Job Title: Advisory Panel Member
Based at: Quarterly Online Panel Meetings
Reports to: Women's Involvement Champion
Length of Service: 2 years
Hours: up to 3 hours per meeting with 8 meetings over 2 years
Contract: Voluntary, with a discretionary £20 thank you reward in the form of supermarket vouchers per meeting attended.
Purpose of the Role
Luminary wants to see women’s voices at the heart of our organisation - we want our growth and development to be guided by the advice and recommendations of women in the Luminary network. This role exists to make space for Luminary trainees, graduates and alumni to share their feedback, bringing their voices into the heart of Luminary’s decision making and direction of Luminary. The Advisory Panel advise Luminary’s leadership team and governance boards on key decisions and activities.. By sharing their voice and influence, advisory panel members help shape Luminary’s future, their opinions inform both strategic decisions and daily details of life at Luminary. The panel meet every three months (quarterly), online. Each quarterly meeting is hosted by Luminary’s Involvement Champion, a Luminary graduate who leads on the activities of the Luminary alumni network. Before each meeting the Involvement Champion will circulate an agenda of items for discussion, giving each panel member time to think and prepare what they’d like to share.
This role is exclusively for Luminary Trainees, Graduates or those in the Alumni network. We’ll only be welcoming applications from Luminary Trainees, Graduates or those in the Alumni network.
Application Deadline: Midnight Friday 22nd January 2025
Interviews: Interviews will be held on Tuesday 4th and Thursday 6th February 2025. Each candidate will have one interview, lasting no more than 45 minutes. This will take place on zoom.
Role commencement: The first advisory panel meeting is scheduled to be held on Monday 21st March 2025 @ 7.45pm
The Advisory Panel has already influenced some key changes at Luminary.
Over the last two years the Advisory Panel have made some key recommendations that have gone on to improve the programme, such as:
- Offering cookery classes during the summer break when women don’t have training sessions, which helped them to stay in a routine, connect with their community and learn useful skills.
- Including trainees and graduates in the Luminary hiring process. Luminary now invites at least one trainee, graduate or alumni to be on the interview panel for roles such as CEO, Trustees and Progression Support Workers.
Advisory Panel members themselves have also offered their support at key moments in Luminary’s 10th year, including being involved in the recruitment of Luminary’s new charity CEO and meeting journalists to discuss their experiences.
Our hope is that building our organisation with the guidance of the women we exist to serve will help us deliver our mission with excellence, in tune with what women really need to live independently.
Why apply to join Luminary as an Advisory Board Member?
- An opportunity to get experience in sharing your voice, public speaking, collaborative working and decision making as part of a group.
- To share your story in a safe, supportive space with others who stand in solidarity with you - using your experience to help build a better Luminary for women in the future. Your feedback will directly inform decision making.
- To be inspired by a collective of women from the Luminary family using their voice for strategic change.
- An accessible, entry level step towards paid work. This voluntary role will look amazing on your CV!
- Build new relationships with inspiring women from the Luminary family.
- Training on public speaking and an insight into organisational management.
Job Requirements and Abilities
Necessary:
- Commitment to listening and learning from the experiences of others, and in particular to those who have a different experience to you.
- Passionate about sharing own experience to enrich the progression of other women.
- A commitment to making Luminary’s programmes more effective for women, with a dedication to seeing women grow in employability and independence.
- Confidence in sharing their opinion publicly, in a group setting.
- Competence and confidence in using IT systems ie, email and video calling sites such as zoom. Support with accessing IT equipment and the internet can be provided and shouldn’t be a barrier to you applying. Panel members will be expected to join video calls with their cameras on.
- Excellent communication skills and confidence in public speaking to a group. This includes respecting the contributions of other group members.
- Excellent written communication skills - including clear communication as needed with the Involvement Champion, and the ability to prepare notes before each meeting
- Committed to making change for women and Luminary’s mission, supporting women to grow in independence through paid work.
- A champion of Luminary’s organisational values, embodying this in their work with women and team.
- It is a requirement of this job role that the candidate is a Luminary trainee, graduate or in the alumni network.
- Ability to behave professionally and respect confidentiality as a representative of the Advisory Panel.
- Awareness of and sensitivity to women’s experiences of trauma.
- Commitment to attending and contributing to every meeting.
Desirable:
- Experience of volunteering and/or peer mentoring in other organisations.
- Experience of hosting group activities in community groups.
Key Role Responsibilities:
- Attending quarterly panel meetings on a Monday Evening at 7.45pm. These will be held online.
- Reading the agenda in advance of the meeting, ready to bring thoughts to share in response to the agenda items.
- Sharing thoughts and opinions with the panel.
- Critically considering items that are brought to the panel for discussion, offering praise, critique and new ideas.
Please ensure you will respect and apply with the Luminary Faith Policy.
