There are many teams at Gingerbread where your skills and experience could be applied. We are organised into four departments working nationally and locally, for and with single parent families. We achieve change by championing the voices of single parents and providing support services.
Development and skills department
Our employment, training and learning practitioners deliver a range of employment, learning and confidence-building programmes for single parents.
National programmes
The national programmes team organises and delivers innovative employment and learning programmes for single parents in various locations across the country. Our staff work directly with single parents, providing courses which include information, support and motivation to help them return to work or further training. Staff are involved in managing projects, including delivering training, organising work placements, and working closely with our major funders.
Regional development
The regional development team work closely with local partners to organise learning opportunities and return to work support for single parents in response to local need. Community engagement workers work to engage single parents in specific regions to take part in activities and access support. Project workers develop and implement innovative projects to help single parents locally. Staff are excellent networkers and project managers, with the ability to motivate and engage hard to reach groups of single parents.
Training and practitioner services
We promote good practice in working with single parents through training programmes and publications. Our trainers share their expert knowledge with practitioners across the UK on issues such as tax credits, working with teenage parents, and working with single parents leaving care.
Business development
Our business development staff develop new opportunities in the field of development and skills, establishing and maintaining relationships with existing and potential funders and partners. Staff lead and co-ordinate Gingerbread bids, as well as negotiating contracts and service level agreements.
Policy, advice and communications department
Our policy, advice and communications department combines the work of three teams to provide telephone advice to single parents, research the issues affecting their lives, produce information and publications that respond to single parents’ needs, and campaign on behalf of single parents.
Helpline and information
The single parent helpline is our flagship national helpline service, offering single parents help and advice on the main issues arising from relationship breakdown and coping with raising children on their own, and providing online information and publications for single parents.
Specialist advisers provide in-depth telephone advice sessions on benefits, tax credits, child contact, family law, employment and housing, as well as identifying problems and issues raised by single parents to inform our policy and campaigning work.
Policy research and campaigning
We are the leading policy organisation in the UK representing the interests of single parents to government and the media. Gingerbread is widely seen as the centre of expertise on single parents and key issues such as poverty, employment, tax, benefits, and family law. We work with ministers, officials, academics, think tanks and other voluntary organisations, to address key policy issues and to press for change.
Our campaigning work is based on a combination of what single parents tell us through specific research projects, feedback and evaluation from our services, and detailed policy analysis. Our media team works to maximise media coverage, to increase awareness of the issues facing single parent families.
Communications and publishing
Our communications and publishing team works to enhance the charity’s brand and profile, and expand the reach of our services for single parents. We develop and manage Gingerbread’s website, as well as managing publication production for single parents and practitioners.
Fundraising and supporter relations
Our fundraising and supporter relations department builds strong relationships and networks with donors, supporters and members to ensure that Gingerbread can generate income to support our services for single parents.
Membership and groups
As a membership organisation with more than 20,000 members now and growing, plus a growing number of Gingerbread support groups, our membership team is responsible for developing membership benefits, engaging and communicating with our members and groups and ensuring that their voices are heard, so that as an organisation we can work with single parents to provide the services they need.
Fundraising
Our professional, experienced fundraising team generated income of £3.5 million in 2009 through grants from statutory funders and charitable trusts, donations from supporters and major donors, corporate partnerships and fundraising events.
We have the help of high profile ambassadors and vice presidents and an influential volunteer development board, We enjoy the support of celebrities such as Martina Cole, Arabella Weir, Neil Pearson, John Amaechi, Laila Rouass and Tracey Edwards MBE.
Finance, IT and HR
Our small team of support staff ensure that Gingerbread staff have the infrastructure, support and facilities in place to carry out their roles to help single parents. Finance staff are involved in financial processing, budgeting and forecasting, producing annual management accounts, as well as developing the financial strategy for the charity. IT staff ensure that our IT, website and telephone systems are effective. HR staff are responsible for providing professional support in areas such as recruitment, equal opportunities and diversity, and ensure the organisation promotes good employment practice and learning and development.