Communications Officer

SYCLS is a small, rapidly expanding, charity (CIO 1174021) whose stated objective is "the preservation and protection of good physical and mental health through the provision of Listening and Chaplaincy Services and confidential Pastoral Care and advice for individuals both inside and outside the workplace throughout South Yorkshire." At our core is the Christian ethos to care holistically for people. Essentially, we are an independent, confidential service supporting people through the challenges of life.

We partner with organisations to support them in providing a culture and environment of holistic well-being; and empower local volunteers to engage with those facing life's challenges. This means our staff and volunteer Listeners and Chaplains operate within a wide range of contexts: Primary and Secondary Care, Businesses, Engineering, Schools, Sports Clubs, Fire Service: working with patients and their families, staff, students, local community. We work with organisations on an ongoing basis, providing 1-1 Listening appointments and/or regular Chaplaincy visits; but also respond to organisations following a specific crisis or critical incident. In addition, we provide training in Listening Skills and other well-being related subjects.

Primary Focus of this Role

To enhance the visibility of our work to current and potential volunteers and supporters, current and potential Partner Organisations and beneficiaries, wider community, current and potential Funders; and to support the effective running and development of our services.

Role Description

This role links with all our Charity's functions, teams and services to positively engage others. The role will include:

• creating content that is interesting, creative and accurate for a range of promotional routes and purposes


• managing our social media accounts to ensure a regular social media presence that fully supports our services and project plans


• ensuring mail-out lists and databases are developed to fully assist in the development of our work


• producing appropriate promotional materials (flyers, posters, postcards), films/clips, liaising with our videographer where appropriate


• supporting staff with promotional events such as volunteer fairs and opportunities to showcase our services


• assisting with writing articles, blogs and other forms of written communications


• liaising with Partner Organisations to identify and develop promotional opportunities


• working with colleagues in developing creative resources that support our services (training materials, well-being materials)


• assisting with general marketing and branding development


Initial priorities will be social media/web posting, promotional materials, mail outs and design assistance.


• Passion for SYCLS vision and values and sympathetic to our Christian ethos


• Ability to excellently promote SYCLS


• Strong written and verbal communication skills


• Ability to produce engaging content for social media, web, promotional materials


• Attention to detail


• Great social media knowledge


• Creativity - eye for design


• Inter-personal skills: ability to get on with a range of people in different contexts and enjoy liaising with others


• Compassionate - understanding of challenges facing people and to fully embrace our mission to 'journey with people through the challenges of life'


• Strong IT skills - word, excel, Canva and other similar programmes


• Ability and willingness to work within set budgets
  
  You are now leaving the VAS website and being taken to VAS's VC Connect online services. These are owned and managed by VAS.
  
  Pro-rata 25 days annual leave + bank holidays, 3% contribution to auto-enrolment pension scheme, supportive team meetings. We value investing in the continuing professional development of staff and volunteers. As a minimum all staff/volunteers have opportunity to attend regular modules in subjects related to our core objectives. In addition an individual training plan will be agreed with the post-holder to assist in their development of the role.