Youth Campaign Coach - East Midlands

Are you passionate about the power of young people and skilled in supporting them to effect change? Are you committed to breaking down barriers to participation? We’re looking for an engaged, committed person to become our new Youth Campaign Coach, supporting and training historically marginalised young people in the East Midlands (particularly racialised, disabled and working class young people) to lead their own intersectional environmental justice campaigns. This will be part of our My World My Home programme (see more details below). 

Having experience of environmental campaigning is helpful, but not essential to this role. Experience of working with young people and enabling them to discover and follow their passion to make change is more important. If you have campaigned on housing, migrant rights or another social justice issue that relates to the environment then we’d like to hear from you. Combining social injustice with environmental problems, and how these relate to young people’s everyday lives is a core part of this job. 

Over the past 6 years, Friends of the Earth has run a successful campaign leadership building programme with diverse young people in Further Education colleges across England and Wales. The programme, My World My Home, recruits and supports teams ofyoung people to take their first steps in building community-based power and leading their own environmental-justice campaigns.

The young people we work with often face marginalisation and they are all new to campaigning and learning about environmental justice. Following our one-year programme our alumni have gone on to become spokespeople in national media, the Welsh Government and the UK Parliament, they have led their own further campaigns and they have become involved with national youth movements for environmental justice.

As a Campaign Coach you will be responsible for delivering our programme in 2-3 colleges in the East Midlands (currently Nottingham College and West Nottinghamshire College in Mansfield), leading face to face training and workshops with young people and supporting them as a group and 121 to build their skills and confidence while delivering their campaign. You will have the opportunity to make the programme your own, bringing creativity and your own experience to college sessions. 

A background in youth work or youth campaigning and a working understanding of the causes and impact of marginalisation (particularly that experienced by racialised, working class and disabled young people) will be essential for this role. Knowledge of community organising approaches would also be helpful.

This is a homeworking role and there will be frequent travel to colleges during term-time. 

Key Skills and Attributes: 

This role is for you if you have the experience and passion needed to inspire and motivate young people to run their first campaign. We would love to find someone who understands the diverse communities in the East Midlands where our college groups are located, and the challenges marginalised young people face when starting to take action on an issue they care about. We often have high numbers of young people with learning difficulties and/or disabilities in our East Midlands colleges, so a particular interest in supporting these groups of young people would be especially welcome.  

The following experience and skills are most important for this role:

1. 
   
2. Experience of community campaigning, especially campaigning that also develops other people’s skills and confidence.
   
3. Experience of developing and delivering training, workshops and coaching, preferably with young people.
   
4. Understanding and experience of working with groups of young people aged 16-24.
   
5. Understanding and analysis of structural barriers to participating in environmental and social justice campaigning for marginalised groups.
   

Please see the Job Description for the full list of essential and desirable experience and skills.

The team: 

This role is within the Youth and Families team at Friends of the Earth. Our aim is to establish pathways into environmental justice campaigning for young people who face barriers to participation in campaigning. The My World My Home programme is a core part of our work, and is the way that most young people first encounter Friends of the Earth’s youth programmes.

We are committed to youth leadership and anti-oppressive practice in all that we do and are responsive to the changing needs of the youth climate movement in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. We are currently in a phase of expansion and development of My World My Home and our programme in general. As part of the team, you would play a role in shaping this exciting and growing part of Friends of the Earth’s work.

Please note that the Youth and Families team subscribes to the social model of disability in all of our work, and we aim to operate inclusive youth programmes where disabled young people are able to work together with, not segregated from their non-disabled peers.  You can find an introduction to the social model here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9s3NZaLhcc4 

Closing date:  23:59 on Tuesday 8th November 2022

Starting Salary: £37,370 - £39,370 pro rata, per annum. (£33,633 – £35,433)

Contract: Permanent

Location: Home based in the East Midlands

Hours/Day per week: 31.5 hours or 4.5 days per week (0.9 Full Time Equivalent)

What we offer: 

We offer a competitive range of benefits, good work/life balance, excellent learning and development opportunities and a vibrant organisational culture.

We are currently undergoing a consultation on the proposal of introducing a 4-day working week, which is likely to be implemented within the next few months.

Our staff body is currently under-representative of People of Colour, LGBTQIA+ people and people with long term conditions or impairments: We are committed to eroding these historic barriers, so as to create a movement in which people from all walks of life see themselves in, and so we particularly encourage you to apply if you belong to one of these groups or sit at multiple intersections of disadvantage. We are committed to the Disability Confident standard and will guarantee an interview to any candidates who declare a disability and who meet the essential criteria for the role.

Friends of the Earth staff are not permitted to hold office for political parties or stand as candidates for political parties. Staff should also seek permission from the Senior Management Team if they wish to hold a non-public facing official role in a political party. If this is an issue, please do raise this with us as soon as possible.

Friends of the Earth is an international community dedicated to protecting the natural world and the wellbeing of everyone in it. We lead campaigns, provide resources and information, and drive real solutions to the environmental problems facing us all.