Youth Work Manager

EMPOWER; Manchester; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

Empower Youth Zones in Manchester is seeking a Youth Work Manager to lead the delivery across all sessions at HideOut and Salford Youth Zones, ensuring a high-quality, creative and safe programme for young people aged 8-19 (up to 25 with additional needs).

You will manage a team of youth workers and volunteers, develop the seven-day offer, monitor outcomes and drive continuous improvement in line with the charity's strategic plan and values.

Qualifications

• Leadership of delivery teams of youth workers and volunteers.
• Ability to develop, implement and review youth club provision.
• Strong safeguarding and behaviour management across sessions.
• Experience in planning high-quality, creative and inclusive activities.

Responsibilities

• Lead on development, implementation and review of the Youth Club provision.
• Coordinate input from staff and young people to shape a diverse offer.
• Ensure programmes are safe, creative and engaging for 8–19 (25 with needs).
• Manage budgets and resources to maximise benefits for young people.
• Support delivery across 7-day provision and holiday clubs.

Job description

Empower Youth Zones is the charity that oversees the creation, management and sustainability of Youth Zones in Manchester and Salford. These include HideOut Youth Zone located in Gorton (East Manchester) which opened in 2020, and Salford Youth Zone located in Pendleton, which opened to young people in June 2025. HideOut and Salford Youth Zone provide children and young people aged 8-19 and up to 25 for those with additional needs with somewhere safe to go, something positive to do and someone trusted to talk to.

Youth Zones are purpose-built spaces fizzing with energy and crammed with incredible facilities. They are staffed by skilled and dedicated Youth Workers who truly believe in young people – helping them see what they could achieve, and giving them the skills, confidence and ambition to go for it. This is life-changing support that helps tens of thousands of young people from a diverse range of backgrounds to thrive.

Salford and HideOut Youth Zones are part of a national and growing network of Onside Youth Zones. There are currently 21 active Onside Youth Zones across the UK with 23 due to be open by 2027.

What is the Role?

The Youth Work Manager is a lead member of the delivery team. You will work across all Youth Zone sessions and have lead responsibility for the youth club offer, including holiday club to young people aged 8-19 (up to 25 with additional needs), ensuring there is an adequately resourced, high-quality, creative and fun offer, which focuses on the needs of young people and is in line with the Youth Zone's aspirations to provide young people with the best possible experiences and opportunities.

You will have a passion to put young people first. You will be responsible for the continuous improvement of the delivery

and input towards the strategic delivery plan for the Youth Zone. This is a fun, exciting and challenging role in a growing

and ambitious charity where with up to 200 young people attending a session no two days will ever be the same.

What will I be doing?

To operationally ensure the 7-day offer of provision is adequately resourced to provide an exciting range of activities for

young people aged 8 to 19 (up to 25 with additional needs) through youth club provision:

To lead on the development, implementation and review of the Youth Club provision by:

• Coordinating input and ownership from the wider staff team and young people, including the Sport, Arts, Inclusion and Enterprise Co-ordinators, resulting in a diverse offer which responds to the needs and interests of young people.
• To ensure that there is a clear path in place for young people to transition from the Junior Club to the Senior Club.
• Ensuring the programmes are safe, creative, fun, challenging and contribute towards the development and growth of young people, in particular confidence, social skills, resilience, health and aspiration.
• Ensuring the programmes are varied in nature, making full use of the Youth Zone's facilities and the diverse skill set of the staff team, ensuring the offer includes the arts, sports, issue-based work, enterprise, support, advice and guidance and much more.
• Ensuring regular review and evaluation of the programmes, including capturing the outcomes and positive impact, recording soft and hard outcomes.
• Presenting case studies and celebrating the achievements of young people.
• Ensuring high reach and engagement across the junior, seniors and holiday clubs, achieving and exceeding KPI's set by the Board, Chief Executive and Head of Youth Work including, for example, membership, attendance and representation of the local community.

To lead and manage the delivery team on sessions providing:

• Clear hands-on leadership, role modelling and coaching to ensure high standards of delivery are maintained.
• Clear structure, planning and purpose to underpin every session with clear session briefs and debriefs.
• Leading on safeguarding and behaviour management during sessions to ensure the Youth Zone is a welcoming environment for all young people.
• To maintain compliance with safe working practices to ensure the safety of young people.
• To manage, induct, train, support and develop a team of full- and part-time youth workers and volunteers to contribute to the programme development and delivery, working with the Volunteer Manager and Training Manager, supporting CPD and opportunities for accredited and recorded learning.
• To motivate, encourage and support young people to participate fully in sessions.
• To manage the youth club budgets and other resources effectively to maximise the benefits to young people.
• To support the Youth Zone promotional and outreach plan, working in the community both with partners and directly with young people.