The Children's Society is looking for someone to join them as a Diocesan Ambassador to work closely with Jess Meale a Relationship Manager in the South West to support the work the charity does with young people. Here Jess explains what the role involves.
What is a Diocesan Ambassador?
A Diocesan Ambassador is a volunteer who works very closely alongside me, I cover a large area for the Children’s Society across the Bath and Wells, Exeter and Truro Diocese. The Ambassador would work with me to identify areas in Bath and Wells that The Children’s Society could work in. That could be anything from churches, cathedrals, deaneries, volunteers, fund raising groups and committees, shops. The role will involve building relationships with any supporters or potential supporters across the diocese of Bath and Wells.
That could be through promoting our campaigning work, contacting local papers to make sure there’s information out there about the Children’s Society, going along to events to be a representative of the charity. But the role is not fixed, the person who does it would work with me to design an action plan for the year of areas they’d like to explore and grow.
Who do you think this role would suit?
It would probably suit someone who is very keen on social justice and wants to support children and young people in this country. Someone who is very familiar with the Church of England. You may be working with anyone from senior members of clergy to our volunteers and members of the public, so it would probably appeal to someone who has a lot of confidence, is proactive in their approach and who enjoys meeting people in different roles and contexts, someone who loves networking. They probably also need to know a little about the role of the Children’s Society, but we can train them and teach them everything they need to know.
Do you need to be a particular age to take up this role?
No, it completely open to anyone over the age of 18. It can be anyone. Ideally they’d have their own access to transport because Bath and Wells is a large area and the role will involve some travel. Preferably it would be someone who does have a little spare time to commit to the role, probably around one day a week, but that is completely flexible and will depend what the action plan we put together looks like.
Can you share a little about the work of the Children’s Society?
The reason I love the Children's Society so much is that we are a very proactive charity. We’re out there listening to children and young people and involving them in every single step along the way in our work. We’ve been called a brave organisation because we work in areas that may be viewed as difficult. We tackle things like criminal and sexual exploitation, unaccompanied refugees and asylum seekers, young runaways. The other thing that makes me really proud, is our campaigning work, we have 81 local projects and 6 national programmes, we’re not just there when things go wrong, we do a lot of prevention work. The Children’s Society is also very respected as a campaigning organisation and our research work is undertaken with a wide variety of other agencies. We are in a very strong position to make some really big changes.
If you would like to become a Diocesan Ambassador for the Children’s Society contact Jess Meale