Organisation
The Football Association
Location
Various
Salary Range
N/A
Contract Type
Part Time
Closing Date
1 May 2023
Job Description
A game For All…
The FA together with our equality partner, Kick It Out will be deploying a grassroots pilot football ‘EDI Community of Practice’ to support the Grassroots Game in 22/23 and beyond. The Community of Practice (‘COP’) will consist of local ambassadors who will support the growth of grassroots football for all communities that are currently disproportionately represented across the game.
These roles will ensure that our focus on embedding EDI into grassroots football, developing a skilled and empathetic workforce and a network of volunteers across the game remains a high priority and aligns to our equality, diversity and inclusion strategy ‘A Game For All 2021-24′ and our ‘Volunteer Game Plan 2021-24′. We will identify, recruit and support new ambassadors from historically under-represented communities by connecting with a diverse workforce of people and integral allies from the communities in which we wish to extend the provision of football in a way that is right for them and their needs.
A total of 32 COP Ambassadors will be deployed within 7 distinct areas across the County FA network and semi-pro game based (men’s and women’s) where we believe we can pilot the programme and add the most value.
A total of 32 EDI Ambassadors are expected to be deployed in grassroots CFA regions:
Birmingham x 4
Lancashire x 3
Leicestershire and Rutland x 3
London x 4
Manchester x 3
Middlesex x 4
West Riding x 3
A further 8 EDI Ambassadors will be placed into steps 1-6 of the football pyramid across men’s and women’s football:
Women’s Pyramid at FA Women’s National League level (below English women’s Championship) x 4
Men’s semi-professional game across the National League System x 4
Each role will be offered part-time and a 50-hour contract for 12 months only from the date of induction (12-month period). Each Ambassador will be required to disclose a DBS check alongside references and experience of working in a sporting and/or relevant environment within their chosen locality.
Accountabilities and Objectives
The following principles underpin the role of an ambassador within the COP:
CONNECTION – Ambassadors will be familiar within the community they wish to support, creating greater confidence for local grassroots football to embrace EDI and create better environments for all.
PERSONALISED – Built on relationships and trust.
CREATIVE– Being curious in finding new and appropriate ways of empowering, engaging, and inspiring others to feel they belong.
DRIVING SUSTAINABLE CHANGE – encouraging action and application of best practices to drive new ways of working which are embedded in the principles of EDI.
Key objectives of the ‘Grassroots EDI COP’:
To strengthen the connection between The FA and local communities in the most diverse regions across the country.
To support the work of the local CFAs in their efforts to drive diversity and inclusion into grassroots football – playing, off the pitch and volunteering.
To drive best practice and EDI conversations into grassroots football and encourage collaboration across the network (involving stakeholders such as The FA EDI team, grassroots clubs, leagues, FA Coach Development. Team, County FA’s, Coach Mentors, Community Champions and wider members of the grassroots delivery team) to ensure a joined-up and collaborative approach to equality, diversity and inclusion.
To collect examples across the grassroots network of best practices which can be disseminated nationally.
To improve communications and trust between grassroots stakeholders and football bodies.
Primary objectives of the role:
Develop on understanding of the football landscape – identifying current EDI challenges at clubs and in the local areas where clubs are located.
Delivery of an allocated amount of education and awareness sessions within grassroots clubs with a focus on The FA’s grassroots and semi-pro Football Leadership Diversity Code.
Disseminate key communications, campaigns and updates from The FA into communities to ensure messages are received as intended as well as signposting to appropriate service providers.
Improving awareness of reporting discrimination and building confidence in the reporting process.
Identify key contacts at each club responsible for ED&I, sharing tools and information and building a ‘community’ of like-minded people across the region.
Identify volunteers from ethnically diverse communities that can continue to support grassroots clubs on a longer-term basis.
Where appropriate, creating an engagement strategy for clubs to reach historically underrepresented communities to boost participation.
Attend quarterly meetings aimed at providing clarity on work programmes, development opportunities and good practice sharing.
Complete a monthly dashboard submitted to The FA on quantitative and qualitative support provided to grassroots clubs and volunteers (and log all hours of activity.)
The COP will operate as autonomous advocates of EDI as well as work together with other ambassadors across their regions. We expect ambassadors to develop close relationships with:
The FA EDI Team.
The FA Regional Manager team (grassroots division)
The FA Volunteering team.
Their local County FA – specifically the CFA Volunteer Coordinators pilot in Birmingham, Leicestershire, London, Middlesex and West Riding.
Secondary objectives:
Support (where appropriate) the delivery of The FA’s Faith and Football activities, events, policies and publications.
Provide relevant advice and guidance as requested from time to time into various football programmes and embed best practices as appropriate.
What You’ll Need?
Essentially for the role:
Ability to build trust and develop effective working relationships with people of all ages and backgrounds.
A role model to people from ethnically diverse communities and a connector of people and projects.
Understanding of challenges and barriers faced by people from historically underrepresented communities.
Knowledge and understanding of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.
Flexible in approach with a willingness to work some evenings and weekends, as well as travel across the County (where the Ambassador will operate)
Experience volunteering within the local community.
Basic IT and numeric skills for completing any required reports.
Leadership skills and leading groups.
Beneficial to also have:
Facilitating and engaging with grassroots clubs, players, officials, volunteers and parents.
Working in a sporting and/or relevant environment within your region.
What’s in it for you?
We pride ourselves in offering a competitive rate of pay as well as great opportunities to develop and grow in your role.
We are committed to ensuring everyone can flourish in their roles, and by doing this we offer top of the range facilities across two core business locations. We have unique office spaces under the arch of the iconic Wembley National Stadium, which is the home of English football. We are also delighted to have a world-class Elite Performance Centre, St. George’s Park in Staffordshire which is an exceptional setting to develop and inspire high-performing England teams and leaders.
Our Organisation
The Football Association [The FA] is the not-for-profit governing body of football in England. It is responsible for promoting and developing every level of the game, from grassroots through to the professional game, and generates significant revenue to support investment into English football each year.
The FA oversees England international teams across men’s, women’s, youth and disability football, as well as running the National League System and FA Competitions including the Emirates FA Cup, Barclays FA Women’s Super League, FA Women’s Championship, and Vitality Women’s FA Cup, and the world-class facilities of Wembley Stadium and St. George’s Park, all with a purpose to Unite the Game and Inspire the Nation.
We currently work within a hybrid working model whereby the expectation is to work from your contractual location for part of the week, and as and when required by the team. The remaining days can be worked remotely. We will continue to monitor this model and it may be adjusted in future if deemed necessary.
Your contract with The FA will specify a fixed location of either Wembley Stadium, St. George’s Park or our Processing Centre, unless the role is advertised as a homebased contract. The contractual location of this role can be found at the top of this advert on our FA vacancy page.
The FA, For All, For You
Our equality, diversity and inclusion strategy forms an integral part of our long-term commitment to using our influence across English football to create a game free from discrimination.
https://www.thefa.com/-/media/thefacom-new/files/about-the-fa/2021/fa_a-game-for-all-strategy.ashx
A Game For All outlines three key strategic commitments – Lead the Change, Be the Change, and Inspire the Change – which will ensure tackling discrimination remains a core priority for English football for years to come.
We are a diverse workplace, aspiring to represent football across the country. The Football Association actively promotes inclusion and diversity, encouraging you to be the best version of yourself at work.
We welcome applications from everyone and are proud to be an equal opportunities employer. If you have any particular requirements in respect of the recruitment or interview process, please mention this during your application.
As part of The FA’s commitment to ensuring a safe environment for everyone in football, every employee will be required to complete a DBS check. The level of the check required will be based on the activity of the specific job role and in line with legislation and government guidance.
The FA together with our equality partner, Kick It Out will be deploying a grassroots pilot football ‘EDI Community of Practice’ to support the Grassroots Game in 22/23 and beyond. The Community of Practice (‘COP’) will consist of local ambassadors who will support the growth of grassroots football for all communities that are currently disproportionately represented across the game.
These roles will ensure that our focus on embedding EDI into grassroots football, developing a skilled and empathetic workforce and a network of volunteers across the game remains a high priority and aligns to our equality, diversity and inclusion strategy ‘A Game For All 2021-24′ and our ‘Volunteer Game Plan 2021-24′. We will identify, recruit and support new ambassadors from historically under-represented communities by connecting with a diverse workforce of people and integral allies from the communities in which we wish to extend the provision of football in a way that is right for them and their needs.
A total of 32 COP Ambassadors will be deployed within 7 distinct areas across the County FA network and semi-pro game based (men’s and women’s) where we believe we can pilot the programme and add the most value.
A total of 32 EDI Ambassadors are expected to be deployed in grassroots CFA regions:
Birmingham x 4
Lancashire x 3
Leicestershire and Rutland x 3
London x 4
Manchester x 3
Middlesex x 4
West Riding x 3
A further 8 EDI Ambassadors will be placed into steps 1-6 of the football pyramid across men’s and women’s football:
Women’s Pyramid at FA Women’s National League level (below English women’s Championship) x 4
Men’s semi-professional game across the National League System x 4
Each role will be offered part-time and a 50-hour contract for 12 months only from the date of induction (12-month period). Each Ambassador will be required to disclose a DBS check alongside references and experience of working in a sporting and/or relevant environment within their chosen locality.
Accountabilities and Objectives
The following principles underpin the role of an ambassador within the COP:
CONNECTION – Ambassadors will be familiar within the community they wish to support, creating greater confidence for local grassroots football to embrace EDI and create better environments for all.
PERSONALISED – Built on relationships and trust.
CREATIVE– Being curious in finding new and appropriate ways of empowering, engaging, and inspiring others to feel they belong.
DRIVING SUSTAINABLE CHANGE – encouraging action and application of best practices to drive new ways of working which are embedded in the principles of EDI.
Key objectives of the ‘Grassroots EDI COP’:
To strengthen the connection between The FA and local communities in the most diverse regions across the country.
To support the work of the local CFAs in their efforts to drive diversity and inclusion into grassroots football – playing, off the pitch and volunteering.
To drive best practice and EDI conversations into grassroots football and encourage collaboration across the network (involving stakeholders such as The FA EDI team, grassroots clubs, leagues, FA Coach Development. Team, County FA’s, Coach Mentors, Community Champions and wider members of the grassroots delivery team) to ensure a joined-up and collaborative approach to equality, diversity and inclusion.
To collect examples across the grassroots network of best practices which can be disseminated nationally.
To improve communications and trust between grassroots stakeholders and football bodies.
Primary objectives of the role:
Develop on understanding of the football landscape – identifying current EDI challenges at clubs and in the local areas where clubs are located.
Delivery of an allocated amount of education and awareness sessions within grassroots clubs with a focus on The FA’s grassroots and semi-pro Football Leadership Diversity Code.
Disseminate key communications, campaigns and updates from The FA into communities to ensure messages are received as intended as well as signposting to appropriate service providers.
Improving awareness of reporting discrimination and building confidence in the reporting process.
Identify key contacts at each club responsible for ED&I, sharing tools and information and building a ‘community’ of like-minded people across the region.
Identify volunteers from ethnically diverse communities that can continue to support grassroots clubs on a longer-term basis.
Where appropriate, creating an engagement strategy for clubs to reach historically underrepresented communities to boost participation.
Attend quarterly meetings aimed at providing clarity on work programmes, development opportunities and good practice sharing.
Complete a monthly dashboard submitted to The FA on quantitative and qualitative support provided to grassroots clubs and volunteers (and log all hours of activity.)
The COP will operate as autonomous advocates of EDI as well as work together with other ambassadors across their regions. We expect ambassadors to develop close relationships with:
The FA EDI Team.
The FA Regional Manager team (grassroots division)
The FA Volunteering team.
Their local County FA – specifically the CFA Volunteer Coordinators pilot in Birmingham, Leicestershire, London, Middlesex and West Riding.
Secondary objectives:
Support (where appropriate) the delivery of The FA’s Faith and Football activities, events, policies and publications.
Provide relevant advice and guidance as requested from time to time into various football programmes and embed best practices as appropriate.
What You’ll Need?
Essentially for the role:
Ability to build trust and develop effective working relationships with people of all ages and backgrounds.
A role model to people from ethnically diverse communities and a connector of people and projects.
Understanding of challenges and barriers faced by people from historically underrepresented communities.
Knowledge and understanding of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.
Flexible in approach with a willingness to work some evenings and weekends, as well as travel across the County (where the Ambassador will operate)
Experience volunteering within the local community.
Basic IT and numeric skills for completing any required reports.
Leadership skills and leading groups.
Beneficial to also have:
Facilitating and engaging with grassroots clubs, players, officials, volunteers and parents.
Working in a sporting and/or relevant environment within your region.
What’s in it for you?
We pride ourselves in offering a competitive rate of pay as well as great opportunities to develop and grow in your role.
We are committed to ensuring everyone can flourish in their roles, and by doing this we offer top of the range facilities across two core business locations. We have unique office spaces under the arch of the iconic Wembley National Stadium, which is the home of English football. We are also delighted to have a world-class Elite Performance Centre, St. George’s Park in Staffordshire which is an exceptional setting to develop and inspire high-performing England teams and leaders.
Our Organisation
The Football Association [The FA] is the not-for-profit governing body of football in England. It is responsible for promoting and developing every level of the game, from grassroots through to the professional game, and generates significant revenue to support investment into English football each year.
The FA oversees England international teams across men’s, women’s, youth and disability football, as well as running the National League System and FA Competitions including the Emirates FA Cup, Barclays FA Women’s Super League, FA Women’s Championship, and Vitality Women’s FA Cup, and the world-class facilities of Wembley Stadium and St. George’s Park, all with a purpose to Unite the Game and Inspire the Nation.
We currently work within a hybrid working model whereby the expectation is to work from your contractual location for part of the week, and as and when required by the team. The remaining days can be worked remotely. We will continue to monitor this model and it may be adjusted in future if deemed necessary.
Your contract with The FA will specify a fixed location of either Wembley Stadium, St. George’s Park or our Processing Centre, unless the role is advertised as a homebased contract. The contractual location of this role can be found at the top of this advert on our FA vacancy page.
The FA, For All, For You
Our equality, diversity and inclusion strategy forms an integral part of our long-term commitment to using our influence across English football to create a game free from discrimination.
https://www.thefa.com/-/media/thefacom-new/files/about-the-fa/2021/fa_a-game-for-all-strategy.ashx
A Game For All outlines three key strategic commitments – Lead the Change, Be the Change, and Inspire the Change – which will ensure tackling discrimination remains a core priority for English football for years to come.
We are a diverse workplace, aspiring to represent football across the country. The Football Association actively promotes inclusion and diversity, encouraging you to be the best version of yourself at work.
We welcome applications from everyone and are proud to be an equal opportunities employer. If you have any particular requirements in respect of the recruitment or interview process, please mention this during your application.
As part of The FA’s commitment to ensuring a safe environment for everyone in football, every employee will be required to complete a DBS check. The level of the check required will be based on the activity of the specific job role and in line with legislation and government guidance.
To Apply
https://careers.thefa.com/jobs/vacancy/equality-diversity-and-inclusion-community-of-practice-ambassadors-grassroots—semi-pro-game-0527-variable/1602/description/