Chair | Making Every Adult Matter (MEAM)

Remuneration: £6,000 per annum (for 3 days per quarter)

Term: Initial three-year term, subject to a probationary review at six months / Extendable by agreement to a maximum of six years. 

Could you play a key role at a long-standing coalition of national charities that will have a positive impact on people’s lives?

People facing multiple disadvantage experience a combination of problems. For many, their current circumstances are shaped by long-term experiences of poverty, deprivation, trauma, abuse and neglect. Many also face racism, sexism and homophobia. These structural inequalities intersect in different ways, manifesting in a combination of experiences including homelessness, substance misuse, mental ill health and contact with the criminal justice system.

Making Every Adult Matter (MEAM) is a coalition of the national charities Clinks, Collective Voice, Homeless Link and Mind, with Homeless Link as the lead partner. The coalition is currently not a registered charity, but a coalition constituted by a legal agreement between the member organisations. It is led by the Director of MEAM, who reports to the MEAM Programme Board.

Since 2010, MEAM has supported over 50 local areas to transform services and systems for people facing multiple disadvantage and used learning from this to shape national policy. The coalition has set out an ambitious strategy for the period to 2025 and confirmed Lottery funding for the next two years. We are committed to expanding the national network of MEAM Approach areas and creating a national legacy for the work on multiple disadvantage.

As part of this, we are actively seeking to diversity our income streams and to change the way that MEAM is constituted and governed, to ensure that MEAM and the support that we provide is sustainable for the long-term. As we enter this next phase, an exciting opportunity has arisen for an independent Chair of the MEAM coalition of charities and the MEAM Programme Board.  

The Chair of MEAM will help guide us through this vital period of our development and governance change, providing support and challenge to the MEAM Director and the Chief Executives as we undertake these important changes.

We are seeking someone who is an exceptional facilitator, who can challenge where necessary, but bring people with them in a supportive way. We need someone who can help shape our collaborative strategic direction, and who can shepherd us into the next chapter of our evolution.

You don’t have to be an expert in our fields of work, but your experience - which could be in governance, policy, services, commissioning, change management, commercial growth or consulting -will complement ours and your collaborative approach and commitment to coproduction, will match the values of our dedicated team. During 2022 we are looking to lay the foundations for our future and we are seeking a confident and ambitious Chair to support us in this work.

MEAM values and prioritises different perspectives and all lived experience and as such we welcome applications from all under-represented groups, people with experience of multiple disadvantage and people with convictions.

Closing date: By 9am, Thursday 21st July 2022

Please click ‘Apply via website’ to be directed to the Peridot Partners website and to contact the advising consultants to discuss this role in more detail.