Communications Lead

Salary Band B1, £28,876 (equivalent to full time salary of £48,126 pa)
Hours 21 hours per week, with flexible working options available
Location Our office is based in Angel, London but we welcome applicants from across the UK. There is an expectation to come to the London office on a regular basis – this will be agreed with your line manager, dependent on the nature of the role and your personal circumstances
Contract Permanent

Young Women’s Trust is the leading organisation championing young women aged 18 to 30 on low or no pay. We provide young women with practical support and undertake research to spotlight the realities of their lives and inform campaigns for greater economic justice.

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Overall purpose

As Communications Lead, you will play a crucial role in building the profile of Young Women’s Trust, implementing a media and communications strategy to support an ambitious new organisational strategy, and ensuring that young women’s voices – especially those furthest away from power and influence – are heard loud and clear.

You’ll lead on media relations work which raises the visibility and voices of young women and the financial inequality they face, builds the profile of Young Women’s Trust and reaches key audiences in support of our campaigning, fundraising and services.

You will be proactive and creative, with experience of delivering effective media campaigns from beginning to end, and the ability to translate complex policy issues into compelling, accessible messaging and content for a range of audiences.

Your excellent news judgement, ability to build strong media relationships and antennae for developing stories will be invaluable as we seek to raise our profile and influence. You will have a proven track record of engaging with the UK media on important policy issues, and of supporting people whose voices are often not heard to be featured by the media.

Key activities

Devise, deliver and evaluate proactive communications campaigns in support of organisational objectives including policy and influencing, fundraising and service delivery.
Proactively seek out and create opportunities for Young Women’s Trust to reach key audiences and raise its profile, and maximise the impact of reactive opportunities.
Build and nurture positive relationships with key journalists, press/media staff in partnership organisations, influencers, celebrities and their agents.
Deliver the organisation’s media relations work including drafting and distributing press releases, articles, blogs and letters.
Manage and develop the press office function, ensuring swift and effective responses to enquiries, and maintaining media databases and media monitoring services.
Manage reputational risk and crisis communications issues, making recommendations as to approaches and responses and advising SMT and the CEO.
Monitor, evaluate and report on the impact of our media and communications work and use data to make recommendations for improvements to our communications work.
Develop, support and diversify our network of young women who speak to the media about the issues they face and act as spokespeople, and proactively identify opportunities for young women’s voices to be heard in the media.
Develop Young Women’s Trust spokespeople, including providing training and support and briefing spokespeople ahead of media appearances.
Provide expert media and communications advice and guidance to colleagues across the charity.
Help to provide out of hours media and social media cover.
Monitor news and current affairs, advising on when and how we should respond, and keeping colleagues abreast of relevant media stories and emerging issues.
Train and support young women to share their experiences with the media and at events, working closely with our Participation Team.
Support the Digital and Communications Assistant (line managed by the Social Media and Digital Marketing Manager) to carry out communications and media tasks such as compiling media monitoring reports and news summaries.

Person specification

Experience

A strong track record securing national media coverage in the UK.
Experience of developing and implementing effective media strategies in support of campaigning, fundraising, and/or service delivery objectives.
Experience of developing compelling media stories from complex organisational messages, policy content or research and data.

Skills and attributes

Excellent news and political sense, with a solid understanding of the needs of different audiences and media, and the ability to generate media stories and ideas which meet these needs.
Proven ability to build strong relationships with journalists.
Excellent written communication skills with proven ability to produce content for a range of audiences.
Excellent verbal communications skills with the ability to represent the organisation externally including to the media and at events and meetings with journalists, partners and stakeholders.
Excellent project management skills with the ability to coordinate colleagues to meet shared objectives.

At Young Women’s Trust, we value and celebrate diversity, and welcome applications regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, disability, religion, sexual orientation or gender identity. We particularly encourage applications from communities under-represented in our sector including racially minoritised people, people with disabilities, and those from low socio-economic backgrounds.

You’ll be joining a team that will embrace your ideas and support and encourage you to bring your whole self to work.

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How to apply

Please complete a job application form and return to: recruitment@youngwomenstrust.org

We would be grateful if you could also complete our anonymous online equal opportunities monitoring form.

Deadline to apply Monday 20 March, 9am

Interviews First interviews Monday 27 March, second interviews Thursday 30 March

If you would like to talk about the role before applying, please email recruitment@youngwomenstrust.org to arrange a discussion.

You must have the right to work in the UK to apply for this role. We are not able to sponsor work visas for non-British applicants.