Community Engagement Lead

We’re the Football Foundation – the Premier League, The FA and Government's charity that helps communities improve their local football facilities through football grants. This means better games and more players - helping transform communities where demand is greatest, and impact will be strongest. We have ambitious plans and with the support from our funding partners, the Football Foundation is well-supported to continue to invest in community pitches and facilities across the nation.

We’re looking for a Community Engagement Lead to join the team and play a key role in ensuring we achieve our objectives of engaging with and increasing physical activity levels amongst the four key priority groups facing the greatest inequalities: low socio-economic groups, women and girls, disabled people and people with long term health conditions, and culturally diverse communities.

This is an exciting time to be joining the Football Foundation and this is a great opportunity to use your knowledge and experience of place-based working and community engagement to make a real difference through community sports.

Over the last 22 years, the Foundation has awarded more than 23,000 grants to deliver outstanding grassroots facilities across England worth more than £877 million. This year, the Foundation will be investing more money than ever into facilities across England and is committed to improving the experience of playing football for everyone.

The Foundation’s goal is to unlock the power of pitches ensuring everyone has a great place to play regardless of gender, race, disability or place. 

A hugely exciting opportunity has become available to join the Football Foundation as our Community Engagement Lead. This position plays a crucial role in the Foundation achieving its objectives of increasing physical activity levels amongst priority groups facing the greatest inequalities and ensuring great community engagement is championed and embedded across our processes and programmes.

Working with our Funding Partners and key stakeholders at a national level, the postholder will provide strategic leadership to the delivery of the Foundations innovative PlayZones Programme, oversee delivery of our Sport England National Lottery funded Active Through Football programme and lead, manage, mentor, and support a team of Community Engagement Officers & Programme Manager to create a high-performance environment, which allows team members to thrive.

Following recent changes, the Community Engagement Lead and reports are positioned within the Foundations Delivery Team, each with a regional responsibility aligned to the teams regional structure. The postholder will work dynamically with colleagues across the Foundation as well as externally with a range of partner including funding partner organisations, the Active Partnerships, and other National Governing Bodies to continually shape and refine our approaches based on learning, research, and insight.

This role will be challenging, but the post holder has the opportunity to influence change throughout the Foundation’s processes and ensure meaningful community engagement is undertaken by our applicants.
 

You don’t need to follow football to apply, but it is expected that you appreciate the power of sport to change lives and have a genuine interest in using your skills and experience to help the Foundation achieve our charitable and strategic objectives.

Key to this role will be your exceptional knowledge and understanding of place-based working and the ingredients required to successfully tackle inequalities and affect change within a local area. A crucial part of this will be your knowledge of the workings of Local Authorities and the role they play within community development.

You’ll have strong communication and interpersonal skills, with experience of building and managing multiple stakeholder relationships, as well as experience of managing, leading and developing small teams.

You’ll have excellent planning and organisational skills, with experience of developing programmes to meet the requirements of multiple funders, but you’ll also have the flexibility to adapt to a diverse workload. You’ll also have strong attention to detail, with experience of producing robust reports for decision-makers and presenting to panels or committees.

Most of all we want someone who reflects who we are as an organisation. We refer to our values as our four corners:

• Fair Players – open and inclusive in our approach
• Star Performers – trusted to deliver
• United Team Player – collaborative and easy to work with
• Passionate Supporters – flexible and willing

If you share these values and have the necessary skills and experience for the role, then we look forward to hearing from you.

For full details of the role and requirements, please download our recruitment pack below.

The salary band for this role is £48,000 – £55,000 per annum, dependent on relevant skills and experience.

You will start on 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays (which increases after 2 years), plus additional time off to volunteer. We also offer a generous pension scheme (8% employer contribution), free health care provision, a monthly gym subsidy, death in service benefit and access to selected match tickets.

We are committed to helping our team members maintain a healthy work-life balance, so offer flexible working around core hours to help achieve that.

The Football Foundation is committed to, and values the principles of diversity, equality, equity, and inclusion. We strive to provide an inclusive and supportive working environment where all our team feel respected and supported in fulfilling their potential. We encourage and welcome applications from all, regardless of background and are particularly interested to hear from individuals belonging to under-represented groups including diverse ethnic communities, individuals with a disability, and those from the LGBTQI+ community.

Should you need any adjustments to the recruitment process at either application or interview stage, please contact us at jobs@footballfoundation.org.uk

To apply, please follow the steps outlined below:
1.    Please send the following to jobs@footballfoundation.org.uk

• CV
• Cover letter - please highlight briefly and clearly how your skills, abilities and experience equip you for the role, together with your reasons for applying (no more than one side of A4).

The closing date for applications is: 9am on 23 July 2024 
Interviews are scheduled for 30 July 2024

All applications received will be short listed against the role requirements and person specification. Those most closely matching our requirements will be invited to take part in an online interview.

Due to the volume of applications received for most roles, the Foundation only contacts candidates if they are shortlisted for interview. If you do not hear from us within two weeks of the closing date, you should assume your application has not been successful.

Please note that you must be eligible to work in the UK to apply.