We are recruiting for a Peer Coordinator
We are Forward, the social enterprise that empowers people to break the cycle of crime and addiction to move forward and live fulfilling lives .
We deliver a range of MOJ Commissioned Rehabilitative services (CRS) directly for Probation in three key areas: Accommodation, Personal Wellbeing and Dependency & Recovery. Accommodation is delivered in Wales, Dependency and Recovery in London and Humberside, Personal Wellbeing in East of England, Sussex, Surrey and as a subcontractor in Kent and Cheshire.
These services work with Men 18+ who are under probation supervision, supporting them to navigate through their desired outcomes in order to achieve transformational change, break the cycle of offending and achieve long-term integration into society.
Our services have supported thousands of people to make positive changes and build productive lives with a job, family, friends, and a sense of community. No matter what your past, we believe anyone is capable of lasting change.
Role Responsibilities
You will be working within a team of practitioners and subcontractors, delivering Personal Well Being Services to support adults in the Criminal Justice systems. The support is tailored to individual needs, delivering a range of programmes within the categories of Family and Significant others, Lifestyle and associates, Emotional Well Being and Social Inclusion
As a Peer Coordinator you will support the team and the Probation to champion the Personal Well Being service and train service users to become peer supporters who deliver peer-led interventions and become peer supporters across all areas of delivery. You will also support and develop Health & Wellbeing Champions. Their roles will be to motivate and encourage clients to start taking greater responsibility for their health and wellbeing, and they will discuss and share the issues which they are concerned about by signposting and supporting them to the relevant services within the community, and also with agreement from the Probation delivers interventions to other peers.
You will be working as part of a team of 7 based in the probation office in Chelmsford with travel to other services in Essex and also occasional visits to the Prisons in the area. You will be provided with one to one training for the role plus Elarening and general Prison training also.
Flexibility will be required in this role and may include some evening/weekend shift and with reasonable notice.
All prison-based roles will require enhanced DBS and HMPPS security vetting. Please note this process can take up to 3-6 weeks. All offers are subject to receiving both HMPPS vetting and DBS clearances.
Checks will require you to provide information on the below:
- Yourself (personal information, financial information, police information, criminal history)
- Your family (parents, parents’ partners, siblings, partner(s), children)
- Co-residents
- Associations that may cause a conflict of interest with your role or the prison service.
- Background checks across police information systems on you, your family and other associates
- Credit reference checks
- Social media and Open-Source checks (these are checks on content about you that's publicly available on the internet to ensure there's nothing linked to you that could undermine public trust and confidence in the prison service)
- Other government and overseas agency or police checks.
The Ideal Candidate
This role requires an individual who is creative with excellent communication skills and has a passion for supporting vulnerable adults.
Please also see below a list of skills and experience needed for this role;
- Knowledge of the criminal justice sector
- Knowledge of the issues facing offenders
- Knowledge of the Recovery Agenda
- Relevant experience in the criminal justice sector
- Experience of working within the personal well-being services.
- Ability to develop, coordinate and deliver the training on a peer support programme
- Experience of delivering structured interventions to service users
- Experience of facilitating groups
- Previous experience of providing a peer support service to this or a similar client group
- A thorough knowledge of and commitment to the process of recovery
- Good organisational and communication skills
- A strong personality, including the ability to set and stick to professional boundaries
- Understanding of, and commitment to, the principles of equal opportunity and client confidentiality
- Ability to work effectively with key partners in order to successfully deliver projects
- Experience of communicating with people from a range of backgrounds in a sensitive and supportive way