About Us: At Dublin Simon Community, we're dedicated to making home a reality. We empower individuals to access and sustain housing through services like prevention, addiction treatment, emergency response, and targeted interventions, in collaboration with our partners.
If you share our values and want to make a difference, we'd love to hear from you. We're looking for client-focused, friendly, and adaptable individuals to join our team.
We prioritise best practices in HR, including staff training, communication, and involvement in decision-making, to create a supportive and effective work environment.
About the Role
The successful candidate will be responsible and work to enhance th4e organisations policy and research capacity by providing evidence- based analysis and insights with a view to creating positive outcomes for those experiencing homelessness.
The role will report into the Senior Manager of Advocacy and will have a level of engagement with management team. Performance will be reviewed against; agreed objectives and scorecard delivery, the willingness/ability to respond to change and leading through the values of the organisation.
Contract Type: Permanent
Hours of Work: 37.5 hours per week, 9 to 5:30pm, Monday-Friday
Location : Smithfield, Dublin. Hybrid working available.
Responsibilities :
Policy & Advocacy:
* Monitor and analyse the economic and social trends, legislation and policy changes as relevant to the clients and wider organisation, with a particular emphasis on housing, homelessness and health.
* Keep informed of sector and policy developments by attending sector briefings, monitoring homeless-related publications and media, and communicate updates to management/staff as required.
* Collaborate with the Business Intelligence team, providing external context and benchmarks to internal statistics and trends.
* Operate the internal Advocacy Framework and Social Policy Foras as they arise, ensuring a coordinated, evidence-based approach to advocacy across the organisation.
* Evidence and write policy positions and submissions to Government, incorporating the input and direction of the relevant Social Policy Forum and that of management.
* Work closely with the Communications Team on policy messaging and statistical analysis for the purpose of PR and other forms of media coverage.
Act as point of contact for staff with regards queries on advocacy and external policy developments.
Research :
Coordinate, support and promote/disseminate research projects that support the strategy of the organisation, respond to information needs internally and evidence policy positions/ advocacy work.
Process internal and external requests to undertake research and monitor progress as per the Dublin Simon Research Procedure and Ethical Guidelines for Research.
Act as point of contact for staff and external parties with regards queries on research.
Monitor the publication of relevant research across the sector and provide briefing reports on key findings to relevant internal stakeholders.
Establish and maintain an internal 'Research Hub' where staff can access high quality organisational, national and international studies as it relates to the work of Dublin Simon.
Operations :
* Work as part of the Advocacy and Compliance function to formulate organisational strategy, policies, annual scorecards and budgets ensuring the mission and strategic goals of the organisation are achieved.
* Work closely with the management team to develop and maintain quality relationships with key stakeholders to facilitate seamless service delivery and development, and to help create a more aligned culture of development within the organisation.
* Proactively work with the Senior Manager of Advocacy to source new funding streams, for the services within the scope.
* Input to the Senior Manager of Advocacy,reports and communicate input from other members of the team and prepare regular reports and updates for Management and CEO.
* Effectively manage key relationships both internally and externally in a way that enhances the quality, sustainability and reputation of Dublin Simon Community
* Ensure health, safety and welfare risks in the workplace are minimised and bring any concerns to the attention of the Director of Advocacy and Compliance and update the function and local risk registers as per the organization Risk Framework.
* Ensure that agreed action plans and scorecards with detailed targets and time lines are implemented and communicate these plans to relevant stakeholders.
Ensure confidentiality of client data.
Qualification :
Recognised qualifications to degree level in relevant field or discipline including social policy, public policy, politics and international relations, social research, communications.
Proven Knowledge:
* Clear understanding of policy issues regarding homelessness.
* Knowledge of the homeless sector and the funding environment in Ireland.
* Understanding of Government structures and workings, as well as advocacy/ lobbying in an Irish context.
* Understanding of different research methodologies and research ethics.
Strong working knowledge of all Microsoft Office programmes, in particular Sharepoint, Excel and Word.
Experience :
* 2 years of relevant experience in research, policy analysis or advocacy.
* Proven experience of writing policy documents and reports that interpret policy or research findings clearly and communicating them to a variety of audiences.
Analysing qualitative and quantitative data and report writing.
Core Competencies:
* Excellent written and communication abilities.
* Excellent research, analytical and critical evaluation skills.
* Strong organisational skills and ability to manage a complex workload while working to tight deadlines.
* Ability to build and sustain relationships internally and externally and to motivate people to engage in a particular cause.
* Enthusiastic and professional, with excellent project and time management skills.
Work effectively on projects involving a diverse range of disciplines and stakeholders.
Please note: If you are unsure of any of the requirements, please contact the Recruitment Team at Shortlisting will continue throughout the recruitment process.
Dublin Simon Community is an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from all qualified individuals.