Community Group Development Officer - South East

We have an exciting opportunity for a Community Group Development Officer to be responsible for developing, supporting and overseeing the voluntary led peer support groups and other community peer led initiatives within the South East area.

Our Community Group Development team works directly with carers and people severely affected by mental illness who want to address the need for peer support provision in their local community. We support and empower those volunteers to establish their own peer support groups and embed them into their local communities, thus creating stronger and wider networks of carer and mental health support. These groups become a lifeline for many people reducing social isolation and loneliness, providing opportunities for learning new skills, improving feelings of wellbeing and confidence, and building new social networks; all of which contribute towards a better quality of life, not just for the members attending the groups, but the peer volunteers running them. We have more than 135 established voluntary led peer support groups across England, and this number continues to grow with many more in development.

As a Community Group Development Officer, you will build relationships with the volunteer group coordinators, providing them with direct support, advice, and guidance in all areas needed for running safe, sustainable support groups. You will create links between the groups and the wider work and initiatives of Rethink Mental Illness. You will encourage and empower the coordinator to link and network with organisations and services in their local community, therefore increasing opportunities of further support, social connectedness and reduced social isolation for their group members, whilst also helping to drive improved service provision in their local community through effective patient user involvement.

You will also follow up new enquires to develop and establish new groups by working collaboratively with the volunteer to establish a framework for the group to operate safely under, whilst allowing the shape and growth of that group to come from the lived experience and needs of those leading and attending it. You will build and maintain relationships with Rethink Mental Illness services in your area, provide support and guidance to them around peer support group delivery and where appropriate build links between them and neighbouring voluntary led groups.

What we are looking for

• experience of working with groups, volunteers and organising and delivering events
• lived experience and/or a good understanding of mental illness and its impact on individuals and families, or experience of working in the Mental Health sector or related services.
• ability to develop networks and build strong relationships with people from a wide range of communities, understanding the needs of diverse and underrepresented communities, services, community organisations and stakeholders.
• Good time management and organisational skills, with the ability to work confidently alone and effectively as part of a widely dispersed team.
• Working from home with the ability to travel across the South East area

See attached job description for more details about the role.

Don’t meet all requirements?

If the role sounds exciting to you but your experience, skills or qualifications don’t exactly match every single requirement, we would still encourage you to apply, you may be just the right person for our position!

Caring for our people.

We offer a wide range of support. Some of our benefits include:

• PULSE – your rewards, wellbeing, and benefits platform. Providing access to thousands of discounts and benefits including cashback; reloadable cards; savings etc.
• Wellbeing support: Our Wellbeing hub that gives physical, and mental health support. We also have an Employee Assistance Programme with access to appointments
• Taking time for you: we work flexibly –you get to choose where you work, managing your own diary. We have generous annual leave, starting at 25 rising to 30 days, plus bank holidays, as well as your birthday off.
• Planning for the future: We have a contributory pension scheme.
• Structured Induction: Onboarding you into the Charity supporting your wellbeing along the way.
• £300 when you introduce a Friend: receive up to £300 when you introduce a friend or family member

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion

Diversity is important to us and we appreciate difference through difference, inclusiveness and belonging. It gives us a deeper understanding of the world, our society and the diverse communities we’re working with. By including everyone, we are able to draw on the unique experiences and expertise of our people to help shape and enrich our workplace and improve our services. One way we are doing is through our valued staff networks which play a critical and highly valued role in keeping us focused on creating a diverse, inclusive and engaged employer. We recognise and support staff networks for our Black, Asian and minority ethnic and our LGBTQIA+ colleagues. We are also proud to have been awarded Disability Confident Employer status and are a signatory to the Business in the Community Race at Work Charter.

Becoming a truly anti-racist organisation

We have an ambition of become a truly anti-racist employer, campaigning organisation and service provider - and in our efforts to influence policy and wider societal factors impacting on mental health set out in our anti-racist statement . We have designed a multi-year anti-racist programme of work contained in our Race Equality Action Plan which demonstrate our intention to hold ourselves accountable and be judged on our progress on becoming a truly anti-racist organisation.

We therefore actively encourage and welcome applications from everyone, including applicants with lived experience, those who are Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer (or questioning), Intersex and (asexual) (LGBTQIA+), people with a disability, and people from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) backgrounds.

Please be mindful that we may need to close adverts early if we receive a high volume of applications, we, therefore, encourage you to apply as soon as possible.

The Recruitment Advisor looking after this role is Sylwia Kraska-Pakulska. If you have any questions about the position, please feel free to drop her an email at