Vacancies

CARIS Families is a small frontline charity that supports homeless families living in hostel accommodation in Camden and Hackney. We run play and learning activities for children aged 0-16 from within 4 hostels in these boroughs, as well as a school holiday day trip programme. Our services for children aim to reduce the stress on children and parents of living in overcrowded, insecure accommodation, and to put back some of the vital childhood experiences that homeless accommodation deprives children of.

The services we currently offer our families in hostels are:

- Kids Club: an after-school play club in term time for 0-16s, run from our dedicated play club in the basement of one family hostel in Camden.

- Enrichment Trips and Summer Programme: a series of day trips for groups of families from our 4 hostels in the school holidays. We take part in exciting activities and visit interesting destinations round London and the South-East, to ease the pressures of being stuck in the hostel during the long school breaks.

- Essentials Bank and Toy Library: Our Essentials bank runs weekly in term-time from two of our hostels, offering families free hygiene products such as toiletries, nappies, washing powder etc. to ease the pressure on family finances at a difficult time. Our Toy Library is soon to launch in one of our Hackney hostels, offering a fortnightly borrow-and-exchange services for children and parents living there.

- Family Support Work and Housing Casework: we offer holistic casework to support families to ease the stress of their situation, from working on finances to supporting employment searches, to assisting with legal cases and supporting them to navigate their housing case.

We are currently looking for a part-time playworker to join our dedicated frontline play team. They will join our Services Manager and two Play and Learning Coordinators in delivering our Kids Club in our Camden Hostel, the Essentials Bank and Toy Library in Camden and Hackney, and the Enrichment and Summer Programme during the school holidays.

Responsibilities of the Role

The Playworker will:

- Help to deliver our hostel-based Kids Club’s play session for 0-16 year olds during term time in the London Borough of Camden

- Help to deliver our Enrichment Trips School Holiday programme during school holidays (in Camden, Hackney and the wider London and South-East England area)

- Support the running of our term-time Essential Bank and Toy Library programme, providing free household goods to families in hostels

- Provide a warm and welcoming experience for children and their families attending CARIS Families’ services

- Engage with children in their play and learning experiences, through staff-led activities and supporting child-led play.

Person Specification

We are looking for a Playworker who is:

- Qualified to Level 2 or 3, or prepared to work towards this qualification in: Playwork, Early Years, CYP Workforce or any related area (CARIS Families can support the training following a successful probation period.)

- Experienced in working within a play-based setting and working with 0- to 16-year-olds

- Experienced in providing and facilitating safe and creative play experiences

- Passionate about improving opportunities for disadvantaged children

- Understanding of the varied needs of children and their families, and of the impact of trauma and ACE on children’s development and wellbeing

- Understanding of Equal Opportunities and Safeguarding best practice

- A good communicator, comfortable with working with a wide range of service users and professionals

- Reliable and diligent, with good time-keeping skills, who is able to work well as part of a team.

How to apply Please contact office@carisfamilies.org for an application form, and return it to the same email address by 6pm on Friday 20th December 2024.