Outreach Recovery Worker - Gillingham in Medway

Are you driven to help people move away from street-based living toward safer, more stable futures? We’re looking for a committed Outreach Recovery Worker in Medway to engage individuals living on the streets and help them move toward safer, more sustainable lifestyles. In this role, you’ll empower service users, increase their involvement in their own recovery, and work collaboratively with partners to coordinate effective support that leads to positive outcomes.

What You’ll Do

You’ll spend much of your time out in the community, reaching out to individuals who are experiencing homelessness or living street-based lifestyles. You’ll build trust, offer support, and help people overcome barriers to engaging with services. This includes offering persistent, compassionate engagement to those who may be reluctant to accept help, guiding people away from street-based living where possible, and supporting smooth transitions from hospital into safe, appropriate accommodation.

Your key responsibilities will include:

• Building strong, trusting relationships with service users and delivering flexible, strengths-based interventions.
• Using approaches such as Motivational Interviewing to advise and support individuals around substance misuse.
• Working closely with drug and alcohol teams, mental health services, healthcare providers, housing partners, and local authorities to ensure coordinated support.
• Contributing to case conferences and representing the team at external forums where required.
• Maintaining accurate, confidential case records and participating in rough sleeping counts and national monitoring programmes.

You’ll play a vital role in helping people access ongoing healthcare, reconnect with their home communities if appropriate, and move towards stable accommodation and improved well-being.

What We’re Looking For

Someone who can:

• Bring compassion, professional resilience, and a proactive, assertive approach to supporting people experiencing rough sleeping, begging and multiple disadvantage to achieve sustainable change.
• Demonstrate a strong understanding of complex needs, including mental health, substance and alcohol misuse, and the impact of trauma and long-term exclusion.
• Work confidently and patiently with people who may be reluctant to engage with services and who may at times present challenging behaviour.
• Uphold anti-discriminatory practice, maintain clear professional boundaries, and contribute to safe working environments for service users and staff.
• Work effectively within a multi-agency, strength-based approach, building positive relationships with statutory and voluntary partners.
• Commit to ongoing learning, training, reflective practice and supervision.
• Thrive in a fast-paced, challenging environment and adapt to changing priorities and client needs.
• Work flexibly across sites and be able to work unsociable hours in line with service delivery requirements.

About Us

We are The Forward Trust, the social enterprise with charitable status that empowers people to break the often interlinked cycles of crime and addiction to move forward with their lives. For more than 25 years we have been working with people to build positive and productive lives, whatever their past. We believe that anyone is capable of lasting change. Our services have supported thousands of people to make positive changes and build productive lives with a job, family, friends and a sense of community. We are committed to our cause and the work we carry out as a charity.

Benefits

• Flexible working
• Training and development opportunities
• Simply Health Cashback Scheme (optional)
• Season Ticket Loan Scheme
• Cycle to work scheme
• Crisis Loan Scheme
• Electric Car Scheme
• 3 x Wellbeing Days (pro rata'd for part time employees)
• Access to Blue Light Card
• 25 days (rising to 30 with length of service) Annual Leave plus Bank Holidays
• Contributory Pension Scheme – Employer matched contributions of up to 6% in the first two years’ service and up to 9% thereafter
• Death in Service Payment (2x annual salary)
• Critical Illness Insurance (subject to qualifying criteria)

Diversity at Forward Trust

The Forward Trust commits to providing opportunities to everyone. We want to ensure we have a diverse team with a range of lived and professional experiences. This includes those with ‘Lived Experience’ of addiction, offending, or homelessness. When we recruit, we welcome applications from everyone. This is inclusive of age, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion and/or belief, marriage and civil partnerships, pregnancy and maternity and socio-economic background. Where operationally possible, we will consider flexible working requests and make reasonable adjustments for all roles.

Employee Screening and Eligibility to Work

We recognise the importance of safeguarding, dependent on role you may be required to undertake a Disclosure and Barring Service Check, details of which will be shared with you at interview. If successful in your application, you will be required to provide eligibility to work evidence in line with the ‘Eligibility to Work in the UK’ requirements.