Friends in Need Coordinator

**Description**:
**Friends in Need Coordinator**

***

**£23,562.00 pa full-time (inclusive of outer London weighting)**

***

**Hours: part time 24 hours (pro rata salary £15,283)**

***

**Permanent role in East Berkshire (covering Windsor, Ascot & Maidenhead)**

***

Friends in Need provides peer support groups for people affected by mental health problems. These popular groups are run by our dedicated team of Buckinghamshire Mind volunteers. We are seeking three coordinators to join our team for the East Berkshire area.

Reporting to the Friends in Need team leader, your role will be to coordinate the peer support groups and to develop and support volunteers in their roles. You’ll also promote the groups and encourage people to join and participate.

**Who we are**

We connect. We support. We influence. We deliver services in our local communities in East Berkshire & Buckinghamshire. We promote wellbeing and recovery; we prevent mental ill health; we offer talking therapies and we provide support in times of crisis.

We are an independent charity that is proud to be affiliated with national Mind and to adhere to its quality standards of governance and service delivery. Buckinghamshire Mind is part of a network of over 100 Local Minds, which provide trusted mental health services to our communities.

***

**This role provides an opportunity to develop your skills in developing mental health support. You’ll see your work bring about positive change in people’s lives.**

See job description for more details and a description of our benefits.

**How to apply**

**CLOSING DATE 06/12/24**

**INTERVIEW DATE: 17/12/24**

**Key Responsibilities**:
**A)** **Supporting users of Bucks Mind**
- Find creative ways of engaging people affected by mental health difficulties and the loneliness and isolation that come with it, across the area and encourage them to join and use the network effectively.
- Look at ways to expand upon our young adults (Peers2Pals) peer support offer, and work collaboratively with other organisations, which will include some work in the evening.
- Maintain a varied timetable of group activities and promote all available opportunities widely updated monthly and sent to all members.
- Expertly support people to maintain recovery by promoting the Five Ways to Wellbeing.
- Keep abreast of activity on the Friends in Need Facebook page and encourage people on the site to meet locally and those meeting locally to join up online.
- Support and encourage people using the service to develop and run social groups in their local community.
- Ensure high levels of meaningful member’s involvement in service provision.
- Ensure the events and groups are run safely and effectively.
- Co-ordinate and lead the continued development and quality of the service by maintaining effective partnerships and relationships with key agencies and stakeholders.
- To work closely with referrers so that there is a good understanding of making appropriate referrals into the services.

**B)** **Volunteer recruitment and support**
- Responsibility for the supervision, training, and ongoing development of Friends in Need volunteers.
- Maintain regular contact with all volunteers and encourage active participation in activities, which includes facilitating and chairing monthly peer volunteer meetings, and collecting data/information which will then need to be transferred to our CRM database.

**C)** **Reporting and promotion**
- Maintain our CRM database and ensure member information is accurately recorded and kept up to date.
- Ensure key KPI data and qualitative information is collected, collated, and communicated to key partners and key stakeholders, as required, and directed by the Team Lead & Operations Manager.
- Provide information to contribute to the production of quarterly progress reports for submission to our commissioners.
- Participate in events to promote Friends in Need and Buckinghamshire Mind generally through the CCGs, Public Health, and Wellbeing team, the IAPT team, other voluntary sectors, and community sources.
- Encourage celebrations of the achievements of the community.

**D) General**
- To work within Buckinghamshire Mind’s policies and procedures including Performance Management, Confidentiality, Safeguarding, Equal Opportunities, Service User Involvement, Health and Safety and the Professional Boundaries policy.
- To attend staff meetings and external meetings as agreed with the Team Lead & Operations Manager.
- To keep the Team Lead & Operations Manager informed of matters relating to Friends in Need activities particularly those which have a bearing in the reputation and development of Buckinghamshire Mind.
- To prepare for supervision and use it effectively.
- To keep Team Lead up to date and informed.
- To work in a flexible way to take on other responsibilities as appropriate.

**Experience, Qualifications, Knowledge and skills**:
**Essential**
- Educated to GCSE level, with 5 passes a