Makespace Oxfordshire
Community Development Lead
Get notified of more jobs like this · No spam, ever
How your CV stacks up
Upload your CV to see how well it fits this job role
?%
Company Description
Makespace Oxfordshire unlocks underused and empty spaces across the county, turning them into affordable, community-driven workspaces for social enterprises, creatives, and local changemakers. The organization focuses on community empowerment, tackling inequality, addressing the climate emergency, and responding to homelessness through collaborative and inclusive approaches. By prioritizing people over profit, Makespace Oxfordshire promotes systems change and strong collective action rooted in local needs.
Role Description
The Communities Lead holds the strategy, mission, and yearly plan for community development across Makespace's buildings, and leads and manages the Communities Team in line with our organisational strategy and our North Star of spatial justice. The purpose of the role is to widen access to space and build local capacity and agency, creating an environment where Makespace and local residents can transform their neighbourhoods towards social justice and ecological resilience.
The role is also the strategic and project lead for our funded community work: currently the Common Rooms project within a three-year National Lottery programme, Reclaiming Place. Rebuilding Power. Alongside any future funded community projects. This role manages the Community Organisers, who hold the day-to-day support of residents and the running of the Common Rooms, so this role can stay lighter-touch and focused on the bigger picture.
Is this the right role for you?
This role suits someone who is confident and adept at leading a team or a programme, and feels at home being accountable for how something turns out. You hold the wider view naturally, whilst still paying close attention to the details to ensure high quality and timely delivery. You'll be someone who can hold several projects at once without losing sight of the bigger picture, you are comfortable setting priorities, working under pressure, and comfortable making a call and being accountable for it. You lead with and through others. You’re a natural collaborator, excellent listener, empowering enabler, and able to bring people along the journey with you; whether that's team members, local residents, or partners. You know how to turn a good idea into an action plan with a set of deliverables that makes a real impact. You can hold a vision for where the work is heading, translating it into clear, steady guidance for the people you're responsible for day to day. You read relationships well, and you know when to step in and when to let someone find their own way. If that mix of vision, making impact, and care for people appeals, this could suit you well.
Reasons to use Rodeo
Start with a chat, not a search bar
Grad scheme, placement, apprenticeship? Not sure what you want yet — that's fine. Your agent talks it through with you and turns "I have no idea" into a shortlist.
It searches the market for you
Every day your agent scans the market matching roles against what actually matters to you, not just keywords on a CV.
Only hits
No noise. No "maybe this fits." Just roles with a clear explanation of why they're right — and where to focus when applying.
Essential Qualifications
- Extensive experience of community development and support for social enterprises, community groups, creatives, and/or not-for-profits.
- Experience of planning and managing projects, budgets, programmes, and partnerships across multi-year timeframes.
- A demonstrable passion for spatial justice and/or lived experience of tackling spatial injustice.
- Proactive in organising events and programmes to support community needs and build resident capacity, at a planning level.
- Strategic vision: able to hold the wider picture across the hubs and mission projects and turn it into clear priorities.
- Confident in managing and supporting others to do their best work.
- Excellent time and project management skills.
- Excellent communicator, adept at bridging and forming networks, and at building rapport with a diverse range of community members and stakeholders.
- Excellent at building relationships with residents and local communities, with the ability to respond to needs and address conflicts as they arise.
- Ability to work on own initiative and be self-motivated.
- Ability and willingness to travel across Oxfordshire, and to work occasional evenings and weekends.
Get help with your application
Your very own career expert that helps elevate your application to the next level.
Desirable
- Experience of setting up or running community spaces, and of recruiting, supporting, and developing volunteers.
- Experience of monitoring and evaluation, ideally story-based or participatory approaches.
- Experience of designing and delivering learning programmes.
- Knowledge and connections across other community development work in Oxfordshire.
- Familiarity with concepts relating to spatial justice, meanwhile space, and community assets.
- Strong connections to networks and social justice organisations in the local area.
- A knowledge of and passion for working towards climate justice and social justice.
- Ability to use and develop Makespace systems, e.g., GDrive, Slack, Monday.
How to apply:
We do not accept CVs. Please go to makespaceoxford.org/careers/ to see our full Application Pack and to fill in our application form.
The deadline for applications is 8am Sept 15th. Interviews are planned for late Sept.
“It took my CV and asked me questions relevant to understanding what kind of jobs to suggest for me. Suggestions were almost perfect. Jobs were exactly what I’ve been looking for.”
Jessica, London
Skills
Location