Development Worker: Faith, Place and Community

Action Together; Wigan; Hybrid; GBP 28,000 - 34,000; Full time

Job summary

Wigan Borough Community First CIC is seeking a Development Worker to lead faith and community development across Wigan Borough. You will build trust with places of faith, support networks, and help strengthen governance and quality of work while linking to borough-wide priorities for Belonging, Unity and Live Well.

The role requires a coaching approach, strong relationship skills, and willingness to travel across the borough, with some evenings and weekends as needed.

Qualifications

• Experience of community development, preferably from a place-based perspective.
• Understanding of voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise sector and its contribution to wellbeing.
• Knowledge or lived understanding of faith communities and faith geography, across difference.
• Strong relationship-building skills with faith leaders, residents and partners.

Responsibilities

• Faith and place-based development: build trusted relationships with places of faith and faith-based organisations across Wigan Borough.
• Networks, learning and collaboration: support the Interfaith Network to remain inclusive and connected.
• Insight, mapping and storytelling: capture stories and assets to inform prevention, belonging and resilience.
• Influence and strategic connection: translate learning for WBCF, council, funders and wider system partners.
• Sustainability and community wealth building: connect faith and community organisations into funding, volunteering and social value opportunities.

Skills

Community development

Stakeholder engagement

Facilitation

Relationship building

Coaching approach

Public speaking

Job description

Wigan Borough Community First CIC is developing as a sector-led Local Infrastructure Organisation for the voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise sector across Wigan Borough. Our purpose is to create the conditions for communities and organisations to lead, learn, connect, influence and deliver community-led work across the Borough.

This role will focus on faith, place and community development. The postholder will work alongside places of faith, faith-based organisations, community groups, providers, networks and system partners to help faith spaces develop, grow and strengthen their offer in response to local people, local assets and local priorities.

The Development Worker will take a coaching-led, relational and place-based approach. They will listen carefully, build trust, connect people and opportunities, support quality improvement across VCFSE providers, and help ensure the contribution of faith is visible within the Borough’s wider work on belonging, within the overarching strategy of Progress with Unity.

This role is ideal for someone who understands the complexity, richness and sensitivity of faith geography, and who can work confidently across communities of place, identity, belief and experience.

• Build trusted relationships with places of faith and faith-based community organisations across Wigan Borough, recognising their distinct histories, geographies, assets, pressures and contributions.
• Work in a coaching way with faith spaces to help them understand community needs, develop their offer, strengthen governance where needed, improve quality of work and connect into wider opportunities.
• Support a thriving, developing and inclusive Interfaith Network , working with the Chair and network members to strengthen collaboration, shared learning, mutual understanding and collective influence.
• Coordinate, advocate for and help broaden access to faith education activity, working alongside the Interfaith Network, communities, schools, providers and system partners.
• Develop and maintain a rich understanding of the role faith plays in how Wigan Borough lives well, building on existing mapping work and using insight, stories and relationships to show what is happening across places and communities.
• Confidently highlight the role of faith within borough-wide Belonging work, ensuring faith voices, spaces and contributions are recognised within strategic conversations and practical local action.
• Support community wealth building approaches with providers, networks and system partners, connecting faith and community organisations into broader economic, social value, funding and sustainability opportunities.
• Work collaboratively across WBCF’s infrastructure work, including development coaching, community power, funding and sustainability, volunteering, learning, insight, collaboration and influence.

This is not a siloed project role. It is a developmental infrastructure role that will need to grow, adapt and respond as relationships, learning and opportunities emerge.

The postholder will need to be independent, collaborative and reflective. They will be comfortable working without all the answers, able to make good judgements, and confident asking: what are we hearing, who needs to be involved, what can we safely do next, and how does this strengthen the sector?

Because places of faith are widely dispersed across the borough, the role requires the ability to travel independently, including by car, and to work flexibly at times that suit communities, faith settings and local partners.

Role Summary:

The Development Worker will help faith and community organisations to lead, learn, connect, influence and deliver community-led work across Wigan Borough. The role will bring together place-based development, faith engagement, interfaith collaboration, community wealth building, learning and strategic influence.

The postholder will work alongside communities rather than doing things to them or for them. They will support faith spaces to understand their strengths, respond to local need, connect into borough-wide priorities and build more sustainable, inclusive and influential community activity.

The role will sit within WBCF’s wider infrastructure model and contribute to shared learning across the organisation. The work will connect closely to strategic themes including Belonging, Progress with Unity and Live Well , while remaining grounded in the lived experience, priorities and assets of local faith and community spaces.

Primary Role Responsibilities:

Faith and place-based development: build trusted relationships with places of faith and faith-based organisations across Wigan Borough, recognising their distinct histories, geographies, assets, pressures and contributions.

Networks, learning and collaboration: support the Interfaith Network to remain inclusive, purposeful and connected, working with the Chair and members to strengthen shared ownership, faith education, mutual understanding and practical action.

Insight, mapping and storytelling: build on existing faith mapping to capture stories, patterns, assets, needs and opportunities, using learning cycles to help WBCF and partners understand the role of faith in prevention, wellbeing, belonging and community resilience.

Influence and strategic connection: translate learning from faith spaces into clear insight for WBCF, the VCFSE sector, Wigan Council, Public Health, funders and wider system partners, ensuring faith is recognised within Progress with Unity, Live Well and Belonging work.

Sustainability and community wealth building: help faith and community organisations connect into funding, commissioning, volunteering, training, partnerships, shared resources, social value and other opportunities, with fair and proportionate access for smaller and under-recognised groups.

Working as part of WBCF: share learning across WBCF’s infrastructure work, contribute to reflective practice and action learning, and work independently while remaining connected, transparent and accountable to colleagues, communities and partners.

Who we are looking for

We recruit for values, judgement and relationships as well as skills. We are looking for someone who can work with compassion, curiosity and confidence across different places, beliefs, cultures, organisations and systems. You will need to be comfortable with complexity, able to hold different perspectives, and committed to strengthening community-led responses in ways that are inclusive, respectful and practical.

Essential Experience, Knowledge and Skills

You will be able to demonstrate:

• Experience of community development, preferably from a place-based perspective.
• Understanding of the voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise sector and the contribution it makes to wellbeing, belonging, prevention and community resilience.
• Knowledge or lived understanding of faith communities, places of faith and the complexity of faith geography, with the ability to work respectfully across difference.
• Strong relationship-building skills and the ability to work with faith leaders, residents, community members, VCFSE providers, public sector partners, funders and strategic stakeholders.
• Confidence in facilitating conversations, convening groups and supporting networks to develop shared purpose and action.
• Ability to work in a coaching way, supporting people to reflect, decide and act rather than creating dependency.
• Confidence presenting work clearly to different audiences, including community members, partners, commissioners and strategic boards or networks.
• Ability to gather, interpret and share insight from relationships, mapping, stories and local conversations.
• Understanding of community wealth building, social value, sustainability or local economic opportunity, or a willingness to develop this knowledge quickly.
• Ability to work independently, manage competing priorities, make sound judgements and know when to seek support or challenge.
• Commitment to equity, inclusion, anti-discrimination, respectful faith engagement and ensuring under-heard voices are included.
• Ability to travel independently across Wigan Borough, including to dispersed places of faith and community settings.
• Flexibility to work some evenings, weekends or non-standard hours where this is needed to meet communities where they are.

Our values and behaviours

In this role, we will expect you to bring our values into everyday practice:

• Encourage brave leadership and intelligent experimentation
• Be open and transparent
• Trust and empower people
• Listen and include
• Work together for the common good

We’d love to hear from you if you like the sound of this role and are up for a challenge.

We are committed to equity, diversity and inclusion. If you require adjustments at any stage of the recruitment process, please let us know.

We will conduct post interview checks before an appointment is formally made.

Key information

• Employer: Wigan Borough Community First CIC
• Locations: Wigan
• Role Type: Fixed term
• Working Hours: Full-Time

The closing date for applications is midday on Friday, 25 September 2026

Following receipt of applications, short-listing will take place and following that interviews for this post will take place on Monday, 12 October 2026.

We will conduct post interview checks before an appointment is formally made.

We are committed to equity, diversity and inclusion. If you require adjustments at any stage of the recruitment process, please let us know.

More about this role

• Closing Date: Friday 25th September 2026 at 12:00pm
• Anticipated Interview Date: Monday, October 12, 2026 - 13:00
• Contact Information: [e-mail]
• Would You Consider A Job Share For The Role?: Yes