Do you want to be part of the change to see more people with lived experience in senior roles in the criminal justice sector workforce?
If so, the Criminal Justice Alliance (CJA) is looking for criminal and social justice organisations (public, private, academic and voluntary sector) to provide one-week senior level work placement opportunities to participants on our ground-breaking ELEVATE CJS lived experience leadership programme.
The work placement is a crucial element of the twelve-month ELEVATE CJS programme as research highlighted the lack of progression routes into senior roles for people’s lived experience of the criminal justice system.
Participants currently work in the sector, mostly in service delivery and frontline roles. Over the past six months they have been engaged in an intensive and comprehensive course to develop their leadership capacity. They are now ready to put their newly acquired knowledge and skills into action with a short, senior-level work placement so they can ‘learn while doing’. This will give them a unique and valuable opportunity to better understand the day-to-day realities and responsibilities of a senior level role.
Work placements will last a minimum of one week, with the possibility of being extended if participants’ schedules and the hosting organisation allow. They will take place between October and November 2023. Host organisations will have two participants each, so they have some peer support during the placement. A senior member of staff will need to be allocated to be their point of contact during the week.
During the placement the participants will shadow meetings but should also work on a small project of the host organisations choosing. This could involve tasks such as chairing a meeting, conducting research, contributing to strategic planning or similar, ensuring they gain valuable skills and a tangible takeaway from their placement, and the organisation benefits from their skills and expertise.
The placement should be in person rather than a remote placement, although a hybrid placement with one or two days working from home would also be possible. Organisations must be able to demonstrate that they prioritise equity, diversity and inclusion and that they have capacity to support those on the placement for the week.
The aim of the placements is to give participants an insight into what skills are required in senior roles and inspire them when planning future career options after the programme finishes. It will also help build their networks and contacts. The ELEVATE CJS independent evaluators will ask for feedback from the host organisations about the experience. There is no cost to organisations hosting a placement. We hope you want to be part of the change we want to see in the sector and look forward to hearing from you.
Please complete this form if you are interested in hosting a senior-level work placement.
