Job Description

Job title: HTH Alexandra Youth Worker

Team / Department: Families and Youth

Salary: A salary of £25,000per annum (funding secured for three years).

Reports to: Dave Mills at HTH (with support from a supervisor at AAA)

Principle location: Ark Alexandra Academy / Holy Trinity

Terms of employment: Full time: 5 days per week, 37.5 hours per week. The time split initially as follows, subject to review as role progresses: 25.5 hours per week in school including preparation time 12 hours at HTH including Sundays. Flexible working with 2 days off a week.

DBS: Enhanced DBS required

Key objective of role: To help enable youth in Hastings to live life to the full - being compassionate, kind and caring and reaching their full potential.

Role context: Ark Alexandra Academy is a co-educational school in Hastings that specialises in the creative arts and sport. It is a Church of school with strong Christian values of faith, excellence and kindness. It welcomes, without preference, students of all faiths and none. It’s vision is that it will support each student to achieve the highest academic results, develop essential personal qualities, become highly employable, and serve their communities well – and so raise standards and aspiration for all. As a Church of England School, it is eager to develop links with local Anglican churches that might work with the school to support and encourage it’s aims.

Holy Trinity Hastings (HTH) is an Anglican church in the town centre of Hastings. Over the last 6 years it has been built into a vibrant multi-generational community with a significant focus on families and youth. Before Covid-19 HTH had a youth programme of over 60 youth on Friday nights, all from local schools. Whilst the church has been able to positively impact the lives of youth in the evenings and on Sundays, working with local schools will allow more contact time and interaction with youth.

HTH values are: Grateful and kind: We are always thankful, looking for ways to encourage, be kind and honouring to each other. Bold and audacious: We keep stepping out of our comfort zones, innovating and trying new things. Attentive and creative: We care about the details, we want to give God our absolute best and reflect His abundant beauty, creativity and generosity in all we do. Light and Free: We don’t take ourselves too seriously, but we take God seriously. We laugh and have fun.

The youth worker would be an HTH staff member, but with a significant focus on working with and in Ark Alexandra Academy. There is a strong overlap of the values of HTH church and Ark Alexandra Academy and so the youth worker would be supporting the school by working with students to fulfil its values of faith, excellence and kindness.

Essential skills, knowledge and experience Education, qualifications or experience: • Level 3 JNC qualified or relevant youth work or teaching qualification with experience. • Experience of working and supporting a wide range of young people including those with challenging behaviour. • Experience in working within a community to positively engage young people in programmes within formal and informal educational settings.

Knowledge, skills and abilities: • To ensure a professional attitude and approach to working in schools at all times • A practical understanding of safeguarding children and young people and how to maintain appropriate professional boundaries. • Sound up-to-date knowledge of the principles of earliest help, early intervention and prevention. • Understanding and appreciation of the importance of monitoring and evaluation in a youth work setting. • A strong commitment to young people and an understanding of the factors affecting their lives. • Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to quickly establish positive relationships with children, young people and families. • A pioneer self-starter able to initiate and be proactive. • Good presentational skills to be able to engage young people in a compelling and interesting way, with the ability to adapt presentation to a variety of group sizes and settings from small groups, classrooms and assemblies. • The ability to recruit and lead a team of volunteers to support the initiatives within the school and church ministries. • The ability to treat young people's concerns with respect, tact and sensitivity, while being aware of the limits that are required by confidentiality and the boundaries that govern the youth/youth worker relationship. • Able to sustain their faith in challenging circumstances. • Ability to talk about their faith in a way that is understandable to youth • A sense of adventure and a willingness to try new things • It is an occupational requirement that the role holder will have a strong and mature Christian faith and the role holder will need to be aligned to the vision and values of HTH church and Ark Alexandra Academy.

Areas of Responsibility: Key responsibilities at the school: This role is a pioneering initiative between HTH and Ark Alexandra Academy. The youth worker would develop, in agreement with their supervisor at AAA, a programme of work which could involve a selcected number of the following initiatives:

• Targeted referral programme: Supporting the most vulnerable, those that are disengaged, disaffected or marginalised • Drop-in programme: within school hours, these would be open access groups rather than targeting those that are perceived as underachieving pupils • Extra-curricular activities outside of school hours • Mentoring and counselling support • Encouraging community involvement through social action projects i.e. helping the homeless. • Confidence building and self-esteem, social skills development • Supporting C of E school status, input through assemblies, prayer meetings or religious education and other curriculum-based or group learning activities aligned with the Christian ethos of the academy • Involved in other aspects of school life as appropriate, in keeping with the overall aims and objectives of the project (eg. Anti-Bullying week, sports tutoring).

Church/Youth Work at HTH: • To help establish positive links between AAA school, the local community and HTH. • In addition to the day-to-day work at AAA, the youth worker will support the youth team at HTH in helping to run the programmes for young people on a Sunday and midweek. • Be a support to the wider team and ministries in the church, especially in the holidays, Summer, Christmas and Easter.

Administration/Office: • To actively participate in monthly supervision meetings to review the ongoing work. • To participate in the HTH weekly team meeting whenever possible. • Work in partnership with HTH to identify and submit applications for grant funding, relevant to resourcing the Project and see the work continue into the future. • Be a supportive colleague to assist others in their tasks when needed (team ethos).

Personal Development/Training: • To embrace ongoing training/professional development opportunities relevant to the Project's work. • Ongoing supervision and role development.

Working environment: HTH has a hard-working and motivated environment where we strive for excellence in everything we do. Our ethos is to be grateful, gracious and professional and we endeavour to thread this through every part of the organisation and every interaction. It is an exciting and challenging place to work and is full of variety. It works well for self-starters and people with initiative. We aim for a ‘can do’ environment where innovation and creativity is encouraged alongside serving others. Our church community is warm and engaging with lifelong relationships being built.

Additional Information: • 25 days holiday per annum (not inclusive of Public Holidays). 5 Sundays off per year. • A salary of £25,000per annum (funding secured for three years). • 3 month probationary period. • The role holder will need to be available to work key dates such as weekends away and other evening events as agreed. • The role holder must be available to work at a selection of key events at HTH which could include Christmas and Easter services. • Own transport essential, being able to drive desirable. • Available to work at Focus (the church holiday in the summer, one week duration). • Travel required: Minimal, within local area, occasional trips to London / Brighton.