Job Description

Explore’s mission is to provide relationships education to young people, to reduce the impact of and incidence of family breakdown.

We recruit and facilitate for married volunteer couples to visit secondary schools as part of personal social health education (PSHE) or sometimes religious education. The students lead the interview of our couples about their own relationship.

The outcome is often transformational - young people get firsthand knowledge of the relational skills needed to be happy and successful, not just at home but also in the workplace. The students gain an understanding of emotional intelligence, they often can then better understand their own family dynamics better, which can alleviate short term emotional distress.

Activities

We operate in 10 regions with part time staff engaging schools, forming volunteer networks, delivering and facilitating workshops in schools.

We are a small charity that is about to come of age. Eighteen years post launch we

have a new CEO and are embarking on a new identity. We need help as we navigate the digital landscape that has opened up for charities in recent years.

What will you be doing?

We are going through a period of innovation and transformation. A few years of neglect frankly needs to be rectified. A reinvigorated board following a skills audit has identified key roles in fundraising, marketing and governance to fill. We have a new chief executive with ambitious plans to transform the charity. With the full backing of the Founder and the trustee board, we have undertaken a skills audit and now wish to supplement the existing board skills with more marketing, communication and digital experience. This need not be a hands on role, but our executive team will welcome your knowledge and experience and your critical challenge.

We have a strong team of volunteers, but we need more. Conventionally, we have recruited mainly face to face via congregations - which has given us a treasured pool of dedicated, long-standing supporters. But we need to diversify and we need to reach more different volunteers to better equip young people with the dialogues in the classroom that will make a difference.

We are always being asked for younger volunteers and we need help to set up a youth advisory panel.

Your skills will enable us to reach our potential and to thrive.

What are we looking for?

Ideally someone with recent hands on experience of digital comms. An influencer, with an interest in young people and an ability to help us choose the right channels to explain/engage with younger volunteers and young beneficiaries.

Experience within any of the areas of media, digital, content and copywriting, film making and events planning would be welcomed

For the second position we are seeking individuals Ideally with recent hands on experience of major donor and corporate fundraising for a charity with income £1-2M. You will have a genuine interest in education, family life and the well being of young people.

For both of these positions we will welcome applications from experienced Trustees looking to add to their portfolio, or individuals seeking their first Trustee position

Ideally someone with recent hands on experience of major donor and corporate fundraising for a charity with income £1-2M.

What difference will you make?

Every year over half a million families in the UK split up. Apart from the heartache, family breakdown cost the UK economy an estimated £52 billion each year.

Whilst marriage rates are falling and couples are waiting longer to have children, the rate of family breakdown is highest among unmarried couples. So we believe in marriage as the most stable building block for society.

Our charity has a huge pool of married volunteer couples who provide a showcase to young people in schools (& some pupil referral units) about how relationships can be sustained long term.

They do not preach or give advice; they simply answer questions from

The young people about what they have done to ensure their relationship survives the highs and lows of real life.

Young people today have their own parent’s situation (50% of 16 yr olds live in a one parent home) or the media - from which to guide their own views and behaviour in relationships. Our workshops provide a third and more open and honest insight revealing the power of communication, trust, forgiveness and resilience.

Our impact is solid. 100,000 young people so far have experienced Explore. We are the only provider of this type of relationships education. From Sept 2019 the government is insisting that all schools adopt new relationships & sex education curriculum and we need Explore to be contract-ready by then. In the meantime we rely 100% on voluntary income.

What's in it for the volunteer?

• Intellectual challenge.
• Lively debate.
• A chance to influence change and transformational growth.
• A genuine opportunity to impact the emotional support for a generation of young people.

Where

Hampshire, Hampshire, SO23

Time

Mostly outside office hours. The board meets 4 or 5 times a year. The board is small (4) and is looking for 2 new trustees in 2018