About Community Centred Knowledge
Community Centred Knowledge (CCK) as a collective centres the experience, histories and aspirations of people of African and Caribbean heritage, affirming Ubuntu as a core philosophy for our progress. Ubuntu is the African-inspired concept of interdependence across all aspects of life. We work with all Global Majority Communities and call on the solidarity of allies who affirm our core philosophy.
As community members, we share, exchange and celebrate knowledge of all kinds and paths that attune with our core philosophy. Our knowledge is informed and filtered through community experience and cosmologies inter-connected to spirit. Our aim is to build ‘The People’s’ Knowledge for ‘The People’s’ Progress’. Currently, we do this through:
- Community Centred Learning: In our philosophy, learning is a process where we seek to be elevated through, by and because of Community Practices and Collective Process towards forming healing ecologies.
- Community Centred Nourishment: Our approach is to inform ourselves and each other at all levels of community and beyond as to how to recreate a better, and thus more harmonised relationship with our livity, which is, for us, everything we take in which nourishes and nurtures us and our ecologies. This goes beyond ‘food’ to extend into all the ways in which we live our lives. It includes our individual and collective health at the levels of mind, body and spirit.
- Community Centred Livity: Our approach here is to bring increased awareness, from indigenous perspectives, of what a progressive livity means for communities, families and at a personal level which brings about Justice, Healing and Self and Collectively-Determined Reparations
We draw on the pluriverse of knowledge and being. We call upon somatic, artistic, embodied, relational and spiritual knowing to engage with a range of activities to progress our lives. This includes food justice and food autonomies; food growing; environmental justice and community planning; honouring life cycles and circulations of matter, knowledge and energy (reusing, recycling and upcycling); We recognise that we are more than human beings and so we work in relationship with multiple, intersecting ecologies in solidarity and towards reciprocity.
Many people have engaged with CCK over the last seven years, taking what they need and moving on. We want to offer a more sound spirit of invitation whilst also developing a more reciprocal collective structure and process whilst working out the most appropriate governance structure that can support this.
Who we’re looking for:
We are looking for a talented, adaptable and disciplined person who will work closely with our Director to build our vision and practice and who will ensure that the collective is thriving. This means:
i) internal systems and processes are fit for purpose and work for the collective
ii) providing administrative project delivery support
iii) and updating and maintaining the website, mailing list and social media
The role would suit someone with a passion for organising, order, engaging with people, alongside a commitment to social justice and African centred knowledge/philosophy.
You will be reporting to the overall Director but will have a relationship with all ‘family’ members and must be ready for the messy, passionate interconnected world that is social change.
Your skills and experience
You will be a ‘details’ person, very organised and good at managing various tasks at the same time. You will be keen to make an impact in a small self-organising collective and be hungry for seeking out opportunities to develop yourself and the collective. We are looking for someone who is happy working on their own initiative with energy, enthusiasm and good humour. You must be comfortable with working with groups of people from varied backgrounds along with your work colleagues, and comfortable prioritising urgent, last minute tasks. Since we are all in community with each other, you will also be part of CCK with commitment to affirming Ubuntu philosophy.
Person specification:
Essential:
- A clear commitment to social justice and African centred knowledge/philosophy
- Demonstrable experience of office operations, understanding of systems and basic bookkeeping
- The ability to manage time effectively so as to be able to co-ordinate and organise multiple tasks well.
- Experience of project related administration
- To be IT literate – with proven experience in the range of Microsoft Office applications, including Excel and have some fluency in the use of Adobe or other ‘creativity’ software and managing materials online
- To have experience in event management, including effective promotion and feedback processes
Desirable
- Demonstrably excellent organisational skills
- Competence in other/new digital tools to support events management and communication
- To be capable of managing competing priorities
- To have excellent attention to detail
- Experience of working within a team and taking initiative
- Experience of project management, accounting software and financial reporting
- To have knowledge of policy setting and management procedures
What you’ll be doing…
As the Admin Assistant, you will be responsible for undertaking and developing administrative processes, systems and procedures that support us including:
- Supporting our Director to ensure that our policies, processes, governance and systems align with and advance CCK’s objectives. This includes ensuring our systems and processes are being followed and supporting the development and implementation of any new processes or policies that are needed to move CCK forward.
- Supporting the Director with all operations across CCK, including support with contracting with clients, updating finance spreadsheets, invoicing, updating website and social media
- Supporting the Director in the logistics and management of projects
- Supporting the Director to engage with CCK general membership
- Supporting recruitment, onboarding and management of members and volunteers
- Support the Director with diary management
- Ensuring that our online filing systems are properly organised
- Acting as a first point of contact for external correspondents and callers
- To check in daily with the Director in relation to tasks set and work plans
We’d like to hear from you about any other skills you can bring to the job that can help us increase our reach and impact.
Terms and benefits:
Terms: The role will be a full-time (35 hours/week) one year contract. As we often work with volunteers occasional evening and weekend work will be required and compensated through TOIL.
Salary: £26,000 p/a 25 days annual leave, plus bank holidays.
Location: You must be based inside the UK. We do not have an office and you will mainly work from home, supported by hotdesking. We hold quarterly CCK strategy meetings and annual away days which you will be required to attend in person. We will cover the cost of your out of London travel. You will be required to travel to CCK events, the cost of travel out of London will be covered. You will be required to meet in person with the team a minimum of once a week in London and we will expect you to meet these travel costs.
Language skills & visa status: Candidates must be fluent in English. You must have the right to work in the UK independently, as we unfortunately are unable to provide visa sponsorship.
We especially welcome candidates who have a broad and deep experience of the communities we will be working with or who have ‘lived experience’ from these communities.
Start date: Ideally you would be able to start immediately following the offer of employment
Application instructions and timeline:
To apply, please fill out the application form at the link below and send together with a covering letter detailing how you meet the person specification to earth@communitycentredknowledge.org
Applications will close on: 19th February 2023
Interviews will be held the week beginning 1st March, 2023
Read our Equality & Diversity policy here.
Community Centred Knowledge 