Families & Carers Outreach Officer

Veterans Outreach Support (VOS) has secured funding from the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust to expand the Thrive Together programme (formerly VPPP) across the South East. This initiative connects veterans' support agencies, ensuring seamless pathways, safe spaces for veterans, and training for volunteers and staff working in veterans' mental health. They are now seeking a Families & Carers Outreach Officer to explore the challenges of reaching out to families and carers of veterans to improve the way that this support can be delivered.

VOS is an award-winning charity that offers welfare, wellbeing and mental health support and services to veterans of the UK Armed Forces and Merchant Navy in Portsmouth, Hampshire, and the Isle of Wight. VOS provide a drop-in model of support, a welfare advice service, peer-supported wellbeing activities and social groups, with access to psychology, psychiatry, and therapy services.

The Families & Carers Outreach Officer will collaborate with the Thrive Together Portfolio Manager and VOS team to identify and improve outreach to families and carers of veterans, many of whom may not know they’re entitled to support.

The successful candidate will be able to demonstrate:

• Experience with identifying, planning, running, and evaluating pilot projects, research groups, and focus groups, while managing timelines.
• Skills in sharing learnings and recommendations based on feedback, creating ways to measure service effectiveness, and gathering feedback for continuous improvement.
• Comfortable working with diverse communities, understanding their needs, and building solid relationships. Knowledge of or experience with the UK veteran community would be an advantage but is not essential.
• Experienced in planning and leading community workshops, guiding discussions, and encouraging participation from group members.
• Awareness of the specific communication and engagement needs relevant to the group or community you are working with, including cultural understanding of diverse family dynamics and considerations that may impact service delivery.

We would like to hear from you if you are someone who’s organised, a great communicator and strong listener, with the ability to work with all kinds of people, with awareness of cultural differences, and can use that understanding to collaborate effectively. You’ll need to able to pull actionable insights from discussions, and approach things with empathy while identifying the needs and preferences of veterans, their families and carers.

For more information, please contact Louise Portnall, Recruitment Consultant, Charisma Charity Recruitment. Your application should be submitted through the Charisma website and include your CV and supporting statement.

We welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds. We do not discriminate on the basis of disability, race, colour, ethnicity, gender, religion, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, or other category protected by law.

Salary: £32,000 FTE 18 Month fixed term contract, with potential to extend.

Location: Office based at VOS headquarters / with some flexible home working at the discretion of the Line Manager. Regional travel will be required, which will be funded by the Thrive Together programme.

Hours: Part time - 3 days per week (22.5 hours)

Closing date: 11th May 2025

Applications are being reviewed on receipt and interviews will be conducted on a rolling basis. When a suitable candidate is found the role will close, so please apply without delay to avoid disappointment.