initiate and develop links with difficult to reach communities.
- I use tact and diplomacy to deal with challenges in a calm and considered manner.
- I have experience of coordinating activity between teams to support effective working.
- Knowledge of risk assessment, identify potential risk and managing / mitigating risks.
- Strong verbal/written/non-verbal communication skills, able to communicate sensitively and empathetically.
- Committed to achieving results, takes personal accountability with a flexible “can-do” proactive, solution focussed approach to work.
- Excellent interpersonal skills with ability to build relationships quickly able to connect with and engage and influence a range of people.
- Able to work effectively as a team with flexible approach to undertaking a variety of tasks.
- Ability to develop and maintain relationships and networks with professionals, stakeholders and local organisations/agencies.
- I am IT literate with working knowledge of standard Microsoft Office programs and experience of accurate data entry to databases.
- I am flexible in terms of travel and working hours when the job requires this and have access to my own vehicle.

**I may also have**:

- An excellent understanding and broad range of experience of working with peer support workers
- Experience and understanding of opportunities for meaningful involvement.
- Experience of co-production within a mental health or social care setting

**Caring for our people.**

We offer a wide range of support. Some of our benefits include:

- PULSE - our recognition, rewards, wellbeing, and benefits platform. Providing access to thousands of discounts and benefits including cashback; reloadable cards; savings etc. As well as being able to thank colleagues and nominate them for awards.
- Wellbeing support: our Wellbeing hub gives physical, emotional, and mental health support. We also have a BUPA Employee Assistance Programme with access to appointments.
- Taking time for you: we work flexibly -you get to choose where you work, managing your own diary. We have generous annual leave, starting at 25 rising to 30 days, plus bank holidays, as well as