Join the Team!
Finance Trustee & Treasurer
📢Exciting Opportunity! Join our team as Trustee Treasurer to gain a unique insight into our work and be responsible for the charity’s financial strategic management. Contribute your financial expertise to make a difference. APPLICATIONS OPEN NOW!
➡️Voluntary, Unpaid role, expenses paid.
At Aid Box Community we offer support, supplies and sanctuary to people seeking asylum in Bristol. With our team of dedicated staff and volunteers we offer the assistance needed to access living essentials, emotional support, recreation, shelter, community, legal advice, health care and employment.
Every year we welcome thousands of displaced people by means of our Free Shop, Welcome Hub, Activity Programme, Crisis Fund and Befriending Service.
As Trustee Treasurer, as well as general governance, you will have specific responsibilities to oversee the monitoring of the charity's finances and budgeting on behalf of the Board of Trustees. You will also ensure that end-of-year financial tasks are completed for our Annual Report and Accounts. Operational responsibilities are carried out by our Finance Manager and one of our Directors who liaises closely with our Treasurer.
Main Duties and Responsibilities:
You'll report quarterly to trustees on the charity's finances ensuring financial reports to the trustees are clear and properly discussed
You'll ensure accounts and other financial reports are produced in the correct form and on time as required by the Charity Commission and independent examiners
You'll chair our Finance Risk and Audit Committee which oversees the charity’s financial risk management process and reviews our financial health
You'll attend four Trustee meetings a year (each lasting up to 3.5hrs) and four online FRAC (Finance and Risk) meetings a year (each lasting up to 2 hours)
You'll attend one RemCom meeting a year (up to 2 hrs) for an annual salary review.
This role is for you if:
You are a qualified accountant or a part qualified finance professional
You would like to join a fantastic community of staff, volunteers and service users
You are committed to our upholding the basic human rights of refugees and asylum seekers
You are able to commit the necessary time to the role (see requrements above re meetings)
Safeguarding Statement
ABC is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of its service users and vulnerable adults and expects all staff, trustees and volunteers to share this commitment.
ABC operates Safeguarding Policies for the purpose of protecting Young People and Vulnerable Adults. All staff and trustee members are required to undergo Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service DBS checks.
Statement on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
ABC aims to be an anti-discriminatory organisation committed to the promotion of quality and diversity and, in line with the Equality Act 2010. We particularly welcome applications from under-represented groups and those with lived experience.
Registered Charity Number 1172697
For an informal chat: please email our chair of trustees at richard@aidboxcomunity.co.uk
Closing Date for Applications: Friday 23rd of February
Interviews: TBC
About Aid Box Community
Aid Box Community (ABC) is a Bristol charity that provides hope, love and a sense of belonging to people seeking asylum in Bristol. The charity was started 7 years ago on the Refugee camps in France by a local mum and has grown and evolved to support about 4500 people a year through our Free Shop and Welcome Hub, Activity Groups and Trips and Connections Befriending program.
“I have never known a charity like it, they are not a charity they are a family.”
— S, Service User
Our Vision, Mission & Values
Vision - that the rights of refugees and those seeking asylum will be respected so that they have the opportunity to achieve financial and emotional independence.
Mission – to provide a warm welcome to people seeking asylum in Bristol and to offer the support they need to access living essentials, emotional support, recreation, shelter, community, legal advice, health care and employment.
Values – we welcome with open arms all displaced people regardless of their faith, race, ethnicity, culture, age, disability, gender and sexuality and always respecting the principle of equity. We treat everyone with respect, compassion and love and seek to offer hope, advocacy and a space to belong.
History of Aid Box Community
Aid Box Community was founded in 2015 by Imogen who after seeing the image of young Alan Kurdi's body washed up on the Mediterranean shore was not able to look away.
After calling out for donations from friends and family to take to the French refugee camps and getting the most overwhelming response form the Bristol public a group was formed: 'Aid Box Convoy'. 30 Volunteers convoyed to Dunkirk Refugee camp with 350 Aid Boxes, hundreds of tents, sleeping bags, food boxes and building materials to attend to the basic needs of the people stranded in the camp.
Aid Box Convoy continued to coordinate volunteers and donations on the camp, fundraise and raise awareness across the UK and Europe of the plight of refugees.
In April 2016 after witnessing the poverty, isolation, and trauma that many were experiencing once they had reached the UK, Aid Box Convoy became Aid Box Community which, in 2017, registered as a charity (CIO). Our charity hub is on the main road at 174b Cheltenham Rd, Bristol BS6 5RE. Please do feel free to drop in to meet our team and to look around!
Aid Box Community Services
Welcome Hub and signposting: Our welcome hub is a safe space where people can come to be part of our community, for a chat and a cuppa, signposting to our partner services or just to escape isolation and build friendships.
Free Shop: In our hub, where people can choose with dignity free quality items donated by the public - from clothing, toiletries, household toys, to electrical items. As well as new underwear and other items we purchase that are essential.
Crisis Fund: We have a small fund that is available for people in crisis: this may be an emergency food voucher, emergency dental treatment, transport to asylum interview, medical equipment.
Connections befriending program: A befriending programme connecting people to alleviate isolation and growing true friendships.
Activity Groups and Trips: These groups provide a space for sharing skills, learning, laughing, and chatting - a time for people to meet friends and feel belonging.
All delivered with loads of Love and Hope.
Why we do what we do
The UK is home to about 1% of the 35.3 million refugees that have been forcibly displaced across the world. The world is facing one of the biggest humanitarian catastrophes of our generation. Millions of people are being forced to flee their homelands in search of safety from war, extreme poverty and government oppression and persecution.
Europe has seen a huge movement of desperate people and is struggling to offer a sufficient response. Where governments and large NGOs fail to tackle the situation, the crisis grows. Camps and pockets of people emerge across Europe with little or no support other than that provided by individuals and small independent organisations who can’t turn their backs.
For those who arrive in the UK, it can take well over a year to be granted asylum and often many years. Most displaced people suffer from PTSD, depression, and isolation. Those who are not granted asylum face destitution and deportation and are often held in deportation centres - some for years. Some granted asylum end up homeless and destitute due to the lack of mental health, employment, and housing support.
Over the past 12 months we have supported 4730 individuals and families settle in Bristol.We are a team of 11 part-time members of staff, 272 loyal volunteers and 7 trustees.
Safeguarding Statement
ABC is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of its service users and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.
ABC operates Safeguarding Policies for the purpose of protecting Young People and Vulnerable Adults. All staff members are required to undergo Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service DBS checks.
Statement on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
ABC aims to be anti-discriminatory organisation committed to the promotion of quality and diversity and, in line with the Equality Act 2010. We particularly welcome applications from underrepresented groups and those with lived experience.