GUIDANCE NOTES

TITLE OF POST:Social Opportunities Facilitator

Background

Opening Doors London are recruiting Social Opportunities Facilitators on an ongoing basis.

The purpose of the role is to set up social opportunities for members of the older lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans* community in London. We aim to ensure that older LGBT* people live happier, healthier and independent lives free from prejudice and discrimination. Our social opportunities provide a space to do just that.

Everything we do is informed by the lived experience of LGBT* older people. Our social opportunities will enable our current membership to find new ways to engage in the charity, but we’d also aim to attract new members to join as well.

Opening Doors London generally sets up new groups that are open to all members of the older LGBT* community to attend. Occasionally groups will be more targeted, e.g. gender specific.

Social Opportunities Facilitator staff may be offered work in any London borough, so are invited to say where they would prefer to work, or areas they don’t want to work in.

The work

With support from ODL staff, and often with volunteer support, the work will include:

  • Preparation of sessions
  • Running the sessions
  • Ensuring all administrative arrangements have been completed, payments have been made and monitoring forms have been submitted.
  • If the group is long term, part of the role will be to prepare the group after approximately six sessions to be handed over to a volunteer for the group to continue running in a self-sufficient manner without paid staff attending every session. The Social Opportunities Facilitator will then visit the group quarterly and have oversight and support responsibilities.

Payment

The post holder will be allocated a fixed number of hours to complete each aspect of the work. The time allocation will vary according to the nature of the sessions, and will be reviewed on a regular basis by line managers. For instance, more preparation is likely to be needed for start-up sessions than to maintain ongoing sessions running well.

  • No payment can be made for travelling time to or from sessions.
  • No payment can be made for additional time spent outside agreed preparation, attendance, and follow up time.
  • Payment will take account of time required to complete monitoring and other follow-up reports.
  • No payment can be made until all final reports for each session have been completed and approved by the appropriate line manager. This is to ensure that reports and monitoring information is completed in a timely fashion.

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