Housing Rights Worker - Dorset

Salary: £29,012 pa + excellent benefits including flexible working

Location: Dorset - Bournemouth or Weymouth (with travel in Dorset)

Full time - 37.5 hours per week

Are you compassionate, proactive and collaborative with experience, knowledge of and/or proven ability in housing and homelessness advice and advocacy? Looking for an exciting new career opportunity? Then join Shelter as a Housing Rights Worker and you could soon be delivering high quality and vital housing advice and advocacy to those who need it.

A home is a fundamental human need, as essential as education or healthcare. Yet millions of people across Britain struggle on a daily basis with homelessness, bad housing conditions, soaring rents, discrimination and the threat of eviction. So, we are striving for change, with individuals, in communities, across society, and leading the way to a safe home. We need ambitious, best-in-class individuals who are passionate about our cause to join us at this exciting time. This is your chance to play a part in the fundamental change we are striving to achieve.

At Shelter we are united by our purpose to defend the right to a safe home. Our enemy is the social injustice at the core of the escalating housing emergency. We believe that to win that fight, we must be representative of the people we are here to help and those who support our movement for change. In all our people decisions, we take pride in being inclusive, fair, equitable and transparent. We have committed to combat racism both within and outside Shelter and welcome you on our journey to becoming a truly anti-racist organisation.

Our team in Dorset has been providing housing advice and support services within the area for over 20 years. With office bases in Bournemouth and Weymouth, we have contracts to deliver Housing First support in the Dorset Council area and offer Legal Aid Advice, including a court desk service at Bournemouth and Weymouth County Courts.

As Housing Rights Worker, you will deliver high quality housing advice and advocacy in line with the hub’s local community priorities and work alongside people who are experiencing homelessness and bad housing to identify issues facing local communities. You will plan and deliver casework to individuals and communities to resolve their housing situation and listen, network with, and engage with community groups, local organisations and individuals to understand local housing issues and raise awareness of people’s rights.

We will also count on you to work within local community settings and alongside community groups to deliver advice and rights awareness workshops and to ensure that people with lived experience of homelessness have opportunities to share their story, give their views and participate in the design and delivery of Shelter services. Offering day to day support to volunteers, providing learning, shadowing and mentoring and being a consistent role model for our values are also key aspects of the role.

A natural communicator, you will have the ability to listen to, engage and work with individuals and communities and with all stakeholders, including people with lived experience of homelessness. You will have experience, knowledge of and/or proven ability in housing and homelessness advice and advocacy and the ability to progress to specialist level knowledge, as well as the ability to carry out casework related interviews, maintain detailed case records, advise and support clients to make informed decisions. A proven record of delivering group workshops and presentations is essential, as is a collaborative, flexible and professional approach to your work.

We offer a wide range of benefits, including 30 days of annual leave, enhanced family friendly policies, pension and interest free travel loans. Our employees also have access to a tenancy deposit loan, payroll giving, cycle to work scheme and an employee assistance programme.

Shelter helps millions of people every year struggling with bad housing or homelessness through our advice, support and legal services. And we campaign to make sure that, one day, no one will have to turn to us for help. We’re here so no one has to fight bad housing or homelessness on their own.

**To find out more about the role and the benefits of working for Shelter please visit our website. Apply to be part of our team and be the change you want to see in society.
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Safeguarding is everyone's business. Shelter is committed to protecting the health, wellbeing and human rights of those we support, and enabling them to live free from harm, abuse and neglect. All our staff will be expected to observe professional standards of behaviour and conduct their work in line with our Safeguarding Policies.

Please click ‘Apply for Job’ on the advert. You are required to submit a CV and a supporting statement with responses to the following points in the ‘About you’ section of the job description of no more than 350 words each. Please provide specific examples following the STAR format: