JOB DESCRIPTION
Title: Community Resource Officer (CRO) for the North Cork Area
Location: Epilepsy Ireland Offices, Ballincollig, Cork
Hours of Work: 25 hours per week over 4/5 days (specific hours to be agreed with the Director of Services) within office hours with some flexibility for evening and weekend work required.
Travel: There is a requirement for travel to surrounding regions for community working, and occasional travel to Dublin and occasional overnight stays.
Reporting to: Director of Services
Nature of post: This post is a permanent position with an immediate start date and with a six-month probation period.
Organisation Description: Epilepsy Ireland was established in 1966 as the national organisation working for people with epilepsy and their families. We offer a broad range of services including information, advice and advocacy and support services, education and advice to health professionals and research and political advocacy services on behalf of people with epilepsy to promote their rights.
Role Description:
This role involves delivering community services to people with epilepsy, their families and carers, and to health professionals and the wider community. The services that we deliver in each region include one-to-one support, information & advice services, online support groups, regional support groups, talks and seminars, training to health care professionals, and epilepsy awareness talks in schools. Services are delivered both in person and virtually.
The local community resource officer is responsible for delivering the service in the North Cork area and will work with a partner CRO for the South Cork area.
Duties:
One to one support work:
To provide appropriate information and support services to individuals on a one-to-one basis – including people with epilepsy, parents of children with epilepsy, family members and carers, and health professionals and wider community.
To deliver outreach services and the Epilepsy Ireland, Living Well with Epilepsy ‘TOOLKIT’ in the region.
To provide hospital and community outreach services on a one-to-one basis.
To provide a listening and understanding ear.
To provide advocacy and case management approaches where a service user is unable to advocate for themselves.
To act as a resource to the service user and advise them of entitlements, education, employment and other areas of their social and economic life and to make appropriate referrals to other services.
To refer younger service users with epilepsy to Epilepsy Ireland’s ‘Training for Success’ employment training programme.
To encourage membership of Epilepsy Ireland and to engage the service users in other services that Epilepsy Ireland offer, where appropriate.
Support Groups, Education & Awareness Raising:
To deliver self-management programmes to groups in the region.
To deliver support groups and online support groups for the service users, parents, and young people as appropriate to the region.
To deliver Buccal Midazolam Rescue Medication training to healthcare professionals and teachers.
To deliver Buccal Midazolam Rescue Medication demonstrations to parent’s/ family members of people with epilepsy.
To engage with schools and deliver talks and training to teachers and students.
To raise awareness of Epilepsy and the work of EI through information stands, publicity, information evenings and other appropriate activities.
To provide or to organise and manage talks, seminars, conferences and events in the region as required.
To provide training programmes, courses and other group work in the region as required.
To assist planning and organisation of EI national conference.
External Networking
To participate, as appropriate, in all local activities of the HSE, NDA, DFI and NAI.
To network with other relevant agencies and organisations in the region and to participate as required in community related activities, meetings and seminars etc.
Organisational Responsibilities:
To provide up-to-date accurate statistics and reports to management in a timely manner, to provide reports to funders as appropriate for the region.
To manage the local spend of the region in an efficient and responsible way.
To assist in statutory funding applications, such as the national lottery funding, and to identify and access local sources of funding as appropriate to the region.
To provide local media support regarding awareness raising activities by contacting media and giving – or arranging for others to give – interviews with media as appropriate in the region.
To assist in local and national fundraising activities.
To contribute to the Epilepsy Ireland newsletter and website as appropriate.
To actively engage with social media – Twitter and Facebook- as appropriate.
Other General Responsibilities:
To demonstrate a commitment to the work of Epilepsy Ireland and to carry out the work of the organisation in an efficient and effective manner.
To uphold the reputation of the organisation and represent Epilepsy Ireland in a professional manner.
To undertake other tasks and responsibilities as deemed appropriate by the organisation.
Person Specification:
Minimum
Min 2 years’ experience working in disability, health education, voluntary / community sector or care sector work or similar. Work directly related to epilepsy education and knowledge / experience of Epilepsy will be a distinct advantage.
Excellent computer literacy including experience in CRM systems
Full clean driving licence
Excellent communication skills with the ability to show empathy and understanding
Excellent co-ordination and administration skills
Flexibility and Adaptability and to be able to learn and work as part of a wider team
Ability to self-motivate and self-manage and plan own workload
To work with appropriate professional boundaries
Preferable
Third level qualification (ideally to degree level) in a relevant discipline – e.g. community work, disability, social care, social work, public health, education, psychology or other similar
Experience delivering presentations to groups
Experience in supporting individuals in a one to one setting
Experience in administration and co-ordination role
TO APPLY FOR THIS ROLE:
Please send your Curriculum Vitae with a detailed covering letter explaining why you wish to apply for the position and highlighting your relevant skills and experience to Catherine Powell at recruitment@epilepsy.ie . Please use the reference ‘CRO North Cork’ when applying. A full Role Specification can be downloaded from our website on this link https://www.epilepsy.ie/content/vacancy-community-resource-officer-north-cork
The closing date for receipt of applications is 5pm on Wednesday 12th August 2020. Initial shortlisting will be on the basis of the information contained in the CV and covering letter.
Interviews will be held during the week of 24th August.
The role will be subject to Garda vetting, verification of qualifications and reference checks.