Rock Trust is Scotland’s youth-specific homelessness charity.
The aim of Rock Trust is to end youth homelessness in Scotland by ensuring that every young person has access to expert youth specific services to assist them to avoid, survive and move on from homelessness.
The team at Rock Trust advise, educate and support young people to enable them to build the personal skills and resources required to make a positive and healthy transition to adulthood. They also work to ensure that the public, policy makers, commissioners and practitioners understand the issues, make decisions and take action which will end youth homelessness.
"Our goal is to be recognised as the go-to charity for youth homelessness advice, support and best practice in Scotland, and continue to be recognised internationally as a centre of excellence in youth homelessness practice.
As a part of this aim we want to grow our brand, increase our presence in the communities we work and help more of the general public to understand who we are and what we do.
We plan to generate more income, grow our geographical reach in Scotland and our portfolio of innovative services so we can reach more young people and make sure that youth homeless is rare, brief and non-recurring in Scotland."
Jack Rillie
Director of Operations
Rock Trust has been supporting Scotland’s homeless young people for over thirty years.
Rock Trust started in 1990, when it was discovered that homeless young people had been sleeping rough in the graveyard of St. Cuthbert’s Church in Edinburgh. The Council of West End Churches was shocked by this harsh reality, and moved to action. The Council at the time owned a flat occupied by friars. One of them, Brother Basil, set out to publicise the issue of youth homelessness and raise funds. His energy turned an ambition into reality, and in 1991 Rock Trust was formed.
In February 1993, as a direct consequence of that determination to do something, and an anonymous donation of £100,000, a flat was opened for homeless young people, with three more opening later in the year forming the Bedrock service which still operates today. In 2000, Rock Trust expanded the Bedrock service in West Lothian, and in 2009, opened the Nightstop service – a franchise arrangement with DePaul, which continues to be only one of two charities in Scotland that provide this well needed emergency accommodation scheme. Rock Trust is the first in Scotland to take the respected Housing First model and adapt this for young people – creating Housing First 4 Youth. With Almond Housing Association, the team began to deliver this service in West Lothian in 2017, and it continues to run, expanding into Edinburgh and Fife.
Since then Rock Trust have continued to open new services across Scotland, and provide many different kinds of support services to young people at risk of, or experiencing homelessness. The history is rich with collaboration and innovation with other organisations, and in sharing and implementing best practice nationally and internationally.
The team at Rock Trust is positive, respectful and fair.
Rock Trust creates safe spaces for young people to move on from homelessness.
Rock Trust is a psychologically informed organisation, committed to providing accessible person-centred services, working in partnership with other agencies and respecting the skills and experience of young people, staff and volunteers.
In order to provide services that are effective and high quality, high standards are required and this can only be achieved with a skilled and motivated staff team. Investing in colleagues, setting agile goals, promoting craftsmanship and giving open, honest feedback that helps the team develop.
People matter, and Rock Trust is committed to colleagues, investing in staff led initiatives that support employee engagement, wellbeing, and talent development.
Rock Trust is searching for problem solvers and initiative takers, individuals who can collaborate with others but also thrive when given autonomy and space to be creative and try new things.
Rock Trust is an ideal workplace for individuals who look to be inspired and motivated by their day-to-day work. It is a place for people to bring their true selves and build authentic, genuine relationships both internally and externally.
Careers
Denholm Associates has partnered with Rock Trust to find their next Digital Communications Officer to join their talented Communications & Fundraising team. Rock Trust provides a range of housing and support services to young people aged 16-25 at risk of or experiencing homelessness. They do some fantastic work and their mission is to prevent youth homelessness and support young people to build better futures.
With a gold award from Investors in People, this truly is a fantastic place to work. As well as an amazing culture with great people who genuinely make a difference, they also offer fantastic benefits and a big focus on work/life balance and wellbeing.
Roles like this don’t come around often! They can offer a hybrid working pattern (ideally at least one day from their Edinburgh head office) and excellent development opportunities.
Key responsibilities of the role include:
- Coordinating the delivery of Rock Trust’s day-to-day communications activity
- Creating dynamic and impactful digital content and campaigns
- Helping to generate income through fundraising communications
- Consolidating and enhancing social media presence
- Supporting on some internal communications
This is a great role for someone looking to take that step up and take on more responsibility – you’ll have a lot of ownership.
You’ll be ambitious and enthusiastic and be able to demonstrate a track record of working on campaigns and making decisions.
Experience of working within the charity sector is not essential here, as long as you have an understanding of charity messaging – or you have the potential to learn.
If this sounds like you and you’d like to be part of an organisation that makes a difference and treats their employees well, please get in touch.
Denholm Associates has partnered with Rock Trust to find a Regional Partnerships Lead to join their talented Communications & Fundraising team. This is a new role for the organisation with the aim of increasing Rock Trust’s footprint across various regions.
Rock Trust is Scotland’s youth homelessness charity and provides a range of housing and support services to young people aged 16-25 at risk of or experiencing homelessness.
They do some fantastic work and their mission is to prevent youth homelessness and support young people to build better futures.
With a gold award from Investors in People, this truly is a fantastic place to work. As well as an amazing culture with great people who genuinely make a difference, they also offer fantastic benefits and a big focus on work/life balance and wellbeing.
This is an excellent role for a confident and ambitious individual looking to build on their experience of cultivating relationships and generating income. This can be home-based or from one of their regional offices (with some travel to offices when required).
Key responsibilities of the role include:
- Supporting the delivery of a relationship focussed fundraising strategy – maximising opportunities created by their service expansion in new regions of Scotland
- Creating bespoke regional engagement strategies
- With a fundraising focus, you’ll be researching new prospective partners and building relationships – this will be through networking and holding events
- Alongside the rest of the team, you’ll have ambitious income targets and the opportunity to grow a team under you as the organisation grows
- Overseeing the recruitment supervision of volunteer ambassadors to support the work of regional fundraising
So, what are we looking for?
Well, you may have been working within corporate fundraising for the past few years or you could be looking to make the move from a sales background where you’ve had a proven track record of building relationships and achieving targets.
We’re happy to look at someone looking to change sectors/careers. It’s very much about the person.
Bringing your can-do attitude and relationship building skills is essential. Due to some of the travel involved, a clean driving licence and access to a car would be preferred for this role.
If this sounds like you and you’d like to be part of an organisation that makes a difference and treats their employees well, please get in touch.
Our new Digital Communications Officer and a Regional Partnerships Lead bring insight, passion and a fresh perspective to help us see what more can be done, what can be done differently, what can be done better. They will use their knowledge and previous experience and their inquisitiveness to facilitate creative discussion and problem solving.
The new Digital Communications Officer will use their design skills and knowledge of content creation and digital media to help us make our voice heard, build trust in our brand, and develop new relationships across diverse audiences.
The new Regional Partnerships Lead will be a vital presence in the communities in which we work, pro-actively working to increase our presence and establish meaningful relationships that will ultimately generate income and help us to achieve our mission.
Madeline Cross
Communications and Fundraising Manager
Join our team!
If you’d like to find out more about this fantastic opportunities with Rock Trust, please get in touch with Denholm Associates today.
Thank you.