Job Summary
People's Powerhouse is a Community Interest Company with financial support from The National Lottery Community Fund and Arts Council England. The purpose is rooted in Northern England. It exists to put the voices of Northerners at the centre of the decisions that shape their lives, strengthen devolution for the North, and ensure systems more adequately serve the challenges that people face. Staff work across democratic engagement, participatory practice, community research, and culture.
It’s a small, committed team. We go where communities are, we listen properly, and we act on what we hear.
We're offering a hands-on role to lead the project "Coast to Coast". This role is for a self-starter who believes real change starts with being heard. As well as supporting wider company activities, you’ll drive two core strands:
- Coast to Coast Listening Conversations: You’ll lead delivery of the Coast to Coast Listening project across the whole of Northern England, from the Cumbrian coast to the North Sea. These are skilled, honest conversations with communities whose voices are too often overlooked. Your focus is hands on delivery and process: every conversation well-run, properly documented, with listeners being consistently supported and conversations that are conducted with fidelity to agreed protocols, so that the Connection and Impact Manager can synthesise findings reliably.
- Communications and Content: In consultation with the People's Powerhouse staff team, you’ll produce the regular People’s Powerhouse bulletin and create social media content that builds visibility, tells stories from the findings, and gives the work and the organisation a distinctive voice online.
Across both work streams (Coast to Coast and communications), this role demands a motivated person willing to be accountable, present and who sees things through. You’ll need to be tenacious and genuinely able to inspire others. You'll be comfortable working with people from a range of background and across a variety of contexts e.g. from a newly recruited community listener, a local partner, elected member or someone who has never been asked their opinion before.
Responsibilities
- Plan, coordinate and deliver the listening project across the Coast to Coast corridor of Northern England with diverse communities
- Continually recruit, train and support a network of community listeners
- Maintain model fidelity across all community contexts, ensuring agreed processes and documentation protocols are consistently upheld
- Build trust with local communities, grassroots organisations, and civic partners
- Contribute to evaluation and reporting with the Connection and Impact Manager
- Produce the People’s Powerhouse bulletin: informative, well-written, and keeping the network energised
- Create compelling social media content that amplifies achievements and opportunities and shares listening stories
- Contribute to broader organisational communications as required
- This is not an exhaustive list.
Personal Qualities and essential criteria
- A genuine self-starter: you generate momentum, you don’t wait for it
- A completer-finisher: you follow things through and don’t leave loose ends
- Tenacious: you keep going when it is hard
- Energised: Able to inspire and motivate others across a wide range of contexts
- Skilled at listening: you hear what people mean, not just what they say
- Resourceful: Comfortable working independently across a wide geography
Desirable
- Connections across Northern England communities or civil society
- Experience in a team with clearly differentiated delivery, research, and impact roles
- Understanding of deliberative democracy, participatory practice, creativity and arts, or community-led approaches
We offer
- Workplace pension
- Flexible working within the demands of community-facing delivery
- A role that’s part of something that matters
- A small team that trusts you to get on with the job
How to apply
Send a CV and a covering letter of no more than two sides of A4 to [email protected].
Your letter should tell us why this role, why now, what you would bring to this work and your preferred start date/ notice period required.
We particularly welcome applications from people with lived experience of the communities we work with. We don’t require formal qualifications; we require evidence that you can do the job and that you believe in the purpose of People's Powerhouse.
Closing date: Midnight on Sunday 16th August 2026 Interviews: Friday 28th August. (We reserve the right to close this recruitment early if we receive enough suitable applicants.)
People's Powerhouse CIC is committed to welcoming applications from people who are underrepresented in the social purpose sector.
Pay: £30,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- Company pension
- Work from home
Experience:
- community outreach : 2 years (required)
Licence/Certification:
- Driving Licence (required)
Work authorisation:
- United Kingdom (required)
Willingness to travel:
Work Location: Hybrid remote in Blyth NE24 3ED
