Youth Campaign Coach

Over the past 8 years, Friends of the Earth has run a successful campaign leadership building programme with diverse young people in Further Education colleges and youth work settings across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The programme, My World My Home, recruits and supports teams of young people to take their first steps in building power in their community 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 campaigns, and they have become involved with national youth movements for environmental justice.

Key Skills and Attributes:

As a Youth Campaign Coach you will be responsible for delivering our programme in two locations in south Wales, leading face-to-face training and workshops with young people and supporting them as a group and 1-2-1 to build their skills and deliver their campaign actions. It is an exciting time to start this role as we are looking for new partnerships with youth organisations and are exploring embedding My World My Home into Friends of the Earth Cymru community campaigns. We especially welcome candidates who are well networked within south Wales communities to support these new groups.

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 youth) will be essential for this role. Knowledge of community organising approaches would also be helpful.

This role is based in Cardiff to allow for travel via public transport to the My World My Home groups two days a week. However, applications from those living outside the Cardiff area will be considered for the right candidate. We welcome hybrid working and you are able to work both from the Cardiff Friends of the Earth office and from home. Travel expenses will be reimbursed.

The team:

This role sits in the Youth and Families team, whose vision is a thriving, powerful and leaderful network of young campaigners with marginalised identities, strongly connected with likeminded partner organisations and other young people, who campaign together for environmental justice, bringing joy, leadership, resilience and impact to the wider movement.

This role will also work closely with the Friends of the Earth Cymru team, who support a unique network of local groups who campaign in communities across Wales.

For more information, please read the attached job description.

Closing Date: Sunday 1st June 2025 (23:59)

Contract Type: Fixed term contract covering a secondment until March 2026.

Hours: Full time (30 hours over 4 days)

Please note we only accept applications via the Friends of the Earth Application System.

We offer a competitive range of benefits, good work/life balance including a 4-day working week with no loss of pay, excellent learning and development opportunities and a vibrant organisational culture. 

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 who publicly represent Friends of the Earth (including all campaigners) are not allowed to also represent a political party. This is to ensure that there can be no confusion in the minds of the public about Friends of the Earth's party-political independence. Affected 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.