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Title: Marketing and Communities Lead                                                                             

Location: London SE13 (Lewisham) based 

Salary: £35,000 – £40,000 dependent on experience

Start Date: As soon as possible

Job type: Full time – on-site, in person (open to discussion for 0.8 FTE)

Reports to: Managing Director

 

INTRODUCING ONWARDS & UPWARDS 

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Onwards and Upwards (O&U) is a charity created to directly tackle the cycle of reoffending driven by the barriers to unemployment faced; our purpose is clear, and our plan is simple. We will break the cycle of reoffending by starting sustainable businesses which train and employ ex-offenders. These must be organisations that people are proud to work for, provide personal and professional development, that operate in high demand sectors, and that showcase the talents and potential of ex-offenders as employees to businesses and society at large. 

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Our plan in the long-term is to launch, test, and grow a range of businesses that all follow this model – of training, supporting and employing ex-offenders in positive environments that are part of a community, with aspirational brands, and with full support for people to grow and move on with their lives. 

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Our first commercial venture is XO Bikes – where we train people to become qualified bike mechanics and then aim to find them meaningful jobs in the cycling sector and beyond. Our second venture is in development.

We have been training mechanics for two years and have supported people into employment in the cycling sector, into roles in other sectors ranging from hospitality to construction, and have now reached the point where we want to develop and formalise this function. It is a magnificent opportunity to build an effective process at the heart of our mission, and as such we are thrilled to have created a new role to own and lead this work.

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Our second venture is XO Barbers, and is in an exciting pre-initiation phase. We will hopefully be going live with an in-prison training barbershop in early 2025.

 

THE ROLE

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Marketing has long been a strength of ours, as we have wonderful industry experience and expertise in the senior team. This has contributed to our strategic ambition to be loud with a strong media profile and positive energy across our external facing channels and opportunities. We have had good support from volunteers and pro-bono partnerships with excellent partners. We have not however had our own in-house resource owning marketing, comms, and community across the charity and portfolio ventures – which is now a priority to turbocharge our mission. Thus, this is a new, expansive, and exciting role which will need to reach from guiding strategic direction, to content conception, creation and production, managing our media opportunities, and ensuring our brand and digital footprint represents our approach, our passion, and our boundless hope.

 

The major responsibilities for this role are as follows. It is a bit of a varied list, and we don’t expect an expert in every area, but a can-do attitude and willingness to learn is essential:

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1. Content creation – full cycle production of video content; creating ideas, spotting opportunities, quick turnaround with filming and editing, to produce regular awesome video content

2. Social media – strategy, management, posting + reporting

3. Comms – processes, distribution list management, copy writing, stakeholder management and activation (eg newsletters), events support

4. Website management – ensuring current content and relevant stakeholder messaging as well as tone, look and feel 

5. Marketing strategy implementation, development and management – across Onwards and Upwards and portfolio ventures

 

This role will be involved across all parts of our organisation, which should be fun. This means working with the senior leadership team, with venture managers, and with the whole team to find moments worth celebrating, stories worth sharing, and the many threads of our mission worth promoting – and bringing them to life in our own inimitable style.

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The primary shift required is having a constant, impactful voice across all our digital channels, complementing and amplifying each other. To this end, we need someone in the role comfortable and effective owning the full cycle for content creation and production. We do not need high volume, but we do need great impact. We do not need perfection, but we do need passion, and we would really like pragmatism.

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We have an entrepreneurial approach in all that we do. What this means practically is learning by doing, testing ideas, using data to understand results, and moving forward. We hope you will bring new ideas, new approaches, and an abundance of creativity, all finely tuned and aimed at our mission under a coherent and cohesive brand. We are relatively new, but we are loud, and the role will need to fulfil the aim to ensure the widest scope of opportunity for our people.

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It is also really important that what we do matters to you. We are a small, highly effective, and passionate team, with a supportive culture and the humility that means we roll our sleeves up whenever needed whatever the task at hand. We like to think this brings a bit of variety and colour to the working week. 

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You’ll be joining the team at an exciting time; as prison and prison – leavers appear increasingly in the media amid a change of Government and a national prison capacity crisis. We want to be a positive part of the story, an exemplar that solutions exist, and a firm nudge that inspires others to change their own behaviour. You’ll need to be a strong communicator with the ability to tell a punchy story built on genuine interest in breaking the cycle of reoffending and enacting real social change.  

 

 

THE PERSON – if the above hasn’t scared you off…

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We would like to meet someone with a few years of relevant experience ideally looking for a new challenge and the opportunity to head up their own work and progress. There will always be support and help available, but this role will own responsibility for the design and delivery of this function.

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Our hope is to find someone with breadth of experience across the responsibilities above, with strong general fluency in marketing and digital comms. There are many things that can easily be learnt, but the culture and values fit is really important to us, as is the resilience, energy, and spirit with which we approach our work.

 

We are looking for someone who shares our belief that individuals who commit crimes should be given the opportunity to build themselves a positive and productive life atop the foundations of secure employment. The cycle of reoffending is an enormous issue, but one we can start to solve. 

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As a rough guide, with poetic interpretation encouraged, we are looking for:

Essential skills

• Wide range of digital skills across marketing and CMS platforms (such as Mailchimp, Action Network, Nation Builder, Wagtail or similar) 

• Proficient in Google Analytics 

• Excellent written and verbal communication and ability to tell stories 

• Ability to manage external agencies and stakeholder engagement 

• Excellent organisational skills with the ability to manage and take responsibility for own workload, handle multiple priorities and to work independently 

• Proficient in content marketing and social media strategies across Instagram and YouTube 

• Strong understanding of integrated campaigning tactics 

 

Desirable skills

• Strong understanding of brand and design principles

• An understanding of the prison and prison – leaver space

• A passion for social justice

• Interested in working with diverse people of all backgrounds 

 

HOW TO APPLY

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If you would like an informal conversation before applying, have any specific questions, or would like the chance to come and visit us in person please do contact Will at will@onwardsandupwards.uk

 

To then apply please send an up-to-date CV and one page cover letter to Maria at maria@onwardsandupwards.uk We will be reviewing applications as they come in so do please register your interest with us as soon as possible. 

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All applicants need to have the right to work in the UK and be able to provide two references.

 

We believe we'll work better if our employees come from different backgrounds and if we create an environment of inclusion and belonging for them.