Friend-Link Trust – South Dunedin, South Island
Friend-Link is a thriving community hub, located in the heart of vibrant South Dunedin. For 32 years, Friend-Link has been enriching the lives of people with and without disabilities and changing our understanding of the importance of diversity through friendship and active community participation. Friend-Link was originally set up to assist men and women with an intellectual disability to become better connected to their community by seeding and supporting individual friendships. Whilst still an important part of Friend-Link's kaupapa, the community who currently claim Friend-Link as their own have transformed the organisation into one that now also seeks to:
Connect people with a learning disability to communities of their choosing in ways that are experienced through an enhanced sense of belonging.
Provide an inclusive space within which all members of the community can feel welcome, safe, and valued.
Support individual and shared aspirations to add value to the lives of others and the wider community via organised events and activities.
Offer a space within which people are listened to and can get the assistance and advocacy they need to navigate complex lives and/or disabling community spaces.
About the role
Friend-Link has two Co-Managers. This role involves working together to realise the vision Friend-Link members have for their organisation, and most especially, the four outcomes they tell us are most important. This will require you to work a mix of both fixed and less structured hours.
The Friend-Link office/community hub is open Monday - Thursday (24 hours). During these times, both Co-Managers are ordinarily on site to listen, model respectful relationships, respond to members' ideas or issues, inspire, and in return be inspired by those who come and go. The remainder of the time (16 hours) will be shaped by the ever-changing activities and events that spiral out of the Friend-Link office, including, but never limited to supporting; the Friend-Link Singing Group, shared meals, movie or bowling nights, birthdays, community events, birthday and other celebrations, writing projects, and connecting long-time friends to the people and places they love. Specific elements of the role include:
Facilitating the development of reciprocally valued friendships through shared activity, including by assisting people to remove or challenge access barriers to interpersonal relationships and/or community spaces and places.
Assisting Friend-Link members to imagine and realise activities, events or other opportunities to build relationships by doing things together.
Prudent management of Friend-Link's financial, material, and human resources, including grant application writing, accountability reporting, keeping accurate records of activities, membership, income, expenditure, and reconciliations.
Recruiting, orientating, and supporting Friend-Link volunteers.
Forming linkages and maintaining ongoing relationships with other organisations, especially those in the South Dunedin community.
Elevating the profile of Friend-Link, including foregrounding the contribution members are making to transforming Otepoti into a more inclusive and vibrant city.
The person Friend-Link members are looking for
Friend-Link members are clear that the most important qualities of the person they are looking for are relational. For them, the ideal Co-Manager will be:
Friendly and easy to approach.
An active and non-judgemental listener, interested in discovering and acting in support of people's passions.
A clear and patient communicator.
Familiarity with disabled lives and the community organisations that people with a learning disability are most likely to intersect with.
Knowledge of disabled persons' rights and a preparedness to support others to navigate inaccessible spaces, ableist language, and excluding practices.
Grant writing and contract management experience.
Previous experience managing budgets and knowledge of New Zealand employment legislation.
You have a dog you are prepared to share. (This is not a must, but friends of Friend-Link will love your dog).
What members will give you in return
The most inclusive workplace you will ever work in.
Opportunities for further training.
Moments, memories, and relationships you will never forget.
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