Volunteer Trustee

What will you be doing?

The Drop In on the Isle of Portland is a charitable youth service, not a youth club.  We are recognised across the region as highly effective and the one to learn from.  Porland is a fascinating place: we have two prisons, it is scarred by quarrying of Portland stone for use in building important buildings worldwide, it has been an important naval defence location, it is impressive for migratory bird species, we have a hidden beach and over 50% of the butterflies found in the UK.  Some of our neighbourhoods are also within the 5% most deprived places for children and many of our young people can’t afford the bus fare off the island. We are looking for 3-4 Trustees to join our small, high impact Trustee team. We are already professionals in youth mental health, day to day finance and trust/foundation fundraising.  We are also recognised regionally for our robust safeguarding.  Thanks to review and advice from University of Sussex and our involvement in shaping the new Dorset Youth CRM and evaluation tool we are becoming robust in this area too.  Overall, we need additional new energy in managing the charity as set out by the Charity Commission.  The most important attributes we are recruiting for are diligence, prudence, loyalty and availability.  It is important to us that you have lived experience of the issues we support our young people with - perhaps currently as a young person, a family member or friend.  This is crucial because our young people, their families and wider stakeholders trust that we genuinely understand the need and the impact we must create together.  Our young people drive our business planning, hold the Trustee Board to account and nominate a spokesperson to attend board meetings to feedback and challenge us.  We would love to receive applications from some young adults, people of all backgrounds and identities and candidates interesting in the role of Chair. It is not vital that to be a local as board meetings are held mostly online, but it would be highly beneficial if you live or work in Dorset, and are able to visit in person every few months. 

What are we looking for?

You will need to demonstrate strong experience at managing organisations or projects, strategic planning for change, collaborating as a team, listening and trouble shooting. Specifically, we are about to develop our next 3 year strategic plan - outlining what our young people need and how we as a service will respond to that need and provide them opportunities to help them thrive.  We expect applicants to explain relevant experience that could help us achieve this. We would also value experience in monitoring and evaluation - this could be in terms of data analysis, data systems or using data to instruct change.  We are bringing in a new tool to deliver this functionality and need to ensure we as a board understand it well enough to bring about operational change if the evaluation indicates it is needed.

What difference will you make?

Leadership by our current board is passionate and dedicated to our cause.  Leadership by our young people is both by two young alumni participating as volunteer youth workers, and all 275 of our young people are invited to shape our work and strategic direction. Trustee in our charity is an active role, helping ensure we can continue our drive for excellence and success as recently recognised by the award of a large Lottery grant to span over 5 years.  As a trustee, you will have a real opportunity to be part of the strategic progression of our charity, measuring impact, keeing the charity running smoothly. Not only do we need committed people to keep us on track financially, keep us visible, well-resourced and connected but even more significantly, we are looking for people who are in touch with youth issues and able to help us formulate our vision for the future.