Contract: 12 month initial contract with the intention to become permanent as funding allows

Hours: Full time

Location: London Hybrid / Remote. This is a UK based role; you must have the right to work in the UK to be considered

Salary: £33,000 gross per annum. Team members that come into the London office 2+ days per week are entitled to an additional office allowance of £2,000 per annum pro rated

Travel: Remote team members are required to travel to our London office at least once a month. This role also requires regular travel across the UK and may need occasional international travel. Bite Back has an annual residential event over a weekend in mid-August, and an end of year celebration event with our young people which are essential for this role to attend.

Benefits: 30 days annual leave, flexible working environment, enhanced sick pay, 5% employer / 3% employee pension contribution, bike to work scheme

Reporting to: Head of Youth Activist Development

Please note: Owing to the nature of this role, any offer of employment with Bite Back will be subject to a satisfactory enhanced DBS check.

Do you want to work with a vibrant, dynamic and youth driven organisation that is committed to creating healthy futures for British children by improving the food system? Be part of the creative, agile and growing team behind Bite Back 2030’s exceptional teenage activists. Join us as our Youth Advocacy Manager and contribute to our journey to help make the food system healthier and fairer. See below for more details about the role and how to apply.

At Bite Back 2030 we are committed to ensuring our staff is representative of the diverse world around us and therefore we encourage candidates with a range of lived and professional experiences to apply. We particularly welcome applications from people of colour, LGBTQ+ people and disabled people. We will use positive action under the Equality Act 2010 to appoint from these underrepresented groups if two candidates are equally qualified.

About Bite Back

We’re surrounded by junk food. From the moment we're born, every second of every day, children are being targeted. Giant companies manipulate them with colourful, cuddly, clever marketing, deceive them with packaging claims and pump products at them that are full of junk. It's become the cultural wallpaper. Now, it risks destroying the health of a generation.

In the UK, nearly a third of children aged 2-15 are now at future risk of developing food-related conditions like type 2 diabetes and heart disease. The good news is, it's totally preventable. And we're biting back.

Bite Back is a youth activist movement challenging a food system that's been set up to fool us all.

We do this by:

1. Calling out the manipulation of the junk food giants.
2. Demanding higher standards from food marketing and from everyday food itself.
3. Mobilising and equipping young people in the fight for better food.

We do all this so we can bite back against a global epidemic of food-related ill health.

Role Description

The Youth Advocacy Manager is responsible for ensuring the voices of our Youth Activists and Ambassadors are at the heart of Bite Back’s mission. You will need to think both strategically and operationally about youth voice and be able to work collaboratively with other Bite Back teams to strengthen our organisational advocacy and impact.

Responsibilities

The Youth Advocacy Manager is accountable for:

Youth Advocacy

• Design, development and delivery of our youth programme with a particular focus on developing our young people’s advocacy skills alongside our Head of Youth Activist Development . This will include:
  • Organising and facilitating regular group meetings for our campaigns development and strategic input with support from the Youth Development Lead.
  • Utilising digital communication channels to engage our young people in our advocacy work.
  • Ensuring forums for engagement are engaging, fun, and tap into youth motivation.
  • Building a strong values-based culture, encouraging positivity, openness, collaboration and creativity.
  • Acting as the key point of contact for our Youth Board members, on standby to resolve any arising issues.

Youth Activism

• Playing an active role convening and energising our 60 youth activists. Taking a lead on their training and development to aid us in activating our campaigns activities in a multitude of settings including media, policy, social media and public affairs.
• Working alongside our Campaigns teams to support the engagement of our youth activists in our campaigns activations.
• Taking steps, alongside the Head of Youth Activist Development, to enable every young person to act as key representative of Bite Back, ensuring their needs, ideas, and strategic thinking is fed into wider organisational plans.
• Ensuring that we can provide a consistent and uplifting pathway for our youth activists and leading the development of a comprehensive pathway for our youth board that acts as a framework for youth programmes.

Safeguarding and Risk

• Taking an active lead on the management of risk, wellbeing and safety of our young people. Working with our Youth Development Lead to ensure that the highest level of safeguarding is upheld in all interactions with the Youth Board and Ambassadors.
• You will have joint responsibility for the oversight of our safeguarding processes and practices including the securing of consent forms, training of the young people for social media and media appearances, as well as liaising with partners, schools and parents/guardians.

Events

• Leading on the management of large-scale events and moments owned by the youth team.
• Ensuring that we’re able to execute impactful events; effectively managing resourcing and our delivery of tasks.
• Working with our Brand Manager and Head of Youth Activist Development to support young people engaging in panel discussions or keynote speeches amongst business leaders.
• Working alongside our Senior Public Affairs Manager to support our young people to engage with political stakeholders including politicians and senior officials.

Other

• Collaborating with colleagues from Brand, Policy and Public Affairs to horizon scan and identify opportunities for our Youth Board to lobby decision makers across industries.
• Working alongside the Head of Youth Activist Development to advance organisational and team objectives.

Skills and Experience

The ideal candidate would have the following:

Essential

• Significant experience working in youth participation programmes in the UK.
• Experience of empowering young people to lead campaigns targeting the government or business to make policy changes.
• Experience in designing and leading programmes and governance structures to empower young people.
• A developed understanding of advocacy, campaigning, public policy, activism and influencing power structures in the UK.
• Significant project management, administration and operations experience, with the ability to manage multiple projects to tight deadlines and high quality.
• Experience in building and maintaining partnerships (preferably with schools, youth networks and community groups).
• Experience safeguarding children and young people and risk management with a developed understanding of safeguarding practices and legislation.
• Outstanding people skills, with the ability to form strong relationships with young people.
• Excellent English language verbal and written communication skills.

Desirable

• Experience of working on children’s health in the UK.
• Experience of working in multi-disciplinary teams working towards a common advocacy goal.
• Good understanding of the cultural landscape of young people in the UK.

Approach to Work

You will be able to show the following qualities:

• A bold and open mind — you will be prepared to think differently about issues.
• A level head — you will be comfortable working both reactively and proactively.
• A sense of humour — we believe work should be fun and that we all perform at our very best when we enjoy what we do.
• Creativity — you will come at issues from new and unusual angles and be prepared to work hard on finding fresh and surprising angles.
• Resilience — you will be prepared to keep going or as our values say, set back won't set you back.
• A passion for our mission. With a particular gift for energising others.

To Apply

Please apply with a CV and covering statement (maximum two sides of A4) explaining why you are a good candidate for this position. The covering statement is your opportunity to tell us why you’re a good fit for this role. We know it’s a big job so we don’t expect you to have everything we are asking for on day one and we are committed to providing support and training. Do look at each point under Skills and Experience and Approach to Work to give clear, specific examples of how you meet them through your personal or professional experience (volunteering counts too!). Don’t forget to tell us why you want the job!

If you have any questions about the role or the application process, do contact us on recruitment@biteback2030.com and we’ll be happy to help. We will only accept applications submitted via the CharityJob website. This is because CharityJob automatically anonymises all applications to reduce bias in the selection process.

Applications will be handled in line with our Recruitment Privacy Policy.

Timeline

• Applications close at 09:00 on Friday 3rd January 2025.
• Initial interviews are expected to take place on Monday 13th January 2025.
• Second interviews will happen at Fivefields, 8-10 Grosvenor Gardens, Victoria, London, SW1W 0DH on Tuesday 21st January 2025.

If you are in receipt of means tested benefits and cost is a barrier to attending a London based interview, please let us know and we can help with booking your travel.

We are testing an approach of sharing one interview question in advance as part of our commitment to being more inclusive. Please let us know if you require any additional support or reasonable adjustments for the application, or interview. We really want our process to feel accessible.