Solid Ground Coffee - Project Manager

Job title: Solid Ground Project Manager

Hours: Full time (35hours), including evenings and weekends. Fixed term contract until end of September 2028.

Reporting to: Lead for Innovation, Collaboration + Skills

Salary: £31,034

Closing date - Fri 30th October

Interview date - Monday 9th November

---

Overview

We’re looking for an enthusiastic Project Manager to join our growing team at Young Swindon and Wiltshire to manage Solid Ground Coffee, our catering social business. Young Swindon and Wiltshire exists to empower young people to be their best self by increasing their confidence, improving relationships and increasing engagement in healthy and positive activities. We’ve been doing this for more than 25 years and would love you to join us on the adventure.

We are particularly interested in candidates who have a background in cafe management or barista training, as well as youth work. In December 2024, we opened our first expression of social business, a mobile food and coffee trailer that worked directly with the local youth justice service to give young people fresh AIR (activities, interactions and roles) by paying them as employees and training them in food hygiene, catering, customer service and barista skills. After a strong first year of running our coffee van two days a week we opened our first café and we are now looking for someone to lead the development of this project into a flourishing social business.

We are looking for a self-motivated and organised person who is passionate about helping young people and happy to play a key role in the delivery of our social business; Solid Ground. This includes day to day management of our food van, located at Clarence house, and our Café, located in Swindon town centre, as well as mentoring a cohort of young employees from across different referral pathways to gain experience, wellbeing support, skills and confidence. You will be a self-starter, confident to work on your own, but also within a supportive team around you. You will need to be a clear and confident communicator with the team, young people, wider community and our external partners. You will have experience in either the food or coffee industry and a passion for coaching young people into employment. Ultimately though, finding someone with the right character and personality is the most important thing for us.

For our part, we will be a charity that you love being part of, offering you all the support and encouragement you need to not just do the job well, but flourish as a person. How we care for our team really matters to us, and this will reflect in how this job looks and how we look after you.

We are deliberately advertising this post beyond our own network because we hope we’ll find applicants with a diverse range of backgrounds, experiences and perspectives. We value diversity in all forms and we believe that increased diversity will only make our charity better.

Job Purpose

As our Solid Ground Project Manager you’ll be part of the post 16 team working in Swindon. The role will be wide ranging, and you will play a key part in the smooth running of both our van and cafe supporting a variety of staff, young people and looking for opportunities for growth. It will involve managing, coordinating and undertaking all aspects of running a successful social business. This will include cultivating a warm, welcoming and vibrant environment, managing our partners, supporting project delivery in both spaces and being able to manage stock, schedules, food hygiene expectations and a working café environment.

Main Duties

• To champion Young Swindon and Wiltshire’s vision and values through managing a warm, welcoming, inclusive social business that is safe, well-used and fit for purpose.
• To train and support young people in employability
• To manage a successful cafe

Management of Solid Ground

• Lead on cultivating a warm and welcoming atmosphere where young people feel safe, seen and supported
• Manage the day to day operations and oversight of the van and cafe
• Manage stock and purchasing across food and resources needed for van and cafe
• Ensure the service remains compliant with statutory, legal and good practice obligations
• Maintain awareness of and implementing the requirements of health and safety legislation and associated policies/procedures e.g. risk assessment(s)
• Oversee the scheduling and timetabling of staff and young people
• Represent Young Swindon and Wiltshire to the wider café and van users
• Manage and monitor all risk assessments, health and safety and security as required by regulation or good practice including, in conjunction with the Head of Quality Operations, the review and updating of policies and procedures.
• Ensure young people are supported to contribute to the running and day to day operation of the social business
• Refer concerns or issues about the premises or participants to your Line Manager
• Always act as an ambassador while representing Young Swindon and Wiltshire in public
• Assist in gathering outcome related data in relation to funding requirements
• Record and capture participant attendance using relevant recording systems
• Ensure that all identifiable participant and volunteer application data is held in accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018 and Young Swindon and Wiltshire’s Data Protection Policies
• Oversee outreach and community events where catering is requested

Skills, Experience + Knowledge

Essential
Experience

• A robust understanding of the world of young people and the pressures they face.
• Experience in managing all aspects of a cafe, including customer service, food preparation, and staff supervision
• Experience delivering on high-quality coffee, food production and presentation
• Experience of following safeguarding guidelines, especially in relation to lone working and working in the evening
• Experience of designing and delivering youth work sessions with and for young people
• Experience of managing cafe systems including handling cash, stock check and ordering systems
• Knowledge of relevant legislation and local/national policies.

Professional skills

• The ability to communicate effectively with both adults and young people
• Able to maintain clear and appropriate boundaries
• Strong relationship-building and influencing skills
• Flexibility to adhere to the time commitments of the programme
• A commitment to on-going professional development

Interpersonal skills

• An understanding and acceptance of the YSW values and the centrality of these to the work of the charity.
• Confident, with a calm and resilient nature – not easily phased.
• The ability to instil self-belief and support personal development of participants.
• Ability to use an empathic approach to establish rapport quickly and develop relationships at all levels.
• Assertiveness and ability to manage expectations.

Additional requirements

• Access to a vehicle and a full clean driving licence.
• Other activities relating to the general charitable purposes of SMASH as and when they may be required.

Desirable

Education/training/qualifications

• Qualification in Youth Work, voice or participation
• Mental Health First Aid trained
• Trauma Informed Practitioner
• First Aid Trained
• Food Hygiene Trained
• Trained cook/chef/barista

Experience·

• Direct work with engaging young people in positive activities
• An understanding of working in the voluntary sector.
• Experience of working in collaboration.
• Successful development of sustainable community projects.
• Awareness of the ACEs criteria and their impact on young people

Professional Skills

• Creativity.
• Training and development skills.
• Good IT skills and knowledge (Microsoft)
• Able to organise own time and work on own initiative

Interpersonal Skills

• Ability to take and give direction.

Additional Requirements

• Access to a vehicle and a full, clean driving licence.

The nature of the work means that the post holder will be expected to work outside of office hours and occasionally at the weekend in order to meet the client group’s requirements

In accordance with the provisions of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 take reasonable care for the health and safety of yourself and of other persons who may be affected by your acts or omissions at work.

In line with our safer recruitment practices, any appointment will be subject to an enhanced DBS check, receipt of two satisfactory references and a probationary period

Job Types: Full-time, Fixed term contract

Pay: £31,034.00 per year

Benefits:

• Company pension
• Employee mentoring programme
• Free parking
• On-site parking
• Sick pay

Work Location: In person