Chair of Trustees

Chair of Trustees

Posted for Refugees Welcome Crawley

Posted by Mid Sussex Voluntary Action

Register your interest

You will be redirected to the Mid Sussex Voluntary Action website to express your interest.

Background

Refugees Welcome Crawley is a registered charity transitioning from volunteer-led to employing staff and are now seeking a Chair of Trustees to lead the board through this dynamic stage of the charity’s development.

The charity was founded in 2016 in response to the arrival of Syrian refugee families. Volunteers supported their resettlement and integration into the local community. Since 2021, the scale of our work has greatly increased with our focus now on the large number of people seeking asylum accommodated by the Home Office in the Crawley area as well as those receiving refugee leave to remain. We currently support around 500 people each month, running three helplines, advice drop-in sessions, English classes, a  Welcome Club as well as providing essential clothing, travel tickets, data sim cards and other essentials.

For the last nine years , all our services and activities have been managed entirely by volunteers but we are now in a period of growth and moving towards employing staff to make our work more sustainable. We have submitted an application to the National Lottery Fund to fund employment of four paid staff – for the roles of Charity Manager, Case Worker, Bookkeeper/ Administrator and a Community Outreach Officer. We are looking for a Chair of Trustees to work with our existing board of trustees to guide and support us through this exciting next stage of the charity’s development.

Desirable

•      Previous experience of a charity trustee role

Benefits of the Chair of Trustees role

In return, we hope you will find volunteering with RWC to be a rewarding and fulfilling use of your time. As chair of trustees, you will:

•      Help to make a significant difference to the lives of men, women and children living locally seeking asylum or with refugee leave to remain

•      Work with a passionate team of caring and experienced volunteers

•      Build on the work of a well-established and respected charity, the only organisation carrying out this work in the Crawley area

•      Play a significant part at a dynamic stage in the charity’s development in which the current unsustainable load is lifted from the shoulders of the volunteer team and shared with a new team of paid employees.

Refugees Welcome Crawley welcomes applications from potential trustees with lived experience of migration to the UK.

What skills do I need?

As RWC Chair of Trustees, you will need to be:

• Well informed and ready to learn more about refugee and asylum seeker issues including the UK asylum process, implications of immigration status and current government policy
• Have proven leadership skills, including collaborative team working, listening and responding to points of view and informed decision making.
• Ensure the welfare of both volunteers and service users is paramount in decision making and implementation.
• A good communicator, both in person and remotely, with different audiences including trustees, volunteers and charity service users (refugees and people seeking asylum). Ready to respond in a timely manner to internal and external communications.
• Ensure continuing good relations between the charity and statutory and charitable organisations including asylum hotel management, local councils and partner non-profit organisations.
• Have financial acumen and ready to oversee grant award and budget management
• Take an active interest in all areas of the charity’s service provision