Support Worker

The Growth Company’s (GC) Justice Services are looking for Support Workers to deliver rehabilitation and Employment Training and Education support for individuals and groups within our Creating Future Opportunities (CFO) Evolution Programme.

You will be dual trained as a Support Worker and Activity Facilitator, providing advice, guidance, coaching, mentoring and support to a caseload of participants via regular 1:1 meetings and group interventions as appropriate.

We help to make a lasting difference to the lives of people throughout the North of England and beyond, by supporting individuals to gain meaningful employment.

Our highly skilled advisers and keyworkers work with a range of individuals; from people who have found themselves recently out of work, to those with complex barriers such as physical disabilities, mental ill-health and debt.

Key Responsibilities:

• Identify individual learning needs and create action plans.
• Plan training and other interventions for each participant.
• Develop interaction with participants and establish a rapport and supportive relationship.
• Enable participants to access and use information.
• Record interventions and activities and progression on the CRM system and coordinate further activity with customers.
• Provide support for the participant to implement future courses of action.
• Deliver further interventions with participants as required, assisting them to decide on options for meeting their needs and provide support for participants in planning a course of action.
• Prepare and develop resources to support learning.
• Facilitate learning in groups to improve communication and social interaction and to improve employability and progression through presentations and activities.
• Job-match and job-broker into employment opportunities.

About You:

• Working with offenders, or those disaffected and marginalised from mainstream services, in training, guidance, advice and counselling environments.
• Have strong interpersonal, communication and negotiation skills.
• Ability to work in a target-driven environment, with a focus on the successful achievement of outcomes for participants.
• High level guidance skills, with the ability to deliver one-to-one and group sessions to at least Grade 2 standard.
• A warm, approachable empathetic style and the ability to establish a rapport and build relationships with participants that supports their progression to education, training and employment and facilitates desistance from crime.

Skills Required:

• Information Advice and Guidance and / or teaching qualifications, (or equivalent), desired, but experience working intensively with individuals and supporting their progression is most important.
• Knowledge regarding the issues affecting the rehabilitation of offenders, and desistance theory.
• Knowledge of National Probation Services or HM Prison environments and/or training, education, and employment opportunities locally and nationally, and of training and guidance.
• Strong interpersonal, communication and negotiation skills.