Diversity Outreach Coordinator

Gross Annual Salary	£45,338 full-time pro rata (post offered at 0.8 FTE). This is a pay level 6 salary. This salary increases annually in April each year according to Sustain’s payscale and progression (see further note on salary and earnings in job description), subject to satisfactory performance. In addition, Sustain matches pension contributions up to 5% of gross salary.
Hours	0.8 FTE (28 hours / 4 days per week)
Location	Role is office-based in Cambridge Heath, London. Sustain offers working from home up to half of working hours, on request and subject to agreement after probation.
Position type	Permanent contract (funding secured for two years)
Annual Leave	25 days Annual Leave based on 0.8 FTE (comprises of 16 days Basic Annual Leave + FTE proportion of public holidays + office closures) rising annually by 2 days to a top limit of 29 days.
Closing date	10am, Thursday 8 June 2023
Website(s)	www.sustainweb.org
Contact email	recruitment@sustainweb.org
Equal opportunities	Sustain is committed to being a welcoming and inclusive employer, including recruiting for diversity. Read more about our approach here.
Right to Work	Entitlement to work in the UK. Sustain is not able to assist with applications for work permits.
Other details	Cycle to Work scheme available on salary sacrifice basis

About Sustain

Sustain is a powerful alliance bringing together around 100 organisations nationally – and hundreds more at local and regional level. We believe everyone should have access to healthy and sustainably produced food that protects people, animals and planet. Working together, we run highly effective and creative campaigns, advocacy, networks and demonstration projects, aiming to catalyse permanent changes in policy and practice, and to help equip more people and communities with skills as change-makers.

About this role

The Diversity Outreach Coordinator is a new role for Sustain, aiming to help us build better opportunities, connections and allyship. We want our work to involve and support people and communities experiencing inequity due to structural injustice, and with people with experience, identities and from backgrounds that are currently under-represented in our sector. In particular, Sustain recognises the extent and depth of racial and economic injustice in the food system, hence the particular focus on these issues within this role.

The Diversity Outreach Coordinator role will evolve, and the person appointed will work with the senior leadership team and others at Sustain to shape the role over time. However, as this is a big theme, we want the person to be able to have a clear focus on some key objectives over the next two years, namely:

1. Building positive relationships with young adults, and with organisations and institutions who work with young adults. In the first instance, this will be mainly in the higher education sector and potentially other relevant sectors, aiming to inform and inspire young adults on food and farming that is better for people, equity and the planet, and link them with opportunities to get involved.
2. Building positive relationships and working connections with organisers and organisations that have backgrounds, identities, experiences and perspectives that are currently under-represented in our sector; and to link them with opportunities to get involved with our projects and campaigns and to influence, contribute to and benefit from the work of Sustain and our alliance.
3. Building understanding, momentum and skills within Sustain and among Sustain alliance members and allies on diversity outreach and related matters, organising and running sessions of the Food Learning Forum to cover relevant issues.

In all of the above key areas, we will prioritise outreach to, and opportunities for, people from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds; and people from economically disadvantaged backgrounds (with some intersection, but this is not assumed; and this could develop into work focusing on other aspects of diversity in future). The Diversity Outreach Coordinator will organise a working party to help pursue these goals, for mutual benefit and support. They might also establish and work with an advisory group of people with lived experience of matters relevant to the work, to ensure that our work is grounded in authenticity and good practice.

Tasks and responsibilities

The Diversity Outreach Coordinator will have a varied and stimulating workload and will work in collaboration with Sustain’s senior leadership team and rest of the staff, alliance members and allies, as well as the identified target audiences. Over the first two years of this new role, the main tasks and responsibilities will be:

1. Diversity outreach with young adults

• Develop, organise and promote a speaker programme creating platforms for people in our movement to inform and inspire young adults on food and farming that is better for people, equity and the planet. This programme will engage with organisations that work with young adults, making special efforts to include and support speakers and audiences from diverse backgrounds and identities.
• Develop Sustain’s existing and new relationships with higher education institutions (and potentially other organisations who, for example, focus on youth training and employment) and connect young adults – especially those from diverse backgrounds and identities – with learning opportunities, practical experience and work experience in the healthy and sustainable food and farming sector.
• Work with Sustain’s Administration and Finance Officer to develop, promote and review Sustain’s jobs website Roots to Work systematically, including making this more relevant and engaging for young people and people with diverse backgrounds, characteristics and identities.
• Engage with young adults via events, social media and an email newsletter that highlights opportunities to get involved with paid work, training, volunteering, campaigns, events and other relevant initiatives.
• Lead on developing work experience and/or paid internship opportunities, including fundraising to enable this.

2. Outreach to organisers and organisations

• Undertake some research, or synthesis of existing research, to help understand why some people and communities are currently under-represented in our sector.
• Cultivate warm and mutually beneficial relationships with organisations led by and/or representing people and communities currently under-represented in our sector.
• Encourage and facilitate involvement and representation of these organisations in Sustain’s projects and campaigns, particularly through our working parties, policy work and events.
• Explore areas of additional support or new projects on key issues and needs specific to these groups where they are not currently met.

3. Building understanding, momentum and skills among the Sustain alliance and members

• Organise and run sessions as part of the Food Learning Forum, bringing together Sustain alliance members and allies to build understanding, momentum and skills relevant to diversity outreach and recruitment for diversity.
• Reach out to alliance members to map informally what other relevant activity is happening that aligns or supports this work, and look for gaps or opportunities for new work and joint programmes.
• Lead on relevant communications work, e.g. newsletter, presentations, blogs, briefings, social media.

4. Other tasks and responsibilities

The Diversity Outreach Coordinator will also:

• Maintain excellent financial records, contact databases and mailing lists, in line with data protection good practice, accountability, and support for people receiving payments via this work.
• Lead on monitoring, evaluating and learning from this work, reporting on progress to help shape the way it develops.
• Report to current funders, and provide the information, contacts, evaluation and other support to enable further development.
• Undertake other tasks and responsibilities that may arise from time to time.

Personal specification

For this new Diversity Outreach Coordinator role, Sustain is seeking a well-organised and personable individual, who is great at working in a team and developing positive relationships with people and organisations, and who has the following skills and experience.

Essential:

• Demonstrable interest and/or experience in one (or more) of the following: social justice; healthy and sustainable food and farming; human health; climate and nature.
• Demonstrable commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion and racial justice.
• Experience of outreach and engagement of people and organisations, to take on a range of perspectives, and facilitating decisions and actions-making processes in pursuit of a shared initiative.
• Experience of arranging online and in-person meetings, workshops, speakers or other working, learning and sharing events, with good insights into what works well.
• Experience of taking a leading role in developing a partnership and project ideas to attract funding and other support.
• Highly organised in terms of writing workplans, managing diaries, data, emails, multiple relationships with people and organisations, managing flexibility and meeting reasonable deadlines.
• Ability to work independently, with high levels of self-motivation.
• Ability to be adaptable and problem-solve in a positive and solutions-focused way.
• Clear, accurate and engaging oral and written communication skills in fluent spoken and written English.

Desirable:

• Lived experience of issues relating to racial injustice and/or economic disadvantage.
• Recent experience in higher education, either as a student or member of staff.
• Experience of a range of research methods or using research to shape practice.
• Experience of arranging and/or chairing training or workshops.
• Experience of running a working group, keeping people informed, taking notes and following up on actions.
• Experience of writing and distributing a newsletter and social media outputs, or the aptitude and willingness to learn how to do so, using tools such as Excel, Mailchimp, Canva, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
• Understanding of monitoring, evaluation and learning processes.
• Experience of managing databases of contacts, and in compliance with data protection rules.
• Experience of leading on or contributing to successful fundraising, especially for initiatives with social or environmental purposes.
• Experience of administering a budget, invoices and good financial records.
• Willingness and aptitude to line-manage another person (or other people) working on similar areas of work, either as a member of staff, paid intern or volunteer.

Diversity

The person appointed will contribute to the mutually supportive culture of Sustain (including staff and project participants) in which equality and diversity are not just respected but promoted. Visit our website here for some useful advice if you are applying for a job at Sustain.

Sustain is recruiting for this role as part of our Ethnicity Confident and Disability Confident schemes. Applicants who meet all the essential criteria, and who let us know voluntarily (via our Equal Opportunities Monitoring Form) that you would like to be considered in this way, will be guaranteed a first-stage interview.

Sustain welcomes applications from individuals, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, class, socio-economic background, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion and/or belief. We are happy to discuss and consider flexible working at the point of hire. We particularly encourage applications from those from ethnic minority backgrounds, people with diverse sexual and gender identities and people with disabilities. This is because these groups are currently underrepresented at Sustain. Where two or more candidates are judged to be of equal merit, priority may be given to a candidate who belongs to a group less represented at Sustain.

How to apply

To apply for this position, please email recruitment@sustainweb.org the following:

- a CV (maximum two pages)
- a Covering Letter telling us about your experience and how this relates to the personal specification (maximum two pages)
- a completed Equal Opportunities Monitoring form

As we are recruiting for several positions over this period, please put Diversity Outreach Coordinator in the subject line of your covering email along with your name.

Deadline: 10am, Thursday 8 June 2023

First-stage interviews for this position will take place virtually on either 15 or 16 June 2023, with second-stage interviews to take place either 30 June or in the week commencing 3 July (to be confirmed). Please indicate in your application if you are not available for any of these dates, although we cannot guarantee we will be able to accommodate requests for alternative timings.