Contract: Permanent, following a 3-month probation period
Hours: 24 hours across three days a week: Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Do you want to make a tangible difference in the lives of some of the most deprived children in London?
CARIS Families is a small frontline charity that offers holistic support to families experiencing homelessness in hostels in the London Boroughs of Camden and Hackney. Amongst our services for children, we run play and learning activities for children aged 0-16 from within 4 hostels in these boroughs, as well as a school holiday day trip programme. Our services for children aim to reduce the stress on children and parents of living in overcrowded, insecure accommodation, and to put back essential childhood experiences that homeless accommodation deprives children of.
The services we currently offer our families in hostels are:
- Kids Club: an after-school play club in term time for 0-16s, run from our dedicated play club in the basement of one family hostel in Camden.
- Enrichment Trips and Summer Programme: a series of day trips for groups of families from our 4 hostels in the school holidays. We take part in exciting activities and visit interesting destinations round London and the South-East, to ease the pressures of being stuck in the hostel during the long school breaks.
- Essentials Bank: Our Essentials bank runs weekly in term-time from two of our hostels, offering families free hygiene products such as toiletries, nappies, washing powder etc. to ease the pressure on family finances at a difficult time.
- Family Support Work and Housing Casework: we offer holistic casework to support families to ease the stress of their situation, from working on finances to supporting employment searches, to assisting with legal cases and supporting them to navigate their housing case and move out of homelessness as soon as possible.
We are currently looking for an experienced Play and Community Worker to join our dedicated frontline Family Services team, delivering this vital support to around 100 children and their families each year.
Responsibilities of the Role
The Play and Community Worker will:
- Deliver play and learning activities for children aged 0-16 at our hostel-based Kids Club’s play sessions during term time in the London Borough of Camden.
- Deliver our Enrichment Trips School Holiday programme during school holidays (in Camden, Hackney and the wider London and South-East England area)
- Deliver our term-time Essentials Bank programme, providing free household goods to families in hostels
- Assist the Services Manager with a range of administrative and operational activities to support the day-to-day running of our Family Services and CARIS Families’ operations as a whole
- Provide a warm and welcoming experience for children and their families attending CARIS Families’ services
- Engage enthusiastically and supportively with children in their play and learning experiences, through staff-led activities and facilitating child-led play
- Work proactively as part of our Family Services team, supporting colleagues, embracing change and contributing ideas to service development within our frontline Family Services.
Person Specification
We are looking for a Play and Community Worker who is:
- Qualified to Level 2 or 3, or prepared to work towards this qualification in: Playwork, Early Years, CYP Workforce, Youth Work or any related area
- Experienced in delivering play within a CYP or community work setting, and working with 0- to 16-year-olds
- Experienced in providing and facilitating safe and creative play experiences
- Passionate about improving opportunities for disadvantaged children
- Understanding of the varied needs of children and their families, and of the impact of trauma and ACE on children’s development and wellbeing
- Able to maintain professional boundaries while supporting parents/carers and children empathetically, and with a person-centred, relational approach.
- Understanding of Equal Opportunities and Safeguarding best practice
- A good communicator, comfortable with working with a wide range of service users and professionals
- Proficient in use of Microsoft Office packages and basic web-based software applications (e.g. Canva)
- Reliable and diligent, with good time-keeping skills, who is able to work well as part of a team, take the initiative and lend a helping hand across our fast-changing, responsive frontline work
How to apply
To apply, please email office@carisfamilies.org to request an application form and job description / person spec. Please return your completed application form to us at the same email address by the deadline of 15th August 2025 at 23.30. Please note, we will not be accepting applications by CV and cover letter, and any CVs sent will not be considered.
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