Engagement & Support Worker

As Engagement & Support Worker, you will work under the guidance of the Team Leader to contribute to successful delivery of service operations for the Bedford Borough/Central Bedfordshire SAMAS contract, criminal justice pathway, rough sleepers’ initiative contracts.

You will provide practical one-to-one weekly support and constructive activities to help those we support.

You will act as an ambassador for CLI locally and will work in partnership with staff, volunteers, and the people we support to guarantee that we maintain a high-quality service which meets the needs of those engaged.

The role will involve working with a maximum caseload of 15 mentees at any one time and your aim within the role will be to support mentees with building positive changes in their lives and achieving their goals.

Alongside the practical support, other typical duties will include completing assessments and care plans/action plans, monitoring journeys, quality assurance and reporting progress.

You will be required to follow instructions from the Team Leader and Service Manager to ensure your performance is in line with KPI’s and contract requirements whilst ensuring you operate in line with CLI’s strategic plan, mission and values.

It is essential that you have excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to organise your workload whilst working as part of a team.

Contract Type: Permanent
Working Hours: 37.5 hrs per week
Reporting to: Team Leader

What are we looking for

• Experience of working (or significant voluntary experience) within criminal justice services, drug & alcohol recovery or treatment services, homelessness/housing services or mental health services is highly desirable.
• Experience of promoting the rights, responsibilities and informed choice of the individuals, acting as an advocate to promote independence.
• Proven experience in dealing with a wide variety of individuals in a positive and confidential manner, both face to face and on the telephone.
• Experience of data collection, administration and recording procedures.
• Experience of building and maintaining strong relationships with partner organisations and developing contacts and networks across a wide range of local services.
• Good standard of general education.
• An understanding of the complex interdependencies of mental health, homelessness, substance abuse and offending behaviour.
• Professional curiosity with the ability and willingness to learn and apply learning to support delivery.
• Current driving license, use of car and appropriate business use insurance is essential.

About Us

Community Led initiatives are a lived experience organisation that believes in the capacity for human change. We support those who have been through the criminal justice system, have been affected by drug and alcohol addiction, homelessness or mental health issues. We help them to overcome the barriers preventing them from achieving their goals.

We inspire people to believe that change is possible. We seek, recruit and develop employees who personify change as they will have encountered and overcome many of the barriers which the people we support will face.

We provide one-to-one peer support and group work activities to help the people we work with to achieve their personal goals. In addition to addressing their practical and emotional needs we help them to develop a new positive sense of self. By the end of our mentoring relationship, the people we work with feel empowered to move their lives forward independently and build upon the successes achieved with us.

Many of the people we work with go on to volunteer here at CLI to help build their CV, develop skills, gain meaningful work and bring utility to their past. And we are proud to say that a significant number of CLI mentoring programme graduates go on to become long term ambassadors for change.

We work in partnership with other organisations that are striving to deliver positive impacts, support change, and share our commitment and values.

And we actively welcome those with lived experience of offending, addiction, homelessness, or mental health issues as part of our team. Where others see risk, we see opportunity.

We believe everyone deserves to feel valued, to be happy, to belong.

Community Led Initiatives is an Equal Opportunity Employer and welcomes applications regardless of race, nationality, ethnic origin, sex, marital status, disability, or age. All applicants are considered based on their merits and abilities for the job. All posts are subject to enhanced DBS checks however it will not be used to discriminate unfairly against any individual. We actively promote equality of opportunity for all with the right mix of talent, skills, and potential and welcome applications from a wide range of candidates, including those with criminal records.