Communities Creating Homes Internship 2024

Cwmpas is offering internships with our Inclusive Communities Directorate. The aim of the 12-month long internship in the Communities Creating Homes team is engaging with people from diverse ethnic minority backgrounds about their housing need and to increase awareness of community-led housing for people that are typically underrepresented in the community-led housing movement. This internship is available for anyone aged 18+, at any point in their career, as an opportunity to work with Wales’ only community led housing hub.

Our organisation 

Cwmpas is a development agency working for positive change, in Wales and across the UK. We are a co-operative, and our focus is on building a fairer, greener economy and a more equal society, where people and planet come first. 

We aim to create a greener and fairer economy by working to increase the proportion of the economy made up by social enterprises, co-operatives and employee-owned businesses; a more equal society by working to advance social justice – increasing access, equity, diversity and participation; and making positive change happen by working with people and organisations to take action for social good. 

Underpinning our work is a commitment to delivering support to people, communities and businesses in ways that reflect our own co-operative values. We believe that how we do things is just as important as what we do. Our values are inspired by the international co-operative principles but are written in the words of our staff. They are: 

• be co-operative 

• be supportive 

• be fair 

• have integrity 

• be positive 

• be inspirational. 

As a not-for-profit organisation, our work is financed through contracts and trading as well as being supported by a variety of funders including Welsh Government. 

You can read all about our areas of work here, and you can read about the impact that we make here. 

Our people 

Across Wales we now employ nearly 100 people of different ages, genders and sexual orientations.  However, we recognise that we are not fully representing the communities and people that we serve in terms of race and are very keen to ensure that we fully embrace the skills, abilities and cultural experiences of people from diverse ethnic backgrounds because we believe that equity, diversity and inclusion is critical to our growth. 

Our opportunity 

What is the aim? 

It is well documented that people of diverse ethnic minority communities experience discrimination and disadvantage in housing and are under-represented in the community-led housing movement. Community-led housing involves people coming together to decide the kind of homes and communities they want to live in. It could be a group of friends transforming an empty property to share, whole communities building their own homes or housing associations working with the community to deliver much needed affordable housing that is right for them. The aim of this internship is to increase awareness of community-led housing amongst people that have experienced housing barriers and lay the foundations for groups from typically marginalised communities to form that want to develop their own community-led housing project. We want to ensure that people from all communities across Wales are involved in the decisions about their housing need and future.  

This internship is available for anyone aged 18+, at any point in their career, as an opportunity to work with Wales’ only community led housing hub. 

What is on offer? 

We will offer a 12-month internship with our Communities Creating Homes team. We will pay the real living wage for this role, i.e., £12 per hour (equivalent to £21,840 per annum). 

Ideally, the internship would be a full-time role (35 hours per week), but we would also consider the intern working on a part-time basis (21-35 hours per week) if this helps to support other commitments or accessibility needs. 

The Intern will work from home utilising digital solutions such as Microsoft Teams to communicate with team members and manage work documents. Digital equipment will be supplied to enable them to do this.  There will be opportunities to spend time with the wider Communities Creating Homes team in person. Where travel within Wales is required, Cwmpas will pay mileage costs or will purchase tickets for public transport. 

What will you be doing? 

Based in our Communities Creating Homes team and funded by Oak Foundation, you will be involved in reaching out to and engaging with people from marginalised communities across Wales to promote and encourage engagement with our community-led housing programme. 

This will involve understanding the housing need of marginalised people and researching the barriers people face in getting involved in community-led housing. You will build meaningful relationships and bring people together to discuss the challenges they face, whilst promoting community-led housing as a future housing option.  

A typical day could include: 

• Speaking with communities about their housing need 

• Understanding and researching housing need and barriers of marginalised groups 

• Engaging with community organisations and statutory bodies to understand how they can support community-led housing 

• Hosting community engagement events, including information sessions, drop-ins, workshops etc. 

• Working as part of a team to influence policy and decision makers 

• Connecting with other interns within Cwmpas’ Inclusive Communities directorate and sharing ideas and learning.  

What will you learn? 

• You will learn about the housing crisis in Wales, and how community-led housing can play a role in creating more affordable homes, developed by and for local people.  

• You will learn about the benefits of community-led housing, including how it can decrease social isolation and loneliness, increase confidence and skills, as well as create more resilient and cohesive communities.   

• You will get to the opportunity to engage with a wide variety of people and communities, and help them to take action in tackling issues that matter to them. 

• You will gain valuable experience of working as part of a small but busy team, which works with diverse communities all across Wales. 

• We will provide you with a remit for your work, which will allow you to work independently and use your own creativity but will also provide you with support when you need it. 

• You will have access to our E-learning Hub, which has a wide range of modules available on such subjects as Health and Safety, GDPR, Leadership, IT and Well-being.  You will also be involved in team meetings and will be able to take part in any internal training opportunities that might arise from time to time. 

What skills do you need? 

We are looking for candidates who are: 

• committed to our organisational values 

• able to promote our commitment to equality, fairness and inclusion 

• able to communicate (verbally and in writing) to a good standard in English 

• able to organise themselves well and handle different work for different deadlines 

• able to work well within a team 

• able to think creatively, and suggest new ideas 

• able to use a computer and ideally platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or YouTube. 

Who can apply? 

If you think you would be a good fit for our work placement, we are looking for people: 

• who can evidence the right to work in the UK 

• who are able to commit to the full 12-month placement period on either a full or part-time basis 

• who can access the internet from home 

• who can travel to meetings or events as required. 

We particularly encourage applications from people who are traditionally underrepresented in the Welsh labour market, but this placement is open to all eligible applicants regardless of sex, age, disability, gender identity, race, sexual orientation, religion, belief or non-belief, pregnancy, marriage or civil partnership. It is also open to people with any level of work experience in any field, including those with no experience at all.