Community Mentor

Onward Homes is now looking to recruit a Community Mentor to support the new ‘Support To Succeed’ programme which identifies, engages, and supports economically inactive Greater Manchester (GM) residents (aged 19 and over) who are furthest away from the labour market, with complex needs (including those who are not engaged with mainstream provision) to address barriers and achieve positive outcomes.

The programme will also have a dedicated offer for economically inactive residents aged over 50 who experience age-related challenges.

The emphasis of this programme is on engagement, and re-engagement, with mainstream provision and employment for some of the regions most disengaged, economically inactive residents. There are several other UKSPF (UK SHARED PROSPERITY FUND) funded programmes which will work together to ensure a whole system approach to attracting, engaging, retaining, and progressing participants, whilst addressing and removing barriers.

Purpose of role: Providing practical support which enables and empowers local clients to make sustainable changes that improve their lifestyle. This will be via an individual or group setting and by providing a high quality and accessible information resource, training and support service tailored to meet the needs of local families from both the May Logan Centre and on an Outreach basis.

Key Responsibilities

Support

• Provide 1:1 behaviour change support using the universal consultation (UC) to set priorities and provide ongoing support, which enables clients to develop and maintain personal health plans that achieve lifestyle goals relating to their health.
• Delivering targeted NHS Health Checks within our most deprived communities.
• Deliver basic health information, practical support and signpost/refer onto relevant agencies to improve health and wellbeing. Keeping up to date with local information that may be of use to the clients, e.g. Activities, services, initiatives etc.
• Develop and deliver Initiatives and groups that contribute to the LWS themes around Support for Carers, Bereavement support, Mental Wellbeing and Resilience (Think Differently Cope Differently course), Social Isolation, targeted men’s work and Healthy Weight support.

Working

• Actively participate in centre meetings, team meetings and monthly performance conversations in order to maintain high standards and improve services.

Partnership working

• Represent May Logan and Living Well Sefton at health promotion events and also develop information and resources for events.
• Work throughout South Sefton to build and maintain relationships with relevant organisations as a means of making contact with potential clients.

Targets and data

• Achieve client target numbers as defined by Living Well Sefton. Ensuring that client records are inputted and kept up to date on the LWS database in preparation for regular audits and quality checks.
• Manage and prioritise workload according to agreed timescale and plans. Contributing to the delivery of the organisation’s Business Plan, including meeting agreed targets

Essential

Skills and Experience

• Experience of providing ongoing support, motivation and information in a community setting.
• Relevant experience of working in partnership with other organisations.
• Understanding of key health promotional messages around diet, activity, smoking and knowledge of behavioural change methods.
• Excellent communication and organisational skills.
• Ability to demonstrate Onward Values.
• Demonstrate a desire to encourage and support the community to make informed lifestyle choices.
• IT Literate- Microsoft office up to intermediate level.
• Excellent record keeping and the ability to produce information reporting.

Qualifications

• Educated to GCSC level or equivalent

About Onward

Onward Homes is one of the largest registered providers of social housing in the Northwest, with 35,000 properties across the region.

We believe that everyone deserves a place to call their own, which is why we’re committed to building 500 new homes each year. We do more than just provide a roof over our customers’ heads, we’re here to make a real difference.

In addition to creating positive spaces for our customers we continuously strive to create a positive and progressive workspace to enable our colleagues to achieve their full potential.

We embrace diversity and strive for diverse teams to create an inclusive culture which enables Onward to thrive and be representative of the communities that we serve. We want to ensure that everybody has an opportunity to be part of our recruitment processes and will therefore make reasonable adjustments to accommodate our candidates. Please let us know if there is anything we can do to assist you with our recruitment process via the email address below.

If candidates have any concerns / questions in relation to the role at any stage of the recruitment and selection process they can contact the HR team on [email protected] and a member of the HR Team will be in touch.