Befriending Coordinator

Befriending Coordinator

County Durham - Mercury House, Belmont

Permanent, Part-time (32 hpw)

Salary circa £20,000 pa (pro-rata) negotiable based on skills and experience, plus great benefits

**Empowering customers to live rewarding and happy lives. That’s when it hits home.**

We have a fabulous job opportunity for you to join our awesome (and growing) team. The Wellbeing & Recovery Service is part of the newly formed Durham Mental Wellbeing alliance which has been awarded a 7-year contract to support people with mental health and wellbeing issues across County Durham. Our services offer group activities and support along with befriending and volunteering opportunities.

Our service works right across the County Durham Area with the team being split into three patch areas.

Your role will be to develop & deliver a high-quality befriending service. You’ll work closely with our Volunteer Manager to recruit and select volunteer befrienders for the project and ensure there is a thorough and robust selection process in place for potential befrienders. You’ll help to prepare and train befrienders for their role so that they can offer effective support to Customers. Initially, you’ll have your own caseload of customers to Befriend and support within the local community with the aim of reducing this overtime by recruiting more volunteers.

You’ll complete signups with customers and monitor the befriending relationships to ensure they are operating successfully and that outcomes for the individuals involved are being met.

**About the job**

As our Befriending Coordinator, you’ll be a role model for our customer and volunteers, promoting independence, opportunities and empowering them to self-manage their mental wellbeing. You will coordinate our team of befrienders through their journey with Home Group, from recruiting and inducting them to supporting and supervising and offering practical support whilst befriending customers to maintain their independence and improve their wellbeing.

You’ll play your part by assisting in the delivery of tasks that are based on our customers personal support plans, and their needs and aspirations. You’ll work with our volunteer manager and external agencies to assess and engage support for our volunteers.

You’ll build positive and supportive relationships with customers and work with them to develop a person-centred support plan with realistic and positive goals. We empower our customers to develop the independent living skills they need, to successfully move on. Together we’ll make a difference

**About you**

You’re passionate and motivated to help vulnerable people make positive and lasting changes to their lives. You’ll impress us with your ability to work on your own initiative, positively influencing people from all different backgrounds.

It would be amazing if you have worked in this type of environment before, however, it’s your “can do” positive attitude and enthusiasm that are critical to making this role a success. We can nurture your talent, just let us know in your cover letter why you have a passion for working here.

As this is a community-based role, you need to be able to drive, as well as have access to a vehicle insured for business purposes. Don’t worry, we’ll pay your expenses to cover this use.

It's important to us that you are technologically savvy, as you’ll be issued with the latest kit, which could include a Surface Pro and mobile.

**Where you’ll do your job**

You’ll work across County Durham, liaising with our colleagues and coordinating our volunteers and customers within the community. The great news is that you will have the flexibility of working either from home or in one of our local offices and we’ll give you the technology and kit to make that easy.

**Working hours**

It’s the team’s unwritten rule that you attend the important appointments in life, be it your child’s school play, your partner’s graduation, or to get your new fridge delivered. You can elect to fit these around your working day or use your flexi to take the time off. Our focus is on getting the job done, not your working hours.

**About our team**

You’ll be working alongside our fabulous team who are super passionate about supporting people to improve their wellbeing and meeting their goals. To us were not just a team we’re a ‘work family’.

Our manager is Rachel, she has been with Home Group for 10 years carrying out many different roles across many services, she has a vast experience of supporting customers and staff.

There are 12 of us in the team and 20 across the wider team and we don’t just love to support our customers, we’re there for each other too. John has been with Home Group for just under 10 years and has great knowledge of peer support in his spare time he loves to go fishing, Sally has been with us for just over a year and has a real passion for our groups and Linda who has been with us for