Pastoral Supervisor

Pastoral Supervisor – Volunteer Role

We are seeking a volunteer to provide pastoral supervision to our staff, to help them reflect on their interactions with students and their personal capacity for care.

What will you gain from this opportunity?

Volunteers are part of our College life and a warm welcome awaits you. From volunteering with us, you will gain:

• Being part of the [Employer hidden — view at passion-project.co.uk] story: equipping people passionate about Jesus Christ, to impact the Church and the world.
• Designated Supporting Manager to oversee your activity, and optional involvement in department meetings.
• Comprehensive Induction, training and ongoing support to help you grow and develop in an area you love.
• Personal development and growth as you work alongside others in an area you are interested in.
• Opportunity to attend weekly Chapel services (Tuesday) when working on campus.
• Free lunch when working on campus over the lunchtime period

Overview of the role:

A volunteer Pastoral Supervisor role involves a structured, reflective, individual and confidential space for people to be able to process challenges and reflect on their interactions with students and personal capacity for care. It ensures that they remain effective in the role and helps to maintain professional boundaries and accountability.

Expectations of the Role:

• Meet, as required, with individual members of the College’s tutor team to support and affirm their wellbeing and development.
• Develop a positive relationship with the tutor, developing increasing levels of trust.
• Enable and facilitate a constructive and open space for the tutor to reflect on their practice and explore approaches to the demanding issues of pastoral work and relationships as they arise.
• Support tutors in maintaining their own spiritual health, enabling them to minister effectively to students.
• Listen well and support tutors to manage and reflect on their feelings and responses provoked from their tutoring work in order to minimise negative impact on the tutor’s well-being (including emotional strain and compassion fatigue)
• Ensure that tutors work with a creative and student-centred approach, recognising the need for further signposting as appropriate.
• Work with tutors to develop pastoral skills, healthy boundaries and identify potential areas for professional development.
• Maintain strict levels of confidentiality
• Aid tutors in their responses to crisis intervention and supporting students with complex needs.

Expected Time Commitment:

This role will be assigned one or more staff members (subject to volunteer’s capacity), and the expectation will be to meet with each staff member for up to 6 sessions over the course of the academic year (sessions up to 90 minutes).

Start date and Duration of Volunteering Commitment

We are looking for the role to commence as soon as possible, and we are seeking commitment for the academic year. This may be extended, subject to the agreement of both parties.

Supporting Manager:

This volunteer role will be supported by the Student Welfare Manager and sit within the Student Welfare team.

Location:

This volunteer role would ideally be based at our College Campus, Sopley, Christchurch. We may be open to hybrid or Off-Campus working in some circumstances, although trips to the Campus would be required at times. We are open to discussion on how an arrangement could work for volunteers who are not local to the Campus.

Skills and experience we require from you:

It is essential that you have:

• Experience providing pastoral support for adults within church or wider ministry contexts
• Experience working within ethical and pastoral frameworks
• A working knowledge of MSOffice Teams
• Good listening/reflective skills
• Ability to demonstrate empathy and be approachable to staff.
• Appreciation and ability to work within the College’s policies and ethos

Due to the nature of the role, it is important that you are able to be reliable in your commitment and to work independently.

This role carries an Occupational Requirement that the postholder be a committed evangelical Christian who is able to affirm the College’s vision and mission, and to sign its Statement of Faith.

It is not essential, but the following would be desirable experience and qualifications to support this role:

• Previous experience of supervision in pastoral work
• Undergraduate degree in theology or related subject

Contact us

To register your interest and to arrange an informal discussion or just to ask a question, please contact HR Manager on [contact hidden] or email [contact hidden].