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Arise Children’s Ministry: Volunteer Communications Manager

Opportunity closing date: Friday, 29 May, 2015
Opportunity type: Employment

Arise Children’s Ministry believes that God desires families for children and that a loving, supportive, stable family environment is a tangible expression of God’s dream come true. The Ministry ultimately desires to see every child being raised in such a Christ-centred environment. It works with child and youth care centres, churches, and families in Cape Town to promote foster care and adoption for children without a family structure with the aim that every child might have a family.

Arise Children’s Ministry  seeks to appoint a part-time, voluntary Communications Manager, based at Arise Family Centre, Heideveld, Cape Town.

The person will report to the Executive Director.

Overall purpose: Implement and lead development of all external communications.

At Arise, we believe that God desires families for children and that a loving, supportive, stable family environment is a tangible expression of God’s will. Therefore, we ultimately desire to see every child being raised in such a Christ-centred environment. We will work with Child and Youth Care Centres, churches, and families in Cape Town to promote foster care and adoption for children without a family structure with the aim that every child might have a family. We will also work with churches to increase their capacity to strengthen and support existing family environments. By promoting new families and investing in existing families, we believe that Jesus is glorified.

You are as passionate as we are about seeing children being raised in thriving families. You have a strong voice – in person and on the page – and you want to use it to serve. You can shape compelling messages that move people to take action. You have a thousand followers on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and two other platforms you can’t remember because people listen to you. You love great design and care about every pixel. Arise needs you!

The person will contribute to the continued growth of a family-focused Christian NGO by sharing our message with a global audience.  Your aim will be to create engaging world-class messages using every imaginable medium: email, print, blog, social media, and video.

This is an exciting opportunity for a volunteer to:

  • engage actively and creatively with a local and global audience
  • work closely and collaboratively with colleagues from other professional backgrounds
  • think creatively about our message and help develop the organisation
  • develop new strategies for positioning Arise as a leading family-focused voice in South Africa

Responsibilities:

Communications

  • Lead development of regular email correspondence with several donor and supporter lists;
  • Manage development, distribution, and maintenance of all print and electronic collateral including, but not limited to, newsletters, brochures, annual report, e-newsletters, social media, and website;
  • Coordinate webpage maintenance—ensure that new and consistent information (article links, stories, photos, and events) is posted regularly;
  • Revitalise and manage a team of city-wide “ambassadors” to promote the work of Arise;
  • Coordinate and organise annual meetings that engage the network’s discrete audiences;
  • Identify significant media and public policy issues that can be leveraged to support Arise’s work, and create and implement plans to exploit them.

Administrative

  • Attend staff meetings and staff development events;
  • Build and implement systems to test the effectiveness of communications activities.

Professional

  • Collaborate with the Director and senior leadership to develop communications strategies that will broaden programmatic reach and deepen impact;
  • Develop and refine Arise’s core messages to ensure organizational consistency;
  • To supervise interns and other volunteers where appropriate;
  • To comply with all the organisation’s policies and standards that are relevant to activities of this post;
  • To contribute to the generic work of the team as agreed with the Arise Director.

Person Specification: (Essential “E”/Desirable “D”).

Requirements:

Marketing, Journalism, Graphic Design, Communications, or similar (D);

  • Demonstrated skill and comfort in proactively building relationships with a wide range of people, e.g., donors, volunteers, journalists (E);
  • Extensive successful writing and editing experience (externally focused) with a variety of print and online communications media (E);
  • Experience in planning, writing, editing, and production of newsletters, press releases, annual reports, marketing literature, and other print publications and directories (E);
  • Significant communications experience including a blend of advocacy and media relations (E);
  • Strong track record of using social and electronic media to achieve specific goals (D);
  • Leadership experience is successful advocacy campaigns or fundraising (D);
  • Experience in graphic design, publishing, or web development (D)
  • Experience of development/NGO work (D);
  • Experience of multi-agency working (D);
  • Experience of supervising junior staff e.g. interns and students (D).

Christian Belief:

  • Mature Christian adhering to Arise’s Statement of Faith & Values and Lausanne Covenant (E);
  • Evidence of growing and vibrant faith (E).

Competencies:

  • Self-starter, able to work independently, and entrepreneurial; enjoys creating and implementing new initiatives (E);
  • Sincere commitment to work collaboratively with all constituent groups, including staff, board members, volunteers, donors, programme participants, and other supporters (E);
  • High energy, maturity, and leadership with the ability to serve as a unifying force (E);
  • Excellent writing/editing and verbal communication skills (E);
  • Creativity (E);
  • Good time management (E).

Languages:

  • English (E);
  • Afrikaans and/or isiXhosa (D);

IT:

  • ​Advanced Microsoft Office Competency (E);
  • WordPress (E);
  • Mailchimp, Facebook, and Twitter (Tweetdeck or similar) (D);
  • InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop (D).

Driving:

  • Full license and access to own car (E).

Circumstances/Health:

  • Adherence to Arise’s Smoking Policy which does not permit smoking on the grounds of the Arise Family Centre. (E);
  • Receives a satisfactory police clearance and clearance on the child protection register (E);
  • Post may occasionally include some evening and weekend work (E).

How To Apply

To apply: Send a CV, motivation letter, and a short writing sample to [email protected].