Help us create happier, healthier, more connected communities as an Oxford Hub trustee

Our trustee board is seeking to grow in order to better reflect the breadth of the work we do across the City. We are looking for people who bring a range of experiences and skills to the board, with no prior experience of being a trustee required!

Oxford is a deeply unequal city, but we believe there are lots of resources, energy, and drive to address our challenges. At Oxford Hub we bring people together to do just that. The core of our work is based around relationships, joining up the dots and connecting people who wouldn’t otherwise have met. We believe this builds the city’s social fabric and creates inclusive communities.

We are looking for trustees who are passionate about this work. We are not a charity running programmes in the more traditional way, but we are interested in how we work with others to shift power to communities and encourage people to participate in their neighbourhoods. We still run lots of programmes and activities, but are always guided by our aim to bring a better Oxford through relationships:

The framework above guides our learning and evaluation, which is an area we will be prioritising over the next 12 months. The three layers of this framework remind us why we do the work that we do and how we should be approaching it. This model helps us bring together a diverse set of activities, and keeps us focused on our vision for a better Oxford for everyone.

We work across the entire city, but we take an equity approach, focusing on those areas where additional capacity can bring the most value. This is an approach that we are learning to bring to all areas of the organisation, when working with members or recruiting new staff. We are particularly interested in hearing from potential trustees who are curious about what equity in governance could look like, and would be interested in helping us explore that question. The overall aim of taking an equity approach is to proactively work to reflect Oxford across all areas in our organisation, ensuring we represent the communities that we serve.

Get involved

We have a thriving and talented staff team and look forward to working with trustees who want to support our mission and vision, working collaboratively with our communities.

• An application pack for trustees is available on our website.
• You can find out more about us by reading our manifesto.
• To learn more about our activities, you can also visit our blog.

FAQs

How many trustees are you looking for? We would like to appoint up to three new trustees, depending on the applications we receive. However, we are also interested in people joining one of the two board committees, so if your application isn’t successful, or if you don’t feel you can commit to a full board role at the moment, this is something you may be interested in.

How do the board committees work? There are two committees, one focused on operations, and one focused on impact. The operations one focuses more on different governance aspects (policy, finances) and the impact one is more focused on service delivery. We expect that most people who aren’t interested in a full trustee role may be interested in the impact committee, but we are open to consider interest in the operations committee too.

I’ve never been a trustee before, what support is available? Firstly, it’s worth looking at the CC3 guidance on the Charity Commission website. New trustees can also take part in the Hub Trustee Programme training sessions, which provide a huge amount of detailed governance knowledge and support. Our board has lots of experienced trustees who can offer mentoring and support to those starting on their first board role.

What are your priorities for the next few months? As an organisation we have grown our activities on the ground enormously as a result of the Oxford Together Covid-19 emergency volunteering programme. Our plan is to continue to do what we have been doing for the past 12 years, and to embed more recent innovations into our day-to-day work. In order to do that, we are having conversations with everyone who made Oxford Together possible, and making plans for community-based support beyond the pandemic. The diagram below shows our core activities, and organisations involved in Oxford Together which will help shape our long-term plans. Our history, roots and source of energy comes from our close relationship with Oxford University — we will remain strongly rooted in student volunteering and social action, connecting the incredible energy and skills of members of the University with opportunities to have a real impact locally.

What sort of skills are you looking for? Based on our priorities above, we are really interested in hearing from people who have an insight into our work through any activities — whether as a volunteer, a participant or a partner in any of our programmes. Basically, if you are passionate about making Oxford better for everyone, that’s a great starting point! We are also looking for people who would like to support our learning and evaluation work, finances, communications and digital strategy areas.

Can I be a trustee if I am a current Oxford Hub volunteer? Definitely! If you are involved in the Hub in any way, as a volunteer, partner, participant, funder or supporter, you can still apply to join the board — we would talk to you proatively about any conflict of interest that may arise. Existing and former trustees have been partners, volunteers and supporters of the work! We think that having direct experience of the work of the Oxford Hub in any way will be beneficial for new trustees joining the board.