Community Engagement Officer

Description:

Community Engagement Officer
Greenwich
£25.75/hr
Full time: 37/hrs a week
Start date: ASAP

AKTON Recruitment is working closely with the local authorities and we are looking for a Community Engagement Officer in the Greenwich area. This post requires an Enhanced DBS and will be supported by Safer Recruitment tools.

Purpose of Job:
Using engagement expertise, this post's objective is to empower residents and strengthen their voice by ensuring that great engagement and involvement opportunities are delivered and are accessed by the community all whilst breaking down barriers to participation and inspiring those who may not have participated before, to engage.

This post will work with council colleagues, the community, elected members and with partners to co-ordinate and deliver engagement activities leading to residents' participation in service developments and decision making.

Working with an awareness of the organisation and political contexts, this role supports the Council's directorate level engagement activities plus co-ordinates centrally designed corporate engagement delivery. The role of Community Engagement Officer is significant in ensuring the council is better at listening to communities as seen in Our Greenwich strategic objectives and as outlined in the annual Corporate Plan 2023.

This role sits within the corporate community engagement team, within the Corporate & Central Services directorate. The role is to;
- Make certain that residents are at the heart of Royal Greenwich's plans, service developments and improvements and enables them to have opportunities to engage
- Support the use of innovative solutions to community engagement that are seen as industry leading
- Ensure engagement activity is delivered within agreed quality and time parameters and meets the requirements of both the council and residents

Main Duties:
1) Community engagement
a) Play a supportive and proactive part in the organisation of resident engagement events, ensuring they are well managed and attended, delivered on time and within budget constraints
b) When necessary, support and provide advice to colleagues within the council for their engagement activity and be available to collaborate with them on the delivery of their own engagement plans and projects
c) Research and establish if required and facilitate when appropriate the development and delivery of community and public meetings, new engagement groups, forums and focus groups independently and alongside potential third sector organisations (face-to-face and online)
d) Support the community in being involved in engagement activity and Royal Greenwich colleagues by sharing the tools necessary to effectively contribute to engagement activities and consultations
e) Support, develop and implement a range of involvement initiatives both based on a menu of different engagement options that seek to engage residents and communities on their terms and in ways that they feel comfortable to express their views
f) In a personalised and resident centred approach, continually review the ways that we involve hard-to-reach groups and provide suggestions for improvements utilising non-traditional forms of engagement
g) Foster great community relationships with Greenwich organisations, the third sector, charities and internally across directorates and build a community register of engaged stakeholders
h) Facilitate and co-ordinate any corporate and borough wide surveying and benchmarking activity
i) Ensure community organisations, partners and the third sector are all able to participate in engagement activity, and be involved in the co-designing of activities when appropriate
j) Build and maintain effective community relationships with individuals, colleagues and bodies (internal and external). The list below is not exhaustive:

- Community groups
- Residents
- Councillors and Members of Parliament
- Senior officers of the Council
- Officers from various departments: Children's Services, Adult Social Care, Culture Services, Housing Services, Environment Services and
- Council Regulatory Services
- Council Communications and Events
- Third Sector Organisations
- Statutory Services
- Regulatory bodies
- Commercial organisations
- Artists, performers, freelancers
- Faith groups
- Children and young people