Gravesham Sanctuary
Day Centre Manager
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Gravesham Sanctuary Day Centre Manager
Length of Contract: Fixed term until March 31st 2029
Based at: Gravesham Sanctuary Day Centre, Emmanuel Baptist Church, 55 Windmill Street, Gravesend DA12 1BB
Reports to: Gravesham Sanctuary General Manager
Hours: 25 hours per week, including the Centre’s opening hours of 10:00 am – 1:30 pm.
Salary: Annual salary of £20,800 at 25 hours a week (salary will be pro rata for 2026/27)
Annual holiday: 28 days, inclusive of bank holidays
Start date: This post is available from the beginning of August 2026. Interviews will be held as applications are received and reviewed. The closing date for applications will be 14th August 2026, but will close sooner if a suitable person is found, or be extended if necessary. Updates will be posted on social media and our website.
We welcome applications from people with lived experience of homelessness.
About Gravesham Sanctuary
Gravesham Sanctuary is a well-established local Christian charity, supported by Churches Together in Gravesham. In 2015, street pastors started building relationships with individuals sleeping on the streets of Gravesend. As a Christian response, local churches came together to establish a winter night shelter, offering hot meals, shelter, community and support during the coldest months of the year. We are now a registered charity, partnering effectively with many agencies to support people in finding routes out of homelessness, keeping their accommodation, and turning their lives around. We provide single room supported accommodation and a daytime drop-in service, our Day Centre, in Gravesend town centre.
You can see an overview of our work and hear guest stories on our website: Gravesham Sanctuary - Helping those facing homelessness in Gravesham
About the Day Centre
Our centre provides a warm, safe space and a calm, welcoming atmosphere for adults. It opens 4 mornings a week, extending to 5 in 2027. Our guests are adults in varying circumstances. Some are sleeping rough, sofa surfing or in temporary accommodation. Others are accommodated but need support from time to time with managing the challenges of everyday life or are isolated and seeking community.
We provide light snacks and a range of activities. Various services attend the centre, including NHS health screening clinics, Lighthouse Counselling and the local authority rough sleeper team. This is a new role. The Day Centre Manager will work alongside our Guest Welfare Manager, who provides person-centred support to our guests and signposts to partner services.
The purpose of this new role is to ensure the centre remains a safe and welcoming environment, to strengthen the move towards guests being active participants, and to develop new opportunities for them to take steps forward in their lives. The Centre Manager will work with teams of enthusiastic and highly committed volunteers. So far this year, almost 200 individuals have used the centre, with 20 – 30 attending each morning.
Christian ethos
The Christian faith is at the heart of our organisation's ethos and motivation and remains the central reason we offer the services we do. It informs our key values of welcome, hope, valuing others, community, forgiveness and a new start. We believe God cares for every person individually and, in particular, those who are poor or homeless. We are an inclusive service, welcoming all, including those of other faiths or no faith. We believe that all who wish should have an opportunity to explore the Christian faith.
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Job Specification
Day-to-day running of the centre
- Plan and manage the operational aspects of our Day Centre services
- Ensure the centre is run safely and efficiently
- Respond appropriately to challenging situations and behaviours
- Oversee health and safety at the centre, including fire safety and food hygiene
- Implement relevant Gravesham Sanctuary policies and procedures and have input into updating them from time to time
Relationships
- Work relationally, building strong relationships with the Guest Welfare Manager, General Manager, guests and volunteers
- Engage with those who use the centre and encourage volunteers to do the same.
- Foster community and a sense of belonging
- Ensure everyone has opportunities for connection, working flexibly with those with challenging behaviours and building mutually trusting relationships.
- Develop relationships with the wider community, including local companies and schemes that have offered employment pathways
- Develop relationships with partners who visit or are in contact with the centre
- Liaise with the Guest Welfare Manager over visiting services and guest needs
- Work alongside the Guest Welfare Manager to ensure guests have opportunities to develop skills to avoid future homelessness
Activities
- Work closely with our lived experience group to embed and expand recent initiatives
- Utilise skills and strengths of peers, volunteers and other community groups
- Strengthen the move towards guests as active participants
- Keep relevant records and monitor measurable impacts of activities and initiatives, e.g. through guest surveys and feedback groups
- Use feedback from staff, volunteers and guests to evaluate and improve the service
Volunteers
- Train, motivate, manage and support volunteers
- Lead daily briefing and debriefing sessions with volunteers
Christian ethos
- Uphold our Christian ethos and culture
- Create opportunities for those who wish to explore the Christian faith
- Include prayer in the volunteer briefing/debriefing
The Employer operates a policy of job flexibility, and the Employer may, at its discretion, require you to perform additional or other duties, whether skilled or unskilled, not within the scope of your normal duties.
Person specification
Essential knowledge and experience
- Experience of managing people or a project in a work, volunteer or community setting
- Experience in leading a team
- You have worked with the public or with vulnerable people in a voluntary, work or community context
- You have experience of dealing with conflict
- You have motivated others to participate in or achieve tasks/goals
Essential skills
- Good interpersonal skills, including an ability to motivate and encourage people and to communicate in a warm, respectful and professional manner
- Able to communicate and build a relationship with people from a wide range of backgrounds
- Able to work collaboratively
- Able to implement new ideas and change
- Able to challenge individuals and resolve difficult situations
- Good administrative skills, including good written and oral communication and good basic computer literacy, such as Microsoft Word and Outlook.
- Good organisational and time management skills, able to prioritise and meet targets and deadlines
- Able to work within a Christian framework with guests, volunteers and those who support our work
- A team player yet able to take initiative
- Able to think and plan strategically
- Ability to comply with confidentiality, data consent and data protection
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Essential personal qualities
- Ability to work within a team and build relationships
- Willing to learn, to keep up to date with current good practice and to reflect on their own practice and the work of the charity
- Confident and calm in dealing with challenging behaviour
- Empathetic and non-judgmental towards people facing difficult situations
- Committed to the vision, aims, principles and policies of Gravesham Sanctuary, including a commitment to Equal Opportunities
- Willingness to uphold our Christian culture and ethos
- A professional attitude to work - punctual, reliable and flexible
- Proactive, self-motivated and resourceful
- Willing to respond to feedback from staff, volunteers and guests
- Convinced of the value of input from people with lived experience of homelessness
- Belief that all individuals have strengths and assets as well as needs
- A belief that people’s futures should not be limited by homelessness, trauma or disadvantage and a desire to raise aspirations and see people move towards their goals.
- Willing to provide a spiritual lead to teams by praying with them and modelling God’s love in action
- An understanding of Christian compassion and a desire to see people turn their lives around
Desirable experience, knowledge, skills and personal qualities
- An understanding of homelessness, the needs and challenges facing homeless individuals, including trauma, addiction, mental and physical health issues, and exclusion.
- Experience of working or volunteering with people experiencing poverty or homelessness
- Experience of involving people with lived experience/volunteers in plans and decision-making
- Understanding of strengths-based approaches
- Understanding of Trauma-Informed Environments
- A Further or Higher Education qualification
- Keeping records, monitoring, and evaluating a service or your own work.
Proof of the right to work within the UK
We are required by law to request proof that you have the right to work within the UK.
GDPR and personal data
When you provide personal data, including sensitive personal data, when applying for a job, such as information on your application, we will process, store, and disclose this personal data to support the recruitment process in accordance with our GDPR policy. Application details will be retained for up to 1 year for audit purposes before being deleted, unless the individual becomes an employee.
Safeguarding
We uphold the right of all adults to live in safety, free from neglect and abuse and have a clear safeguarding policy and procedures.
This role is subject to a DBS check.
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