Volunteer Community mediation service seeks trustees with experience in Marketing / EDI / Housing

What will you be doing?

Mediation Plus (1202295) is a small Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) that offers conflict resolution support to people living and working in East and West Sussex and the surrounding areas. We provide high-quality, impartial, and confidential mediation services to empower individuals, groups, families and communities to resolve and manage conflicts themselves. We are looking for new trustees to join our Board of Trustees in 2025 and are particularly interested to hear from people who can bring knowledge and experience of the following. 1.     Equality, diversity and inclusion 2.     Housing 3.     Marketing We are keen to recruit trustees who are representative of the diverse community our charity serves in Sussex. We particularly encourage applicants from underrepresented communities, including gender, ethnicity, age, disability, sexual orientation and socio-economic background, lived experience of conflict and mediation, and those with a desire to help create an inclusive and impactful charity. Trustee experience is not essential, and support and guidance will be provided but you must have good communication skills, be passionate about the vision and mission of our charity (available on our website) and be willing to fulfil the duties of a trustee. You will be required to attend in person board meetings that take place 4-6 times per year on a Wednesday evening. These meetings currently alternate between our offices in Hailsham and St Leonards on Sea. You will also be required to attend a small number of additional meetings when needed. This is a voluntary, unpaid role. Reasonable travel expenses will be reimbursed.

What are we looking for?

Each trustee must have: ·       A commitment to the mission and values of Mediation Plus as stated in the Strategic Plan. ·       A willingness to meet the minimum time requirement. ·       A commitment to complete safeguarding training annually. ·       Integrity and high ethical standards. ·       Strategic vision and the ability to engage in discussions around long term planning. ·       Good, independent judgement. ·       An ability to think creatively. ·       A willingness to speak their mind while maintaining strong communication skills. ·       An understanding and acceptance of the legal duties, responsibilities and liabilities of being a trustee ·       An ability to work effectively as a member of a team of trustees and senior management to take decisions in the best interests of Mediation Plus. ·       Literacy and IT skills, to read board papers and reports sent electronically. ·       Basic numeracy skills, in order to understand the financial reports presented by the treasurer. ·       Clarity on their role and how it differs from their role as a volunteer, service user or in their employment elsewhere.   Please see attached document for full role description and person spec.

What difference will you make?

Currently our main projects offer funded mediation for neighbourhood issues and communication / relationship breakdown between young people and their carers.  Alongside this we provide family mediation (for divorce / separation), workplace and bespoke mediation.  Funding income has been decreasing so we seek to market and develop our paid-for services to ensure that we can continue to provide our funded service within the community.   We work with many housing associations and a trustee with experience in this area would be invaluable to help us navigate the changing landscape of housing provision. Sussex has a diverse community and accessibility and inclusivity are fundamental to our ethos so we actively work to engage with harder to reach communities and a trustee with experience of EDI could help us ensure our service is known about and accessible to all.  We also feel it is important to reflect that diversity on our Board and in our staff.