Advocacy Project Support Worker

Location: Remote with occasional attendance in One Family offices in Dublin
Reports to: One Family Policy Manager
Hours: 8 hours per week
Job Type: fixed time 18 months (end of June 2026)
Salary: €37,437.37 pro-rata per annum
Purpose: One Family are seeking a passionate and motivated Support Worker to coordinate a new Advocacy Group for lone parents to help identify policy direction and empower parents to use their voice to effect change.
Contact Info: info@onefamily.ie
Application Ref: Advocacy Project Support Worker

One Family provides specialist support to one-parent families across the country and campaigns and advocates for improved policy, legislation and public services. We want to ensure that parents are provided with the means to participate and work with us to achieve these aims.

Lone parent households on lower incomes have and continue to experience significant economic and social disadvantage in Ireland. This important project funded by Community Foundation Ireland, will significantly improve and strengthen the ability of One Family to shine a light on the key issues faced by one-parent families, to better illustrate the structural barriers they face and to give voice to their lived experience.

The One Family Advocacy Project Support Worker will play an important and vital role in empowering parents to use their voice and experiences to promote positive change for one-parent families at a local and national level. Parents will be given the opportunity to participate and engage in issue identification, policy analysis and formation, lobbying work and media engagement. The project will provide for varying degrees of participation to allow parents to input on this work based on their policy interests and comfort levels while being mindful of their time capacity given their caring responsibilities.

The Advocacy Project Support Worker will work directly with parents on a hybrid one- to-one basis to identify their interests and needs. The support worker will also contribute ideas for online surveys, organise meetings, promote group peer support and encourage parents to participate in training and mentoring programmes that will help better equip them to engage in analysing the issues that impact on their families the most. This post will provide the right applicant with the opportunity to work as part of a dynamic and exciting project, directed by the One Family Policy Manager.

The role of the Advocacy Project Support Worker will include:

• Parent recruitment, initial contact with interested parents and all related admin with potential participants
• Working individually and in groups with participants, either in-person or online, throughout their period of engagement with the project
• Ensure a duty of care to participants
• To maintain accurate records for all participants and project activities
• To attend all required staff meetings, trainings and development days
• To work closely with the Policy Manager to manage participants and project milestones
• Participate in supervision and reviews with the Policy Manager
• To undertake other areas of work where necessary or as requested

Person Specification- suitable candidates will have the following:

• Third level or equivalent qualification in a relevant discipline e.g. Social Care, Psychology, Education, Adult Guidance, Life/Career Coaching or similar
• Minimum of 3-5 years of experience in individual support work
• Excellent written, verbal and interpersonal communication skills and professional boundaries
• Active listening skills
• Experience delivering supports both in person and online and an understanding of building rapport online
• Excellent IT skills
• Interest in and experience of working with a socially excluded group and policy issues that impact them
• A strong person-centred perspective
• Track record in interagency working and relationship development
• Enthusiastic, motivated and innovative
• Self-starter with the ability to work in a team
• Well-organised with good attention to detail

Although not essential, ideal candidates would also:

• Have experience in working with one-parent families
• Have experience of working in the Irish voluntary/community sector
• Understand social policy issues and systemic barriers for excluded communities in Ireland.

Terms & Conditions

This a part-time role for 8 hours/week and it is for a fixed time period from January 2025 to end June 2026. The full-time salary for this role is €37,437.37 so salary and annual leave will be on a pro rata basis.

Posts are subject to a 6-month probationary period. This role is a hybrid position with a requirement to attend One Family’s offices in Smithfield, Dublin 7 and at other locations intermittently for events and meetings, as required. A panel may be formed as a result of this recruitment process.

One Family provides a range of benefits including:

• Employee Assistance Programme
• Cycle to Work scheme
• 25 days annual leave (pro-rated accordingly for part time staff)
• Two staff privilege days: Christmas Eve & Good Friday
• Hybrid work
• Work laptop.

A cover letter and CV addressing the role and the required competencies as outlined above should bee mailed to Carly Bailey, Policy Manager, One Family at: info@onefamily.ie Please put the relevant job title in the email subject line.

Closing date for applications is 12pm on the 13th January2025. It is anticipated that first interviews will be held later that week, with second round interview to take place Monday the 20th January.

One Family is an equal opportunities employer