About Coram Voice and the Bright Spots Programme

JOB DESCRIPTION

Job Title: / Research and Project Assistant Intern – Coram Voice
6 month fixed term contract
Service: / Coram Voice
Reporting to: / Project Coordinator, Bright Spots Project
Salary range: / £17,745 per annum
Hours / Full-time
Location: / Coram Campus, Bloomsbury, London WC1N 2QA
Contract: / 6 month contract

About Coram Voice and the Bright Spots Programme

Coram Voice is a national independent children’s rights charity specialising in providing advocacy to children in care and living away from home. As well as providing a National Helpline to give children and young people access to advocacy and advice, we run the ‘Voices’ national story writing competition for children and young people in care.

The Bright Spots programme is a partnership between Coram Voice and the University of Bristol, supported by the Hadley Trust. The programme aims to improve the experience of care for all looked after children, give children a voice on their own well-being and highlight the ‘Bright Spots’ of practice that contribute to children flourishing in care.

Through the programme we have developed the Bright Spots Well-Being Indicators, which put children’s experience and voices at the heart of how we measure well-being. The indicators are measured by the ‘Your Life, Your Care’ survey – a tool grounded in research and comparable to national data sets which explores children’s care experience and well-being based on what they say is important.

Coram Voice is part of the Coram group of children’s charities, including Coram Children’s Legal Centre, Coram Life Education and CoramBAAF. Coram is a UK children’s charity that has been supporting vulnerable children for more than 275 years and is still finding new ways to help children and young people.

Purpose of Role:

We are offering a paid 6-month internship opportunity for a graduate or post graduate who is keen to apply their proven knowledge and any experience to helping change the lives of others.

Working as a member of Coram Voice’s growing Bright Spots team, you will be involved in a national research programme with preeminent academics and a leading children’s rights charity, gaining the skills to coordinate and manage a research project. The successful candidate will gain experience across a range of areas including: qualitative and quantitative research, online surveys, report writing, communications and monitoring and evaluation. The main focus of the role will be to support the Bright Spots Project’s continued development and reach.

Key tasks will include supporting the Project Coordinator to: gather intelligence to inform survey development and recruitment of local authority partners; support the survey set up, distribution, analysis and follow up with local authorities; and develop communications materials (e.g. newsletters and blog posts) to spread awareness about the Bright Spots Programme and further increase understanding of the experiences of young people in care/care leavers.

Main Duties & Responsibilities:

Project and Survey Development

Supporting the development of the Bright Spots surveys, including the Care Leaver survey.
Research comparative data sets (for survey development) and analysis.
Carrying out initial research into potential local authority partners, preparing information packs, background details and other materials for meetings
Tracking project milestones and timelines, reporting to Project Coordinator
Help identify potential local authority partners and research and expand upon existing leads to obtain contact details
Develop and maintain contact lists for marketing, information sharing – keep contact details up to date, segmenting contacts for easy mail-outs

Survey setup, distribution and monitoring/evaluation

Set up online surveys, monitor response rates
Support analysis and effective presentation of research findings including both qualitative and quantitative data
Help prepare reports and other forms of presentation of research findings;
Collect information/feedback and evidence of good practice from local authority partners
Distribute monitoring and evaluation surveys
Compile monitoring and evaluation data from surveys, MailChimp, Google Analytics, evaluation forms and prepare internal summary reports
Prepare and analyse evaluation forms for events, meetings and focus groups;

Project support

To act as the first point of contact for enquiries including telephone and e-mail messages and respond to enquiries in a timely manner, directing as appropriate
Booking travel and meetings, coordinating diaries
To carry out administrative tasks including: minuting meetings, proofing, branding and formatting reports and publications
Gather agreements/contracts from local authorities

External communications/raising awareness about the Bright Spots Programme

Coordinating events and focus groups, researching venues, sending out invites, arranging catering (for peer learning seminars and focus groups with young people);
Adapting research findings to present to children and young people (adapting language use for different age groups and presenting information in an age-appropriate format/medium)
Prepare and develop bi-monthly newsletters and other online content such as blog posts/news stories about Bright Spots;

Other

Any other tasks within competence to support Coram and Coram Voice’s charitable objectives.

PERSON SPECIFICATION

Educated to degree level (E)
Good research skills, including ability to critically assess information (E)
Good analytical skills, including experience of qualitative and quantitative research (D)
Competence in IT systems including Microsoft Office (Word, Powerpoint and Excel) and email providers such as Outlook (E)
Experience of using online marketing and survey tools (D)
Strong written and verbal communication skills, with proven ability to present information to different audiences (E) including children and young people (D)
Experience of writing content for a range of platforms, including publications, research reports, newsletters and website content (D)
Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to communicate with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders (E)
Experience of coordinating meetings and events (E)

Knowledge of the care system and the experiences of children and young people in and from care (D)
A commitment to Coram’s equal opportunities policy (E)

Personal attributes

Highly organised and conscientious, demonstrating a high level of initiative to ensure deadlines are achieved (E)
Works well in a team (E)
Flexible, positive and adaptable, willing to undertake a wide variety of tasks (E)
Excellent attention to detail (E)
Keen, highly motivated and a quick learner (E)
Can-do attitude and drive to get the job done (E)