Virtual Reality Community Project Officer WCC616314

Job Details:

Salary range: £40,005- £46,053 per annum 
Work location: Westminster City Hall, 64 Victoria Street, Westminster, SW1E 6QP
Hours per week: 36
Contract type: Temporary for 12 months 
Vetting requirements: Enhanced DBS Check 
Closing date: 29 May 2024
Interview date: to be conducted in early July 2024
Contact details for Informal discussion: Marie-Teresa Brown, DSM Team Leader MTBROWN@WESTMINSTER.GOV.UK

About Us:

THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF KAKOLI’S PASSION AND DRIVE

Children’s Services in Westminster City Council is a world of extraordinary stories. Where inspirational people like Kakoli are dedicated to encouraging everyone they work with to be the very best they can be.

Ever since she was a child, Kakoli has believed that children are the ones who’ll change the world for the better. Who’ll create the future we all wish for. And she always knew her calling was to get on the front line and help those who might not be as fortunate as herself.

Driven and passionate about making a difference, she first joined Westminster as a Social Work Assistant, and her managers immediately saw she had huge potential, so they encouraged her to apply to study for a degree in social work. She passed with flying colours, and over the next fourteen years worked as a frontline Social Worker, a Senior Social Worker, a Deputy Service Manager and is now one of our Service Managers.

Kakoli’s vision is as clear now as it was all those years ago – to encourage and support children, and help them grow in safe, vibrant communities. Her achievements are many, but she’s most proud of the fact that these days Westminster doesn’t ‘do things for families’ but ‘does things with families’. And she believes this huge but subtle difference to the way we work has allowed thousands of children in Westminster to fulfil their potential and live their dreams.
 

The Role:

As a Virtual Reality Community Project Officer you can make your own powerful contribution to Westminster’s success. Taking responsibility for the provision, development and delivery of virtual reality programmes for people affected by serious youth violence, criminal behaviour and exploitation, your focus will be on offering imaginative and engaging approaches to relaxation and wellbeing. Building positive relationships with local communities, helping them overcome barriers to participation and accessing new opportunities and experiences, your work will aim to improve the participants’ understanding of serious youth violence and how to seek support.

You’ll work in a multi-disciplinary team and in partnership with other agencies to deliver the programmes, building on previous virtual reality pilots while testing new approaches with different organisations in our communities. These will include primary and secondary schools, specialist educational need schools, youth clubs, parenting associations and any other one-off groups and forums you identify. You’ll also lead on the development of evaluation tools to assess the impact of the sessions, and provide regular community insights into serious youth violence issues to the wider team.

In addition to these key responsibilities, we’ll expect you to liaise with the Serious Youth Violence Community Engagement Officer and other community engagement teams to develop and support joint initiatives which support residents and communities on issues that matter to them. You’ll also produce reports, briefings and performance updates to a range of audiences including senior officers, councillors and external partners, and provide relevant information to board meetings.

Please refer to the Job Description for more information

About You:

With a recognised Project Management qualification or relevant experience, you’ll have the ability to build good relationships and work in partnership with a range of public sector, private sector, voluntary and community organisations. Capable of engaging with communities who are difficult to reach or seldom heard from, you’ll be a confident presenter and facilitator of workshops and training, and ready to work both independently and as part of a diverse team.

We’ll expect you to have proven experience of working in a community safety environment or engaging with children and young people involved in serious violence, and in addition to well developed knowledge of the very latest virtual reality technology, you’ll have the skills to develop and coordinate multi-disciplinary projects. A superb communicator, you’ll also have a flexible approach to your work and the willingness to work evenings and occasional weekends.

Well organised with good priority setting and time management skills, and the ability to work under pressure to deliver high quality results to tight deadlines, we’ll also look for good IT skills, with a particular emphasis on the MS Office suite of software.
 

What We Offer:

Westminster is an amazing place. We are home to more than 200,000 residents from all backgrounds, over 50,000 vibrant and vital businesses and three-quarters-of-a-million people work in Westminster. 

Westminster City Council’s strategy is to work towards a Fairer Westminster. A Fairer Westminster is one in which our communities are at the heart of our decision-making and help to determine the city’s future. By working directly with our communities and other partners, we can build a more inclusive city that celebrates our diverse communities, and where residents, workers and visitors from all backgrounds will feel welcome and safe.

At Westminster City Council, we pride ourselves on being an inclusive workplace and employer of choice. We encourage and welcome applications from people from all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that, at all levels, represents the communities we serve. We champion equality, diversity, inclusion and wellbeing and aim to create a workplace where everyone feels valued, has a sense of belonging and is empowered to be their best, that is the Westminster Way. To find out more about how we do this visit  https://www.westminster.gov.uk/health-and-social-care/public-health-strategy-policies-and-reports/equality-duties

As a forward thinking Council we appreciate that people work in different ways, therefore our staff benefit from working a range of flexible working patterns as well as Agile working.

The Council is a Disability Confident Employer. If you have declared a disability in your application , we guarantee an interview if you meet the essential criteria of the job. If you are invited for interview, you will be asked if you need any reasonable adjustments in order to attend, and we will make these wherever possible.