Community Engagement Officer

What's involved with this role: Interim Community Engagement Officer Reference no: Greenwich RQ1281878 Pay Rate: £20.67 per hour PAYE Hours per week: 37 Monday – Friday, normal working hours Role Length: This opening assignment is for 5-6 months City: WOOLWICH, LONDON Using engagement expertise, this post’s objective is to empower residents and strengthen their voice by ensuring that great engagement and involvement opportunities are delivered and are accessed by the community all whilst breaking down barriers to participation and inspiring those who may not have participated before, to engage. This post will work with council colleagues, the community, elected members and with partners to co-ordinate and deliver engagement activities leading to residents’ participation in service developments and decision making. Working with an awareness of the organisation and political contexts, this role supports the Council’s directorate level engagement activities plus co-ordinates centrally designed corporate engagement delivery. Key Responsibilities: Play a supportive and proactive part in the organisation of resident engagement events, ensuring they are well managed and attended, delivered on time and within budget constraints
When necessary, support and provide advice to colleagues within the council for their engagement activity and be available to collaborate with them on the delivery of their own engagement plans and projects
Research and establish if required and facilitate when appropriate the development and delivery of community and public meetings, new engagement groups, forums and focus groups independently and alongside potential third sector organisations (face-to-face and online)
Support the community in being involved in engagement activity and Royal Greenwich colleagues by sharing the tools necessary to effectively contribute to engagement activities and consultations
Support, develop and implement a range of involvement initiatives both based on a menu of different engagement options that seek to engage residents and communities on their terms and in ways that they feel comfortable to express their views
In a personalised and resident centred approach, continually review the ways that we involve hard-to-reach groups and provide suggestions for improvements utilising non-traditional forms of engagement
Foster great community relationships with Greenwich organisations, the third sector, charities and internally across directorates and build a community register of engaged stakeholders
Facilitate and coordinate any corporate and borough wide surveying and benchmarking activity
Ensure community organisations, partners and the third sector are all able to participate in engagement activity, and be involved in the co-designing of activities when appropriate
Build and maintain effective community relationships with individuals, colleagues and bodies (internal and external). NB: Please feel free to apply to us direct via by quoting the job reference and job title exactly. To help speed up the process of uploading your CV to the client we would suggest that you send us your CV in Word format (or equivalent) if possible, rather than as a PDF If you are successful in securing this role, please note that for the entire duration of this contract, regardless of extension you will be working this role at the PAYE rate that has been advertised. For absolute clarity, we only work on a PAYE basis, rather than entertaining umbrella pay terms, we do not offer Ltd/umbrella or outside IR35 rates. If you wish to understand PAYE vs Umbrella more, please let us know and we can send you some additional information for clarity. Due to the number of CVs being sent to us under current market conditions, we cannot, unfortunately, respond to all applications. If, therefore, you have not heard from us within 3 days please make a working assumption that you have not been shortlisted on this occasion. We will, however, be very happy to receive future applications from you for other roles Please quote the Job Title & Vacancy Reference No. in your application, or we will be unable to match your CV to the role being applied for. Other “Essential Requirements” – Please check to ensure that your CV addresses the following items: Qualifications: Degree or equivalent level of experience Knowledge: Must have key sector knowledge and current good practices in community engagement Experience: Experience of successful project management
Experience of partnership working with public, private and voluntary sectors
Experience of engagement event coordination and management
Experience of liaising and working with community groups and partners
Experience of working on participation programmes brought residents closer to decision making Skills & Abilities: Strong team skills and a proactive, supportive way of closely working with colleagues
Excellent communication, presentation and negotiating skills, both written and verbal the ability to communicate with a wide variety of groups both internally and externally
Excellent IT skills using the Microsoft Office Suite and use of the internet
Ability to work outside normal working hours (e.g. occasional evening and week-end events)
Ability to work well with different types of people (from diverse communities, politicians to partners and colleagues) ALD
1 Job Ref: Greenwich RQ1281878 Anticipated Length of Assignment: Unless otherwise stated (we do carry the occasional permanent vacancy) all of our roles are technically temporary, though opening assignments can be and often are, extended by clients on a longer term basis and can sometimes become permanent. Please do try to resist contacting us with requests for progress updates. We really do read every CV sent to us. All applications will be acknowledged by a human, not a robot, provided the job remains live and provided your CV meets the “Essential Requirements” listed. Please note that we do our level best to take down ads as soon as roles have been filled. We are not in the business of harvesting CVs. Important: We will interpret your application as being permission to submit your CV to this role (with the right to represent you) unless you advise us to the contrary.