Families Project Worker

Justlife’s Vision is to make people's experience of temporary accommodation short, safe and healthy.

The role of Families Project Worker involves supporting a caseload of families living in temporary accommodation. The role requires a combination of specialist knowledge and excellent relationship building skills to support residents with varying degrees of mental health, addiction and trauma related issues to engage with appropriate support, improve their experience of temporary accommodation and access suitable housing solutions.

The role is dependent on excellent communication and joint working with colleagues and a variety of partners and professionals, including the NHS, Probation Service, local council services and other third sector organisations. A high degree of motivation is required to support complex and vulnerable people, often in a lone-working situation. A high degree of emotional intelligence is necessary to support service users, many of whom have complex emotional needs, with backgrounds of trauma, neglect, abuse, crime and low self-worth. This role will experience a range of emotions from joy to grief and requires resilience to cope with the emotional demands of the role.

Making decisions “in the moment” to do the right thing to mitigate risk with service users can place high emotional demands on the job holder. The role is highly reactive, unpredictable and at times chaotic, requiring a high degree of self-awareness to one’s own resilience levels and exercising appropriate levels of self-care.

Justlife exists because we know thousands of people struggle to manage in poor and unsuitable temporary accommodation. Their stay isn’t temporary; they are likely to be suffering with deteriorating mental and physical health, becoming victims of crime, losing control of their life and even dying prematurely. We are working towards making their stays as short, safe and healthy as possible.

Our values guide our work and are very important to us:

• Collaboration before competition
• People before programmes
• Innovation before Institutions

Justlife delivers impactful services in Greater Manchester and Brighton & Hove, supporting and empowering people experiencing homelessness in temporary accommodation. We also drive positive system change across the national temporary accommodation sector, convening those with a common interest; people with lived experience, landlords, charities, local and national government, and carrying out research and gathering insights. We aim to grow our impact and reach, supporting more people in temporary accommodation and to build a movement that brings about lasting positive change.

Here at Justlife, we're committed to equality, diversity and inclusion. We want to be an organisation that's representative of the communities we serve, which is why we strive for diversity of age, gender identity, sexual orientation, physical or mental ability, ethnicity and perspective.

Perks of working at Justlife include:

• Great holiday package starting at 27 days annual leave entitlement, plus bank holidays (increasing to 29 days after 5 years’ service and 30 days after 10 years’ service)
• Additional 5 days annual leave purchase scheme through salary sacrifice
• Enhanced pension contribution scheme, 5% Justlife contribution
• Cycle to work scheme
• 2 Volunteering days per year

Key terms and conditions:

• Hours: 18.75 hours per week
• Contract: Fixed Term until 30th June 2027
• Normal hours to be worked: Hours can be spread across Monday – Friday between 9am – 5pm
• Location: Brighton
• Salary: £30,791 per Annum pro rata

Application Process: To apply, please upload a covering letter addressing how you meet the person specification, together with an up-to-date CV. Deadline for applications is 11:30pm 31st May. Provisional interview dates will be the week of 8th June.

Responsible to: Families Project Team Lead

Key responsibilities include:

• Deliver interventions and support for families in a warm, caring and flexible way, including:

• Supporting them to engage with support services to improve and maintain their physical and mental wellbeing.
• Assisting them in addressing housing, financial or wellbeing needs.
• Accompanying them to appointments.
• Connecting them with appropriate support services such as substance misuse services or food banks.
• Collaborating with agencies such as the local authority, housing providers and support services to deliver an effective service.
• Maintaining regular contact and a listening ear for the client.
• Helping increase their self-confidence and self-efficacy to improve their chances of moving on from homelessness.
• Helping clients to engage in meaningful activities based on their strengths, interests and ambitions.
• Contributing to team caseload meetings.
• Using the Inform system to record key work carried out.
• Carrying out the relevant assessment with clients, identifying issues, as well as strengths, and developing a support plan that is reviewed regularly.

Service Development:

• Liaise with local partners to improve collaborative working.
• Promote and advertise the Justlife service locally.
• Provide reports and case studies when requested.

This job description is intended as an outline indicator of general areas of activity and will be amended in light of the changing needs of Justlife. It is expected that the post holder will be as positive and flexible as possible in using this document as a framework, and in performing other duties commensurate with these responsibilities, the band of the post and skills and qualification of the post-holder.

Person Specification:

• Essential Experience: Experience of supporting vulnerable groups (those experiencing homelessness or housing vulnerability, or a comparable client group).
• Desirable Experience: Experience of working with drug and alcohol dependent adults or those experiencing poor mental health; experience of supporting families; experience of working with the welfare system; experience of working with the housing system.
• Skills: Care, empathy and skilled in dealing with emotionally vulnerable service users; excellent ability to engage with service users in an empowering manner; effective communication; written and oral skills; effective administrative and IT skills; excellent organisational skills.
• Knowledge: Demonstrate knowledge of assessment, support planning and interventions that help clients experiencing homelessness or housing vulnerability to become and stay healthy; demonstrate knowledge of the challenges and solutions to working with a client group who may be experiencing one or more of the following: poor health (physical and mental), substance misuse and homelessness; an understanding of health and safety policies and procedures that aim to keep staff and clients safe.
• Personal Attributes: Commitment to equal opportunities in our service delivery; high self-awareness and the ability to maintain personal well-being through periods of pressure and stress; ability to be self-motivated and work well in a team or as a lone worker.