Prevent Community Engagement Lead

Kent County Council is committed to protecting and supporting residents through early intervention, prevention and strong partnership working. We are seeking a Prevent Community Engagement Lead to play a pivotal role in strengthening Prevent delivery across Kent. This is an exciting opportunity to help strengthen community resilience to radicalisation, hate and extremism across Kent and Medway. Working within the Kent and Medway Prevent Team, you will build trusted relationships with communities, faith groups, voluntary organisations and strategic partners, increasing understanding, confidence and participation in Prevent. Through meaningful engagement, communications and partnership working, you will support early intervention, enhance community cohesion and contribute to safeguarding vulnerable individuals from radicalisation while promoting transparency, inclusion and shared responsibility for safer communities. The Role Reporting to the Kent and Medway Prevent Manager, you will lead on strengthening community resilience to radicalisation, hate and extremism across Kent and Medway. Through meaningful engagement with communities, faith groups, voluntary organisations and partner agencies, you will build trust, increase understanding of Prevent and support local initiatives that promote inclusion, cohesion and safeguarding. Using insight from communities and strategic partners, you will help shape Prevent activity, drive community-led solutions and ensure local voices remain at the heart of our approach. You will:

• Lead and coordinate community engagement activity that builds trust, confidence and transparency in Prevent, ensuring communities have opportunities to shape and influence local approaches.
• Develop and maintain strong partnerships with community groups, faith organisations, voluntary sector partners and statutory agencies to strengthen collaboration and increase awareness of radicalisation, extremism and safeguarding pathways.
• Support the delivery of Prevent through community-based initiatives, communications campaigns and engagement programmes that increase resilience to extremist narratives and promote community cohesion.
• Monitor community sentiment, emerging tensions and local risks, using insight and intelligence to inform Prevent activity, support strategic decision-making and contribute to continuous improvement across the Kent and Medway partnership., The role involves regular travel across Kent and Medway to engage with communities, partners and stakeholders. Occasional evening and weekend work will be required to support community events, meetings and engagement activities.
• This post is considered by KCC to be a customer-facing position. The Council therefore has a statutory duty under Part 7 of the Immigration Act (2016) to ensure that post holders have a command of spoken English/Welsh sufficient for the effective performance of the job requirements. The appropriate standards are set out in the Job Description/Person Specification.
• Any offer of employment will be subject to the appropriate pre-employment checks.
• This post is subject to an Enhanced Disclosure Application to the Disclosure and Barring Service.
  
  We are looking for an individual who can demonstrate:
• Significant experience of building effective relationships with community groups, faith organisations, voluntary sector partners and statutory agencies, particularly when working on sensitive or complex issues.
• Experience of leading engagement, communications, training or awareness-raising activities that increase understanding, confidence and participation across diverse communities.
• Knowledge of the Prevent Duty, CONTEST, community cohesion, hate crime, extremism and safeguarding, together with an understanding of how these issues impact local communities.
• The ability to work collaboratively with partners and communities, using insight, intelligence and community feedback to inform activity, respond to emerging issues and support positive outcomes.
You will be passionate about building safer, stronger and more cohesive communities and will have the confidence to engage openly with people from a wide range of backgrounds. You will be committed to promoting understanding, trust and transparency in Prevent, while helping communities develop resilience to hate, extremism and radicalisation.

Work that works for you and us - let's talk flexibility! KCC is committed to building a workforce which reflects the diversity of the county's working residents, encouraging applications from people of all ages, abilities, genders, sexual orientations, ethnic backgrounds, faiths and those with caring responsibilities, and aspires to create an inclusive workplace where everyone can be themselves at work. Please note - if you are interested, please apply soon as possible as the closing date for this advert may be earlier than stated should a number of suitably qualified candidates apply.