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CLOSED. Recruitment: Synergi Grants Manager/Grants Officer

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About Synergi

Synergi is a programme of work which focuses on the intersection of racial justice and mental health. It had a previous iteration as a knowledge hub, bringing together research and network building.

In its new iteration it is hosted by NSUN. In this new phase of Synergi, our focus is on shifting power and resource to grassroots groups and community organisers working on the intersection of racial justice and mental health. We will be working with people doing lived experience work on the ground, who are imagining and building alternatives. We want to connect, amplify, celebrate and resource this work.

Synergi has four main workstreams:

  1. Grants Programme – Small grants programme redistributing resources to grassroots and user-led groups working on mental health and racial justice.
  2. Community Responses to Mental Health – This work will include those funded under round 1 of our grants scheme but also round 2, with the aim to support the work that has historically already been done in this space. The activities under this workstream will be guided by the needs of the community in shifting the conversation around mental health and racial justice.
  3. Supporting Movement Spaces – We are aware that grassroots activism often lacks access to resources so, in addition to the grants scheme we are working to support this work in a variety of ways, both practically but also holistically to ensure that those working on the front line are sustained and replenished.
  4. Remembrance As Resistance – This workstream will address the historical epistemic imbalance of activism by racialised communities in the UK by documenting this work whilst also creating intergenerational conversations and networks.

Mental ill-health, distress or trauma is often caused by and/or exacerbated by racial injustice and carceral forms of state violence. Our aim is for Synergi to support the work of groups at the frontline of challenging this, and to effectively contribute to building collective memory and power on mental health and abolition.

Funding from Lankelly Chase is secured until September 2025, and it is hoped that additional funding will be secured to allow Synergi to continue to grow beyond this period.

About NSUN (the National Survivor User Network)

NSUN is a charity and a membership organisation. We are a network of grassroots, user-led mental health groups and people with lived experience of mental ill-health, distress and trauma. We connect, support and amplify the voices and work of our membership and work towards the redistribution of power and resource in mental health. 

NSUN is a user-led organisation, and all staff and trustees have lived experience of mental ill-health, distress or trauma.

Over the past couple of years, NSUN has scaled and changed. This is an exciting time to join an organisation which is growing and embarking upon an exciting new strategic direction, focussed on doing things differently in mental health and beyond.

About the role

This role will be integral to the new phase of Synergi’s work:

  1. resourcing groups with lived experience of mental ill health to support and develop their work
  2. helping to connect these groups working at a grassroots level to strengthen wider movements for radical change
  3. work towards a more equitable redistribution of resources and power

Synergi has already awarded 37 grants of £3000, totalling £111,000 to grassroots and user-led groups working on mental health and racial justice. Between now and September 25 we expect to build on learning from the first round. The Synergi Grants Manager/Officer, supported by the wider team, will be responsible for delivering one further round of funding alongside a rolling solidarity fund.

The foundations of the second round of funding have been established and the successful candidate will, with the support of the Synergi Director and other NSUN staff, lead on delivering our second funding round and implementation of the solidarity fund by the summer of 2024. To complement the award, we are offering additional support to a cohort of grantees, and it is expected that the Grants Manager/Grants Officer will lead this work in collaboration with other Synergi staff.

The successful candidate will have lived experience of mental ill-health, distress or trauma, a very strong understanding of what it means to come from a racialised background, with a passion for Synergi’s mission and work, and the ability to communicate it effectively to a wide variety of stakeholders.

We are looking for applications from candidates who are either interested in the full Grants Manager role, and from candidates who don’t meet all of the Grants Manager essential criteria but who might be interested in a Grants Officer role. Job descriptions and person specifications for both roles are set out separately in the recruitment pack.

Job description and person specification

Click here to download the recruitment pack

Alternatively, click here to download the recruitment pack as a plaintext Word document

Apply

Click here to download the application form

Click here to download the equality and diversity monitoring form

The recruitment process consists of an application form, a first interview for longlisted candidates, and a second interview for candidates shortlisted after the first interview.

Please complete and send the application form and equality monitoring form to info@nsun.org.uk. Please include “Synergi Grants Manager” or “Synergi Grants Officer”, depending on which role you are applying for, in the email subject line.

On completion of all the above documents by 9am on Monday 26th February 2024, we will acknowledge receipt of your application. We regret that late applications will not be considered. You can find out more about Synergi on our website.

If you would like to discuss this role in more detail please contact Debbie Solomon (she/her), Synergi Director, by emailing debbie.solomon@nsun.org.uk.