Project Leader Somerset Time to Change Project

Somerset Time to Change Project Project Leader   Mind in Taunton & West Somerset (MindTWS)   Job Description and Person Specification

Context of role: Reporting to the Director of Mind TWS and Board & Health Promotion Manager – Mental Health Public Health, Somerset County Council (Commissioner)

Role purpose: to implement the delivery of the Somerset Time to Change Project. Working in Somerset with individuals, groups, organisations and businesses, bringing them together  with people with experience of mental distress, and enabling those who have endured stigmatisation and discrimination to attend public events, tell their stories and invite others into their world, to promote social contact.  

Key work areas and tasks: ·To support people with personal experience of mental distress to talk about stigma and discrimination, by coordinating action groups across Somerset to engage with the public and talk about stigma and discrimination in mental health ·Develop tools to enable one to one conversations ·Use social media to highlight and talk about mental health issues in the community ·Develop an online presence and project identity ·Manage the Volunteer Coordinator post ·To ensure the personal and emotional safety of volunteers ·Develop and deliver training to enable volunteers to lead social contact conversations with members of the public.       Project co-ordination Co-ordinate the Somerset Time to Change Project including:

• Co-ordination and administration of the local Time to Change Group ( known as the 1 in 4 group)
• Manage the administrative process underpinning the project, volunteer expenses and database, DBS checks and safeguarding training by giving volunteers consistent support and management.
• Recruit and support volunteers on a regular basis by telephone and email, acting as the main point of contact for the project and offering advice and support as required.
• Running regular training and support meetings to help empower volunteers to promote confidence and communication skills.
• Carrying out regular monitoring and evaluation processes set up by the Somerset Time to Change Project

Marketing and relationship building

• Organise a series of activities across the county including events that coincide with national days such as World Mental Health Day and time to change national events e.g. Feb 5^th Time to Talk. These events will engage public or local communities in meaningful conversations about mental health. This could be through events, training, arts, sports etc. These events need to be led throughout by people with lived experience of mental health problems.
• Engage with employers to raise awareness of the Time to Change pledge.
• To develop a ‘legacy’ project that can be repeated and used after this project comes to an end e.g. exhibition, bespoke campaign approach and materials etc.
• Develop and deliver a communication plan to include using marketing, advertising, PR and digital communications to reach as many people as possible in order to change attitudes and behaviours around mental health.
• Attend meetings with project partners and promote awareness of Time to Change work in the county.
• Set up a new team of adolescence Time to Change volunteers and organise at least two new events aimed at this target group.

  Professional development

• Identify and implement plans for own training and development needs.
• Keep up to date with current mental health thinking, social media and community development work.
• Reflect on effectiveness of project delivery and review.
• Prepare for and attend supervision sessions / team meetings / staff meetings as appropriate.

  Other duties and responsibilities

• Uphold the aims and principles of Mind TWS and its equal opportunities policies.
• Establish and maintain effective and efficient administration systems for the delivery of the project.
• Use IT for statistical recording, record keeping and document production.
• Carry out administrative tasks related to the job.
• Participate fully in the life of Mind TWS, attending workers meetings, internal planning events etc. as agreed with the director.
• Support other work as required (e.g. providing referrals for other projects where appropriate).
• Abide by health and safety guidelines and share responsibility for own safety and that of colleagues.
• Carry out any other appropriate tasks requested by the manager, to ensure the effective delivery and development of the service.

  Person specification

Education/Training

• Degree or equivalent, but work place experience will be considered too.

Experience

• Recent substantial experience of mental health and wellbeing related work
• Knowledge & experience of mental health support in the community
• Social media campaigning experience
• Experience of maintaining project budgets
• Experience of establishing and developing partnerships with other agencies and joint working.

Abilities

• Project co-ordination experience
• Excellent interpersonal, communication and presentation skills
• Ability to sensitively empower and engage with adults who have had experience of mental distress
• Ability to collect, analyse and present project data and monitor progress against objectives.
• An ability and willingness to work both on own initiative and as part of a team.
• Ability to use IT applications to record statistics, produce documents and training materials and keep accurate project records.
• Understanding of and commitment to the aims and principles of Mind TWS and its equal opportunities policies.

Mind TWS is striving to be an equal opportunity employer and welcomes applications from all sections of the community.

All disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria will be offered a guaranteed interview.

Salary and hours:

18.5 hours per week including some weekends and evenings: £19,240 pro rata per annum (based on a 37 hour week) gross salary of £9,620.00

plus pension with employer contribution of 3.5%

We are prepared to consider a job share for this project.

This project has been inspired by http://www.time-to-change.org.uk/ and the work of a previous project of Mind TWS https://twitter.com/BrollyTalk