Community Integration and Engagement Practitioner
Location: Essex
Salary: A GBP 24,479
Vacancy Type: Permanent
Advertising End Date: 19 th March 2026
About The Role
Are you passionate about supporting people on their journey to sustained recovery?
Join our team at Essex Community Rehabilitation Service and make a real difference in peoples lives as they transition from structured treatment into connected, meaningful futures. This is a full:time role (35 hours/week), with some flexibility for evening and weekend sessions to meet client needs.
As a Community Integration and Engagement Practitioner, youll deliver a dynamic blend of group sessions, 1:1 support, and community engagement, helping clients prevent relapse, build recovery capital, and thrive in their communities.
What youll do:
* Facilitate recovery groups, post:treatment sessions, weekly support groups, and relapse prevention groups, both online and face:to:face across Essex.
* Provide tailored 1:1 support, weekly sessions after graduation from SHARP, MPACT, or BOC, with quarterly check:ins for a year.
* Promote community engagement, guide clients to ERF activities, mutual aid fellowships, and meaningful social connections.
* Signpost and navigate, connect clients to mental health, employment, education, volunteering, and wellbeing opportunities.
* Develop volunteer and peer networks, support clients in volunteering and peer:led initiatives.
What were looking for:
* Strong communication and facilitation skills
* Empathy, resilience, and a genuine commitment to recovery
* Flexibility to work evenings and weekends when required
* Ability to work independently and as part of a multidisciplinary team
If youre ready to empower individuals and help them build lasting recovery, we want to hear from you.
About Us
We are The Forward Trust, the social enterprise with charitable status that empowers people to break the often interlinked cycles of crime and addiction to move forward with their lives. For more than 25 years we have been working with people to build positive and productive lives, whatever their past. We believe that anyone is capable of lasting change. Our services have supported thousands of people to make positive changes and build productive lives with a job, family, friends and a sense of community.
We are committed to our cause and the work we carry out as a charity. Equally the wellbeing and the employees who work for us are also important. Joining us an employee, we will offer you the following benefits:
* Flexible working
* Training and development opportunities
* Simply Health Cashback Scheme (optional)
* Season Ticket Loan Scheme
* Cycle to work scheme
* Crisis Loan Scheme
* Electric Car Scheme
* 3 x Wellbeing Days (pro ratad for part time employees)
* Access to Blue Light Card
* 25 days (rising to 30 with length of service) Annual Leave plus Bank Holidays
* Contributory Pension Scheme : Employer matched contributions of up to 6 in the first two years service and up to 9 thereafter
* Death in Service Payment (2x annual salary)
* Critical Illness Insurance (subject to qualifying criteria)
Please note that we may close this vacancy early if we receive a high volume of suitable applications.
Diversity at Forward Trust
The Forward Trust commits to providing opportunities to everyone. We want to ensure we have a diverse team with a range of lived and professional experiences. This includes those with Lived Experience of addiction, offending, or homelessness.
When we recruit, we welcome applications from everyone. This is inclusive of age, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion and/or belief, marriage and civil partnerships, pregnancy and maternity and socio:economic background. Where operationally possible, we will consider flexible working requests and make reasonable adjustments for all roles.
We want our recruitment process to be acces