Overview

We’re looking for a creative and well-organised programme coordinator to work on the next phase of our London-based MAUREEN programme. MAUREEN is a lived-experience programme that works in collaboration and in solidarity with queer migrant men and queer men of colour to live and thrive in London. The coordinator will build on the first pilot phase of MAUREEN, with a focus on enrolling and supporting MAUREEN mobilisers. They will lead on organising community knowledge generation activities, that will inform other areas of the MAUREEN programme, including co-production activity and community events. The post holder will work alongside, and be managed by The Love Tank’s Head of Community Mobilisation.

The successful candidate will have experience of community organising and supporting community volunteers. They will need to understand principles of community knowledge generation (community-based research) and will have experience of working alongside peers to translate community knowledge into tangible activity and action. They will need to be able to keep multiple tasks on-track, whilst liaising with colleagues, partner organisations and stakeholders.

As a lived experience organisation, we urge and encourage applications from those who have experience of, and are from, the communities that this programme seeks to serve.

Some background

Phase I of MAUREEN – funded through the London Vision Community – undertook community knowledge generation events with five different (and sometimes overlapping) groups of queer migrant men and queer men of colour in London. Those events asked men to identify what helped them to live and thrive in London, and then provided them with the opportunity to co-produce interventions that contribute to meeting their needs. This has resulted in development of a web information portal for queer migrants arriving in London (Queers Beyond Borders); a multi-lingual guide to safer drug use; blogs about being a South Asian queer man; a booklet on STIs; a focused series of events and workshops (the Queers and Not From Heres Social Club); and a podcast series (Queer Roots and Routes) developed, edited and produced by MAUREEN mobilisers.

Phase II of MAUREEN – funded through The National Lottery Community Fund - builds on this first phase, undertaking further knowledge generation and co-production activity. Based on the expressed needs of mobilisers in Phase I, an ambitious programme of social events and activities has been added into this new phase, providing MAUREEN mobilisers with the opportunity to come together, to meet, to share, to plan, to support, and to thrive.

The MAUREEN programme builds on the assets that queer people have, and that we share with each other, to offer information, support, and solidarity to one another.

What the Programme Coordinator will do 

• The MAUREEN Programme Coordinator will lead on mobiliser involvement, ensuring that mobilisers are recruited, enrolled and supported, and are facilitated in their engagement in all aspects of the MAUREEN programme’s activities  

• The coordinator will ensure that MAUREEN mobilisers are appropriately inducted and trained, and that they engage with all necessary organisational and statutory regulations and policies 

• The coordinator will work with colleagues to ensure that MAUREEN mobilisers are engaging with the most appropriate elements of the MAUREEN programme, or other work of The Love Tank, based on mobiliser skills, interests, and commitments 

• They will lead on the MAUREEN programme’s knowledge generation activity, ensuring that activity is undertaken in accessible and culturally-relevant settings, using appropriate and acceptable knowledge generation methods

• They will establish systematic methods to collect evidence from the knowledge generation activity, and ensure the evidence is disseminated to inform activity of the MAUREEN programme

• They will work with colleagues, partners, and other external stakeholders (including researchers and policy makers) to ensure that evidence and learning collected from the programme is appropriately disseminated, and informs future work with the target groups more widely

• The coordinator will work with The Love Tank’s creative director to ensure that promotion, co-production content, and other activity is briefed and delivered to key milestones and deadlines

• The coordinator will programme-manage key elements of the programme, ensuring that they are delivered to time, on budget, and to brief

• The coordinator will attend multi-agency meetings, and report on progress and learning of the programme to key stakeholders, including funders and partner organisations

• They will keep records of programme activity, and collate and distribute reports as required

• The post holder will attend weekly staff meetings of The Love Tank, regular meetings with funders and partners, and other necessary meetings and events

• They will be familiar with and adhere to all necessary organisation and statutory procedures and policies, including safe-guarding polices, and confidentiality and professional boundary policies

What the Programme Coordinator will be able to do (knowledge, skills, experience, ability)

• Experience of recruiting, supporting and engaging with volunteers and community mobilisers, and working with them to reach their fullest potential

• Experience of developing and implementing volunteer or mobiliser induction and on-going training

• Experience of developing and implementing real-world policies that enable and facilitate activity of mobilisers whilst adhering to relevant organisation and statutory procedures and policies

• Knowledge of key principles of community knowledge generation (community-based research) and the capacity to translate those principles into practice 

• Experience of working alongside peers to facilitate community knowledge generation activity and collating the evidence from that activity

• Experience of translating community knowledge generation evidence into tangible activity, action or policy that informs future practice

• Ability to keep multiple tasks on-track, whilst liaising with colleagues, partner organisations and stakeholders

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English

• Good programme planning skills, including meeting milestones and deadlines, and the ability to be focused, and solution orientated

• Ability to take initiative and self-manage

• Good understanding of the needs of queer migrants and queer men of colour, and the importance of addressing health inequalities

• It is advantageous for the post-holder to have lived experience of the challenges of accessing health services, and to have lived experience as a member of one, or more, of the groups listed in the background section above

• Verbal fluency in one or more language other than English is advantageous

An applicant will need to have the right to work in the UK to be offered this post