Role Details

Location: Remote with occasional attendance in One Family offices in Dublin
Reports to: One Family Policy Manager
Hours: 8 hours per week
Job Type: fixed time 18 months (end of June 2026)
Salary: €37,437.37 pro-rata per annum
Purpose: One Family are seeking a passionate and motivated Support Worker to coordinate a new Advocacy Group for lone parents to help identify policy direction and empower parents to use their voice to effect change.
Contact Info: info@onefamily.ie
Application Ref: Advocacy Project Support Worker

One Family provides specialist support to one-parent families across the country and campaigns and advocates for improved policy, legislation and public services. We want to ensure that parents are provided with the means to participate and work with us to achieve these aims.

Lone parent households on lower incomes have and continue to experience significant economic and social disadvantage in Ireland. This important project funded by Community Foundation Ireland, will significantly improve and strengthen the ability of One Family to shine a light on the key issues faced by one-parent families, to better illustrate the structural barriers they face and to give voice to their lived experience.

The One Family Advocacy Project Support Worker will play an important and vital role in empowering parents to use their voice and experiences to promote positive change for one-parent families at a local and national level. Parents will be given the opportunity to participate and engage in issue identification, policy analysis and formation, lobbying work and media engagement. The project will provide for varying degrees of participation to allow parents to input on this work based on their policy interests and comfort levels while being mindful of their time capacity given their caring responsibilities.

The Advocacy Project Support Worker will work directly with parents on a hybrid one- to-one basis to identify their interests and needs. The support worker will also contribute ideas for online surveys, organise meetings, promote group peer support and encourage parents to participate in training and mentoring programmes that will help better equip them to engage in analysing the issues that impact on their families the most. This post will provide the right applicant with the opportunity to work as part of a dynamic and exciting project, directed by the One Family Policy Manager.

Job Description

  • Parent recruitment, initial contact with interested parents and all related admin with potential participants
  • Working individually and in groups with participants, either in-person or online, throughout their period of engagement with the project
  • Ensure a duty of care to participants
  • To maintain accurate records for all participants and project activities
  • To attend all required staff meetings, trainings and development days
  • To work closely with the Policy Manager to manage participants and project milestones
  • Participate in supervision and reviews with the Policy Manager
  • To undertake other areas of work where necessary or as requested

Person Specification

Essential Requirements

  • Third level or equivalent qualification in a relevant discipline e.g. Social Care, Psychology, Education, Adult Guidance, Life/Career Coaching or similar
  • Minimum of 3-5 years of experience in individual support work
  • Excellent written, verbal and interpersonal communication skills and professional boundaries
  • Active listening skills
  • Experience delivering supports both in person and online and an understanding of building rapport online
  • Excellent IT skills
  • Interest in and experience of working with a socially excluded group and policy issues that impact them
  • A strong person-centred perspective
  • Track record in interagency working and relationship development
  • Enthusiastic, motivated and innovative
  • Self-starter with the ability to work in a team
  • Well-organised with good attention to detail

Desirable Requirements

  • Have experience in working with one-parent families
  • Have experience of working in the Irish voluntary/community sector
  • Understand social policy issues and systemic barriers for excluded communities in Ireland.

Terms & Conditions

This a part-time role for 8 hours/week and it is for a fixed time period from January 2025 to end June 2026. The full-time salary for this role is €37,437.37 so salary and annual leave will be on a pro rata basis.

Posts are subject to a 6-month probationary period. This role is a hybrid position with a requirement to attend One Family’s offices in Smithfield, Dublin 7 and at other locations intermittently for events and meetings, as required. A panel may be formed as a result of this recruitment process.

Benefits

  • Employee Assistance Programme
  • Cycle to Work scheme
  • 25 days annual leave (pro-rated accordingly for part time staff)
  • Two staff privilege days: Christmas Eve & Good Friday
  • Hybrid work
  • Work laptop.

A cover letter and CV addressing the role and the required competencies as outlined above should bee mailed to Carly Bailey, Policy Manager, One Family at: info@onefamily.ie Please put the relevant job title in the email subject line.

Closing date for applications is 12pm on the 13th January 2025. 

It is anticipated that first interviews will be held later that week, with second round interview to take place Monday the 20th January.

One Family is an equal opportunities employer

Community Foundation Ireland and One Family logos

Part-Time Permanent Communications Manager

One Family, Ireland’s national organisation for one-parent families is recruiting a part-time permanent Communications Manager.

One Family is Ireland’s organisation for people parenting alone, sharing parenting or separating. We provide support, information and specialist family support services to all members of all one-parent families, as well as to those experiencing an unplanned pregnancy and to professionals working with one-parent families. One Family’s vision is that every family in Ireland will be cherished equally, and will enjoy the social, financial and legal equality to create their own positive future.

This Manager role will lead the Communications service in One Family. The ideal candidate will utilise their broad communications background, as well as their media, events and marketing experience to positively communicate One Family’s mission and services. We seek and recruit candidates who display excellence and innovation.

Job Description

Communications

· Create and implement integrated communications strategies for One Family and each of its services.

· Understand the communication concerns of One Family and positively communicate to diverse audiences about One Family’s vision, brand, strategy, policy concerns and services.

Media Relations

· Develop and maintain positive relationships with the media, provide information as required, promote One Family spokespersons and ‘pitch’ stories as required.

· Oversee the monitoring of the media, maintain appropriate files and update all relevant One Family stakeholders.

· Develop integrated media relations strategies to support campaigns.

· Finalise and issue effective press releases.

· Work with One Family’s media policy panel of parents in an appropriate and responsible manner.

· Media train One Family spokespeople when required.

Social and Online

· Oversee the creation of appropriate and targeted content for all social media channels.

· Maximise the design and content creation of the www.onefamily.ie website and associated e-learning platforms.

· Utilise existing storytelling templates for Facebook and Instagram to strengthen existing audience relationships.

· Creation and publishing of One Family’s monthly e-zine, staff newsletter and updating of One Family intranet site.

· Design social media ‘call to action’ and online advertising and advocacy campaigns.

Policy:

· Support the policy team in communicating key policy messages and to support the development of policy campaigns as appropriate.

Publishing

· Develop, write content for, and oversee, the in-house design and publishing of One Family materials in soft and hard copy including annual reports, service leaflets, information publications, training products, reports etc.

Events and Networking

· Organise, produce and oversee the management of One Family events both online and in-person.

· Represent One Family externally as required.

Other

· Manage all activities within an agreed departmental budget.

· Manage the Communications Officer.

· Oversee all administrative work associated with the post.

· Ensure all statistics are maintained and produce reports as required on all work.

· Participate in all required staff meetings, trainings, strategic plans and development days.

· Participate in supervision and reviews.

· Undertake other areas of work where necessary or as requested by the CEO.

Person Specification

Essential Requirements

· Solid track record in communicating to diverse audiences through a variety of media.

· Experience working with and relationships with journalists and the media in Ireland.

· Experience of generating media coverage for social policy or civil society issues.

· A strong understanding of the design and updating of websites, the use of new media tools for marketing/communications purposes, and the management of backend development.

· Good knowledge of Canva, Hootsuite, SharePoint and Google Analytics is essential.

· Excellent written and verbal communication skills including editing and the ability to distil complex policy information into clear messages.

· Strong knowledge of public relations, marketing and campaigns.

· Excellent planning skills and the ability to think strategically.

· Excellent publication skills and experience.

· Ability to manage and work within a budget.

· An enthusiastic and motivated self-starter attitude with the ability to work in a team.

· Detail orientated mindset and ability to multi-task.

· Excellent interpersonal, networking and relationship-building skills.

· Excellent project management and events production skills.

· Third level qualification or professional training in marketing or communications.

 Desirable Requirements 

· Experience managing staff.

· Good knowledge of the Irish political system.

· Experience of working in the voluntary/community sector.

· Knowledge or experience of the issues affecting one-parent families.

Terms of Role

This is a part-time permanent role for 21 hours per week. Ideally these hours will be worked over 4-5 days/week. The role is based in One Family offices in Smithfield, Dublin 7 although can be worked on a hybrid basis.

The full-time starting salary scale is €51,416 – €58,137 for a 35 hour week based on skills and experience; the salary offered will be pro rata for the hours worked. Annual leave and other benefits will be provided.

The post is subject to a six-month probationary period.

One Family provide a range of benefits including:

  • Employee Assistance Programme
  • Cycle to Work scheme
  • 25 days annual leave (pro-rated accordingly for part time staff)
  • Two staff privilege days: Christmas Eve & Good Friday
  • Hybrid work
  • Company laptop
  • Company pension contribution

 

Application Procedure

A cover letter and CV addressing the required competencies should be emailed to Karen Kiernan, CEO, One Family at recruitment@onefamily.ie

Your application should be marked clearly: One Family Communications & Events Manager. Closing date for applications is 5pm on 13 January 2025.

Interviews will be held the following two weeks.

 

One Family is an equal opportunities employer.  

Garda Vetting Policy

We require staff working directly with  children and vulnerable people to undergo Garda vetting. Pease read our Garda vetting policy here.