Do you understand the challenges of building confidence, resilience, wellbeing and independence after a difficult start in life? 

Do you want the chance to shape the direction of an exciting new charity working to transform the life chances of 16-25 year-olds affected by childhood trauma?   

The Life Chance Trust is a new youth charity, founded, hosted and supported by the award-winning therapeutic School for Inspiring Talents, based in Newton Abbot and Ashburton, South Devon.

Through a blend of mentoring and coaching, wellbeing and life skills support, practical help and advocacy, we’re working to build young people’s confidence, resilience, motivation, skills and networks, so they can look forward to the happy, healthy, safe and independent adult lives they deserve.

You can read more and watch our introductory video here.

As we begin our second year of operations, we’re looking for more volunteer trustees to join our talented and lively governing Board, working alongside our Every Chance champions, a group of passionate young people guiding our work.

We’re especially keen to hear from you if you have one or more of the following:

• a background in psychology or similar / experience of trauma therapies
• experience of digital development and online fundraising 
• a financial or accountancy background
• lived experience of childhood trauma (personally or within your family).

These roles are unpaid, but we can reimburse your travel and related expenses. 

Location: Flexible: our staff and volunteers are spread across the south-west and most meetings take place via Zoom or Teams. 

Term of Office: 3 years, renewable by mutual consent for up to three terms

Responsible to: Chair of Trustees, Life Chance Trust

Expected time commitment: We typically hold four two-hour board meetings each year, each requiring preparation and pre-reading, plus annual trustee training and a whole-Trust awayday in October (face-to-face in South Devon).  Depending on your knowledge and interests, there’s scope to be involved in our operations too, such as becoming a mentor, or helping with fundraising and partnership development.

Trustee duties:

1. Maintain the integrity of Life Chance Trust, ensuring that we pursue our goals for public benefit
2. Oversee the work of the Trust, in line with our constitution, all relevant policies, and the law
3. Act in the best interests of the charity and the young people we support at all times
4. Manage Life Chance Trust’s resources responsibly, working towards financial sustainability
5. Provide effective governance input, holding staff members and fellow trustees to account
6. Act with reasonable care and skill at all times.

You must also be committed to:

• Safeguarding and protecting young people and vulnerable adults from harm
• Supporting the work of Life Chance Trust in Devon and across the South-West.

If this is your first leadership / governance role, we’ll offer a range of information and training, and your fellow trustees will be on hand to help and advise you.

This useful link gives you a general overview of being a charity Trustee: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/charity-trustee-whats-involved

How to apply:

Please email your CV or profile to trust@lifechance.org.uk with ‘Trustee Application’ in the subject field and a cover note explaining what you’d like to bring to the Life Chance Trust Board.  If you’d like to have an informal and confidential conversation before applying, please contact our Chair of Trustees designate, Julie Scott-Bryant via julie.scotthr@gmail.com

Please let us know if you need additional help to apply, so we can find an approach that works for you. Any invitation to join the Board of Trustees will be subject to an enhanced DBS disclosure for safeguarding purposes, as well as satisfactory professional or personal references.

Equality, Diversity & Inclusion: Life Chance Trust is committed to equality of opportunity, supports, and encourages under-represented groups, and values diversity. We want our charity to reflect the diversity of our communities, and so welcome volunteers from a wide range of backgrounds, who will bring a fresh perspective, irrespective of age, disability (including hidden disabilities), gender, gender identity or gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, or sexual orientation.  We may request information about your ethnicity, gender, disability, sexual orientation, religion and/or age to monitor how well we are reaching into our local communities: providing this information is up to you and won’t affect how we engage with you if you choose to get involved.