Research Assistant (Strategic Alliance for Community Wealth Building)

• Job title: Research Assistant (Strategic Alliance for Community Wealth Building)
• Hub: Community Wealth Building
• Reporting to: Daniel Noruwa, Research and Policy Lead
• Type of Contract: One-year fixed term contract
• Pay £35,000 (Pro-rata)
• Annual Leave Entitlement 28 days annual leave, including UK bank holidays (pro-rata)
• Pension 3% employer pension contribution on eligible earnings
• Location: Hybrid (Wolves Lane Centre)
• Work pattern: 22.5 hours (3 days per week)
• Closing date 17th November 2025, 17:00 GMT

Overview

Social infrastructure refers to the physical spaces, facilities, and services that enable communities to thrive. This includes community centres, youth clubs, religious institutions, housing, parks, sports facilities, and larger institutions such as schools and medical centres.

Over the past few decades, this infrastructure, particularly those led by Black and racially minoritised people, has come under increased strain. This is due to a range of socio-economic developments, including austerity, privatisation of public services, and an increasingly complex grant-making sector.

The Strategic Alliance for Community Wealth Building was originally established in 2021. With a focus on supporting enterprise and asset development, the Alliance was created to bring together policy leaders, community groups, and infrastructure organisations to improve outcomes for Black and minoritised people and their respective communities. However, since 2021, the political landscape has changed significantly, and with it the challenges experienced by Black and racially minoritised organisations. This includes a growing climate crisis, Artificial

Intelligence, and the ongoing housing shortage across the country. Therefore, a new forum is required to ensure Black and racially minoritised communities are not left behind.

Main Duties and Responsibilities

• Facilitation of workshops including design and presentation of relevant materials, communicating complex ideas relating to community wealth building and engagement with all participants.

• During SA events the postholder will focus on collaboration with relevant stakeholders across the sector, including community leaders, thinkers, policy professionals, and other stakeholders committed to an equitable future.

• Support with the development of the Strategic Alliance s strategy, purpose, and long-term framework. Make sure than any ideas are captured and written into the work strands of the alliance, liaising closely with the Research and Policy Lead.

• Producing short briefs to inform discussion and debate within the Strategic Alliance for Community Wealth building meetings

• Delivery of reports informed by the content of the Strategic Alliance meetings.

• Organising meetings, workshops, events, and related research materials. This includes logistics, booking meeting spaces, sending invites and tracking responses, sending materials to participants, catering and refreshments. Some notetaking tasks may also be required.

• Offer support as above with other workstreams within the research and policy arm of community wealth building, including housing, climate, community asset development (Agbero), and the IVAR young researcher programme.

General Responsibilities

• To attend and participate in internal and external meetings including staff meetings and meetings with key stakeholders.

• To attend relevant training to fulfil the requirements of the job.

• To undertake other duties which may from time to time be required and which are appropriate to the responsibilities of the post.

• Ensure that The Ubele initiative internal policies and procedures are followed through in all areas of work. They will also treat with confidentiality any information that could be deemed as personal, private, or sensitive and comply with the organisations GDPR and Safeguarding requirements.

Person Specification

Essential

• Public speaking, presentations, comfort speaking to individuals of all levels

• Strong passion for working in/or exploring a career in research, policy, community development, or similar.

• Ability to analyse qualitative and quantitative data.

• Ability to communicate ideas clearly and succinctly to a variety of stakeholders.

• Demonstrated track record of working within teams to deliver projects or assignments.

• Good organisational skills, with confidence in managing own workloads and ability to prioritise effectively.

Desirable

• Knowledge of the voluntary and community sector, particularly in regards to Black and minoritised led organisations and influencers.

• Experience engaging in politics, particularly relating to community activism, economic development. This could be through your degree, internships, activism, or other forms of consistent engagement.

• Familiarity with working simultaneously on different types of productivity tools. This could include Google Drive, Microsoft Office, Trello, Asana, etc.