Title of position: Healthy Community Worker
Reporting to: Healthy Community Project Coordinator
Location: Dublin 1 North Inner City & occasional working from home
This post is part-time (17.5 hours per week)
Dublin City Community Co-operative (‘the Co-op') has recently secured funding from the HSE and the North East Inner City (NEIC) Initiative to implement a twelve month project titled _‘To Tackle Health Inequalities through Community Capacity Building’_in the North East Inner City of Dublin. The working title of the project is The Healthy Communities Project.
The Project will work in a geographically defined area in the north east inner city with adults, parents and older adults to promote health and wellbeing. Promoting equality of access to healthy lifestyles by targeting individuals and groups with greater levels of need and traditionally hard to reach groups is a key aim.
Note: A health qualification is not required for this position. Relevant training and inductions will be provided
Main Duties of the Healthy Community Worker:
Work as part of a team to improve the overall health status of people living in the NEIC community
Promote health for all residents through health awareness and education, training, and information sharing including social prescribing in areas such as but not limited to; Healthy Eating, Physical Activity, Smoking Cessation, Drug and Alcohol Support, Chronic Disease Management, Immunisation/Childhood Vaccination, Cancer Screening
Support adults, parents and older adults in accessing health and wellbeing services. Ensure health and social care information is clear and accessible and identifying areas for improvement using the National Adult Literacy Agency (NALA) toolkit.
Promote public participation in health-related issues and develop an advocacy role in their local NEIC community.
Ensure the specific health needs of the local NEIC community are addressed including minority and vulnerable groups.
Liaise and work with other relevant statutory, community and voluntary organisations as appropriate.
Healthy Community Worker Specification:
Understand the needs of the NEIC community and those most at risk of health inequalities such as users of drug and alcohol services, homeless persons, minority ethnic groups and lone parents with young children.
Have local knowledge including working with new or marginalised communities
Be willing to work in partnership will community organisations, health professionals and the public
Have good time management and organisational skills
Work flexibly to support the needs of the community, the project team and partners
Have empathy with and understanding of the challenges and difficulties faced by the Project’s target groups
This is an on-the-ground community worker role and as such an interest in working closely with the diverse communities of the NEIC community on a day-to-day basis is essential
Be committed to addressing deep rooted health inequalities within the NEIC community
Be able to form trusting, respected and credible relationships with a wide range of local people living in the NEIC as well as with fellow staff and colleagues in statutory agencies and peer community organisations
IT literate (ability to use laptop, Word documents) & fluent English
Please submit a cover letter outlining relevant skills and experience and the reasons you are interested in the position accompanied by a CV (max 4 pages) to: info@dublincitycommunitycoop.ie . Please mark Community Health Worker in the Subject box.
Only candidates short listed for interview will be contacted.
Closing date for applications: Close of Business 27th November 2020 5pm. No applications will be considered after this time.
Terms & Conditions: A salary commensurate with experience will apply. The Healthy Communities Project is for 12 months from 1st December 2020 to 30th November 2021 and is funded by the HSE and the NEIC Initiative. The continuation of the project beyond 30th November 2021 will be funding dependent.
The work location: a combination of Dublin 1 (north east inner city) and occasional working from home. As such interested candidates must be able to work effectively and seamlessly from home when this is required (e.g. during a Covid-19 related lockdown).
A three-month probationary period will apply.
Enquiries to: Siobhán Power at the above email address
Further information on Dublin City Community Co-operative is available at www.dublincitycommunitycoop.ie and our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/DublinCityCommunityCoop/?ref=bookmarks
A brief explanatory note on the Healthy Communities Project is below:
Project Goal
Implement a sustainable model which will support the community to develop more positive health behaviours, improve health literacy, develop social supports and increase uptake of screening and immunisation services which will have a long term impact on their health in an effort to reduce the health inequalities experienced by the community of the North East Inner City.
Project Objectives
To develop sustainable partnerships with relevant statutory, non-governmental and community and voluntary organisations including General Practitioners, Primary Care, Mental Health Services and Dublin City Council.
To support local people who have an interest in health issues to become a resource within their local community.
To develop capacity in the local community to reach out to individuals and families most at risk from health inequalities.
To promote participation in the community in activities which improve the health and wellbeing of the local community and supporting them to access services which address their health needs.
To provide a range of programmes to support tobacco cessation, healthy eating and reduce stress.
To adopt a community development approach to promoting knowledge and skills among target groups to improve health literacy for those most at risk of health inequalities such as users of drug and alcohol services, homeless persons, minority ethnic groups and lone parents with young children.
To provide training to local people so they can promote primary healthcare interventions such as access to vaccinations, access to screening services and prevention programmes.
To develop a model of Social Prescribing within the area.
Project Outcomes
Develop more positive health behaviours, improve health literacy and develop social supports which will have a long term impact on their health in an effort to reduce the health inequalities experienced by the community of the North East Inner City.
A robustformative monitoring and evaluation mechanism that will capture the learning and measure the outcomes from the delivery of the Healthy Communities Project.
The Project will contribute to the four main goals defined in the Healthy Ireland Framework (2013):
Increase the proportion of people who are healthy at all stages of life
Reduce health inequalities
Protect the public from threats to health & well-being
Create an environment where every individual and sector of society can play their part in achieving a healthy Ireland