Community Engagement Officer

ABOUT UBELE

The Ubele Initiative was established in 2014 as an African Diaspora led intergenerational social enterprise. Our mission is helping to build more sustainable black and minoritized communities across the UK. Ubele is unique in that it was built from bottom-up and is intentionally an intergenerational organisation.
Over the past few years, we have designed and delivered a wide range of local, regional, national, and international initiatives which seek to create and build community wealth. We support black and racially minoritised community led organisations and groups with
their community assets (people, organisations, and physical space). We use social action, community enterprise development, participatory learning & skills development, and next generation leadership initiatives.
As a result of our appointment as the black and minoritized community catalyst organisation for Greater London in February 2020 we now provide more strategic regional and national responses to help minimise the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. We have gone through a period of rapid growth and change and as result our sphere of influence has also grown considerably.

ABOUT THE ROLE

The Community Engagement Manager is a new role that will sit within and work across the Community Wealth Building hub. Community Wealth Building is one of Ubele’s four strategic hubs, with the aim of strengthening our communities through the development of assets and enterprise.
The Community Engagement Manager has been created to support our growing need for community engagement activities across Community Wealth Building. The role will work across some of the most exciting and innovative projects being delivered within the hub, including:

• GIDA Housing Cooperative – GIDA Housing Cooperative is working towards establishing the UK’s first community led housing scheme led by, and creating housing for, people from Black and Racially Minoritised communities. GIDA is currently working towards developing a site near St Ann’s hospital in Haringey as its first scheme. The success of GIDA Housing Cooperative depends on effective engagement with both the members of the cooperative, and the wider community in Haringey.
• Wolves Lane Centre redevelopment – the Wolves Lane Centre is both Ubele’s home and a vital community resource for urban food growing and agricultural education in Haringey. Ubele has recently secured a 25-year lease at the Wolves Lane Centre and is in the initial phases of redeveloping the site to grow its value as an asset to the community. A range of engagement activities are planned to involve harder to reach groups and young people in the design of the site and the activities at the centre.
• Eat Wood Green – Eat Wood Green is a new community, food growing and education space for Wood Green town centre that will be located on the top floor of the Bury Road car park. Development of the site will involve both engagement with the local community around the design of the space, as well as ongoing business development and outreach support for the community activities that will run from Eat Wood Green when it opens.
• Black Rootz – Black Rootz is a multigenerational Black and Racially Minoritised led growing enterprise. Having run successfully since it was established in Spring 2019, the organisation is now growing its community engagement and participation activities in Haringey and beyond.

The successful applicant will work directly with individual Project Managers to plan and deliver outreach, engagement and participation activities for each project. With the projects predominantly based in Haringey, the Community Engagement Manager will also play a leading role in building and maintaining Ubele’s networks across the borough, as well as spotting opportunities and coordinating engagement activities across the projects to ensure we’re working effectively and efficiently.
The ideal candidate will be a well organised project manager with the ability to deliver successful outcomes across multiple projects. They will be confident networker and relationship builder with excellent interpersonal and communication skills.

MAIN DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Plan and deliver outreach, engagement and participation activities
Guided by the aims and plans of each project, you will deliver surveys, consultations and events to connect projects with their communities of interest. You will work with the Project Managers of each project to define the scope, budget and desired outcomes of engagement activities, you will work with our Comms team to create marketing materials and promote engagements, and you will work with other staff, volunteers and wider partners to successfully deliver activities. You will also play a role in leading, facilitating and speaking at engagement events and workshops.

Build Ubele’s network across Haringey and London
You will engage communities, groups, organisations and businesses to build Ubele’s network across Haringey, and more widely in London, finding relevant leads through online searches, tapping into existing networks and attending events. Once leads are identified,
you will be proactive about making and maintaining relationships, as well as building a directory of contacts on our CRM system (Salesforce) to ensure our network is available to the whole organisation.

Work alongside Project Managers to develop project specific community engagement plans
The success of each project you will support depends on the successful engagement of their communities of interest. You will help to keep engagement work on track by working with Project Managers to clarify their needs around community outreach, engagement and participation, define intended outcomes and deliverables, and put together clear plans for community engagement activities.

Produce reports and data to support decision making
The primary purpose of much of the community engagement work conducted across the Community Wealth Building hub will be to support the involvement of the community in decisions made about the projects being developed. You will support this aspect of community engagement by providing any necessary reports and data to Project Managers. You will also contribute to meetings and presentations with internal and external project stakeholders.

PERSON SPECIFICATION

Skills

Essential

• Demonstrable project management skills, able to plan and successfully deliver multiple competing projects.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, a strong networker and relationship builder.
• Excellent written, verbal and visual communication skills with the ability to engage a range of audience across multiple formats.
• Confident public speaker and/or facilitator.
• Confident generating insights from qualitative and quantitative data.

Experience

Essential

• Have worked with Black, Racially Minoritised or other marginalised communities.
• Have worked with communities and/or VCSE organisations.

Desirable

• Experience engaging with people with additional needs.
• Community engagement around the built environment planning and development process (with particular focus on housing, community assets and/or green and growing projects).
• Outreach, comms and/or marketing experience.

Attributes

Essential

• Collaborative
• Takes initiative
• Organised

APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS
Applicants are asked to submit a CV and a one page supporting statement covering the below points. Applications should be submitted to Olayinka.Aremu@hackney.gov.uk:
− Why you are interested in the role.
− How you meet the requirements set out in the (above) person specification.

Please also complete the diversity monitoring form via this link