Position summary:
Reporting to the Director of Communications & Fundraising, Jigsaw’s Communications Coordinator will be a central member of a dynamic team in a time of expansion and growth.
At Jigsaw, we recognise that effective communications is an area that can make a significant contribution in enhancing public understanding of mental health and has the ability to transform the way young people look after their mental health. It also has the potential to inspire action, to mobilise communities and ultimately to support the achievement of our organisational vision of an Ireland that fully values and better supports our young people’s mental health.
Your role will specifically support the execution of our communications strategy, one that aims to strengthen our reputation, inspire lasting change and influence public policy and conversation in relation to youth mental health, by developing more coherent, inclusive and cohesive communications.
Largely focussed on supporting our media and advocacy workstreams, you will help tell the Jigsaw story and its position of leadership in an engaging way, thus enhancing the brand, activating our unique points of difference and driving our reputation across our various audiences.
This is really exciting role in an exciting organisation.
Who we are:
Established (as Headstrong) in 2006, Jigsaw is Ireland’s leading youth mental charity and is committed to advancing young people’s mental health and to developing supportive communities by providing a range of early intervention primary care services and supports across the Republic of Ireland.
With the support of a range of public and private funders, we deliver free mental health services and supports for young people and adults including:
1. Free therapy with young people (aged 12-25) in-person across 14 regional hubs and online via phone and video
2. community-based programmes aimed at better informing, supporting, educating and empowering young people and those around them, in places where they live, learn, work and play
3. pioneering research and robust evaluation leading to transformative evidence
4. a wide range of online mental health supports, services and programmes through jigsaw.ie
5. comprehensive schools programmes aimed at supporting the mental health and wellbeing of young people by developing a shared responsibility for mental health across the whole school community
In Jigsaw, we intervene early to support young people’s mental health. We are the only mental health service in the country with an exclusive focus on 12-25 year olds and are ambitious and bold about changing the current paradigm in approaches to mental health.
We aim to continue to inspire change, and to be pioneering, disruptive, brave and determined in creating positive change across Ireland and remain committed to achieving our vision of an Ireland that better supports and values young people’s mental health.
Core job requirements:
6. As an ambitious and creative communications professional, you will work closely with internal teams (senior management, therapists, fundraisers, youth volunteers and more) to gather, and then, tell standout stories to our various external audiences.
7. As a strong communicator, you will curate, develop and edit excellent, clinically sound and evidence-informed content and messaging that resonates with, and supports, our various audiences.
8. In line with our ambitions for media relations, you will help Jigsaw become recognised as the youth mental health charity in Ireland; increasingly known as a credible, reliable and authoritative voice for comment,
expert opinion, information and support.
9. With support from the team, you will define key performance metrics around our brand, media reach and effectiveness and advocacy.
10. You will actively look for opportunities to help us build our profile and relationships with media in line with our organisational aims to drive increased fundraising, advocate effectively, and support young people with their mental health (eg. proactive media pitching, press release creation and dissemination, spokespeople support, briefing documents etc.)
11. You will help formalise a process to ensure media planning and engagement is a key part of all public-facing campaigns across the organisation (eg pre-Budget campaigns, corporate partners (Starbucks, M&S etc.) campaigns, National Complement Day, World Mental Health Day etc.)
12. You will need to clearly demonstrate knowledge and skills in the design and implementation of a broad range of communications strategies.
13. You will cultivate and manage relationships with a range of key stakeholders including journalists, influencers, internal spokespeople and young people.
14. In line with our ambitions around advocacy, you will help identify, and collaborate with, key internal stakeholders to support our objective of around “inspiring lasting change in how we, as a nation, talk about, respond to and support youth mental health, by uniting the voice of young people with our knowledge and experience”.
15. You will support the creation of briefing documents, parliamentary submissions, messaging guidelines and more thus supporting the implementation of our afore-mentioned strategy.
Knowledge, skills and experience required
Essential
16. Minimum of 4 year’s relevant experience
17. You are passionate about supporting young people with their mental health and achieving change in Irish society.
18. You possess strong negotiation, networking and influencing skills and have experience of internal communications.
19. You have the ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously and possess the skills to effectively work within cross functional teams in a collaborative environment.
20. You are insights-driven and are committed to quality, accuracy, and consistency.
21. Proficient in Microsoft Office
Desirable
22. Ability to create and edit video would be an advantage.
23. Full, clean driving licence.
24. Previous experience of Media HQ and Truhawk platforms
Salary commensurate with qualifications and experience. Factors taken into account in determining an appropriate scale include the candidate’s knowledge, skills, experience and qualifications relevant to the job. The salary range for this role will be €42,000 - €60,320.
Jigsaw operates the following benefits for its employees
25. Defined contribution pension scheme with 10% employer and 5% employee contributions
26. Annual leave 25 days, exclusive of public holidays and 1.5 company days.
27. Comprehensive annual CPD schedule
28. 10% Discounted Group Health Insurance Scheme
29. Travel pass Scheme/ Bike to Work Scheme
30. Financial support for further education
31. Flexible Working
Please note
32. The closing date for applications is 4:30pm on Friday 5th July 2024 with first round interviews due to take place online on 12th July 2024 .
33. Application is by online application form only & CVs will not be accepted. Please complete all fields of the application form. Incomplete application forms will not be considered.
34. The above Job Description is not intended to be a comprehensive list of all duties involved and consequently, the post holder may be required to perform other duties as appropriate to the post which may be assigned to him/her from time to time and to contribute to the development of the post while in office.
35. This post will require a willingness to work evenings (approx. 1 eve per week) and occasionally weekends, as required.
36. All Jigsaw staff members are required to obtain Garda clearance as a condition of their initial and continued employment.
37. Jigsaw is an Equal Opportunities Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, colour, religion, sex, disability, age, gender expression or sexual orientation, gender identity, ethnic or national origin, marital or civil partnership status or culture. Jigsaw is committed, where possible, to providing access, equal opportunity and reasonable accommodation for individuals with disabilities in employment, its services, programs, and activities. To discuss the requirements of the role, the location of the role or any reasonable accommodation you might require, please contact a member of the HR team via recruitment@jigsaw.ie
38. All documentation received by Jigsaw will be processed in accordance with the Data Protection Acts, 1988 and 2003 General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR; 2018). The information will only be used by Jigsaw in the processing of job applications and for ongoing administrative purposes with job candidates.