Engagement Lead (Youth Voice)

Take lead responsibility for our Youth Voice programmes, ensuring young people are at the centre of decision-making both within PYF and across external systems, including direct work with partners such as the West Midlands Violence Reduction Partnership.

Salary Range: £30,138-£34,444 (pro rata depending on hours worked)

Location: West Midlands-wide role, Coventry-based.

Contract Duration: Initial contract up until March 2028

Hours Per Week: 21.5-37.5 negotiable

Take lead responsibility for our Youth Voice programmes, ensuring young people are at the centre of decision-making both within PYF and across external systems, including direct work with partners such as the West Midlands Violence Reduction Partnership.

You will co-design and deliver engaging programmes alongside young people, creating clear pathways for sustained participation and leadership. The role embeds a youth-led approach across regional systems, ensuring a diverse and representative range of young people, particularly those furthest from opportunity, shape policy, services, and investment priorities across the West Midlands, moving practice beyond consultation towards genuine co-production, youth leadership, and lasting influence.

• Recruit young people as collaborators and manage logistics to deliver projects to the highest standards.
• Work closely with young people and partners to develop youth-focused projects that improve outcomes across the region.
• Develop and maintain strong relationships with key partners, commissioners, and organisations, built on trust and mutual respect.
• Deliver regular sessions offering a range of programmes, ensuring safe delivery, particularly for identified target groups.
• Motivate and enable young people to actively engage, supporting positive progression outcomes.
• Ensure robust monitoring and evaluation, with outcomes clearly recorded to evidence impact.
• Manage programme budgets and allocated resources effectively.
• Maintain high standards of health, safety, and safeguarding across all sessions.
• Demonstrate commitment and ability to involve young people in decisions that affect them.
• Understand risks affecting young people in challenging circumstances and respond to incidents effectively.
• Coordinate and facilitate special events, including residentials, conferences, and regional activities.
• Promote the inclusion and engagement of underrepresented groups.
• Influence partners and internal teams at PYF to embed youth voice within their structures and practice.
• Develop participatory evaluation methods, enabling young people to assess impact and track “you said, we did” feedback.
• Contribute to communications activity, including social media, campaigns, and storytelling.
• Support young people to become advocates and spokespeople for PYF and wider youth issues.

• Adhere to safeguarding policies and procedures for young people and staff at all times.
• Ensure participation is safe (including travel), accessible, and meaningful.
• Use knowledge of local partnerships to strengthen programme reach and delivery.
• Report regularly to the PYF Programme Manager.
• Recruit eligible and suitable young people to the programme.
• Collect and securely store required eligibility evidence in line with programme requirements.
• Coordinate delivery partners to ensure accurate and consistent data and evidence collection

All duties and responsibilities must be carried out with due regard to the Positive Youth Foundation Health and Safety Policy.

Post holders will be accountable for carrying out all duties and responsibilities with due regard to the Positive Youth Foundation Equal Opportunities Policy.

Duties which include processing of any personal data must be undertaken within the corporate data protection guidelines.

• Knowledge and understanding of the challenges faced by young people and why ensuring that their voice is an essential agent of positive social change.
• Knowledge and awareness of issues surrounding safeguarding children and young people at risk, in particular within a targeted youth work setting.
• Knowledge of how to deliver a safe and engaging programme for young people often disengaged from services and how to work alongside policy focussed partner agencies to affect change.
• Knowledge of relevant and credible programmes that will meet the core duties and responsibilities of youth participation.
• Knowledge of the regional partnerships and structures that affect young people, and how this role will influence systems change.

• To accurately and creatively record information relating to outcomes met through youth work/ youth voice interventions.
• Verbal communication and listening skills, in particular with vulnerable young people and families.
• Ability to engage with a variety of target groups including young people, partner agencies and wider colleagues across the youth sector.
• Ability to plan activities regionally; motivating staff and volunteers to deliver high quality provision designed to capture and disseminate youth voice.
• Ability to motivate participants and volunteers to design and deliver against identified progression pathways, focussed on legacy outcomes for young people and policy makers.
• To be able to involve young people and relevant partners to get their feedback and thoughts which will help them to be genuinely involved in decisions.

• At least three years’ paid experience of co-ordinating and delivering targeted youth-based interventions within a ‘participation/youth voice’ context.

• JNC Level 6 or an equivalent/relevant standard of professional training relating to young people.

PYF puts safeguarding at the forefront of all its activities. The successful applicant will demonstrate their firm commitment to effective safeguarding practises and high professional standards around all safeguarding issues. An enhanced DBS check is required for this role.

PYF are fully committed to the fair treatment of its staff and all users of its services, regardless of race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, responsibilities for dependants, age, physical/mental disability or offending background. We actively promote equality of opportunity for all with the right mix of talent, skills and potential and welcome applications from a wide range of candidates, including those with criminal records.