Job Description
At Rethink Mental Illness, we believe everyone deserves a better life – especially those severely affected by mental illness. Our Empowering Minds Service is here to help Gloucestershire residents build resilience, connect with their communities, and access the right support at the right time.
As a Community Link Worker, you’ll play a key role in achieving this. You’ll be part of our dynamic, trauma informed and multi disciplinary team, delivering practical and emotional support that empowers people to live the lives they want.
This post is Field based, across Forest of Dean, as such we require applicants to be Drivers with access to a Car and to be based in Forest of Dean or Gloucestershire.
Interviews to take place Friday 22nd May
This is your chance to help shape a growing service, challenge stigma, and deliver meaningful outcomes for the people who need it most.
What you’ll be doing
As a Community Link Worker, you will:
• Provide 1:1 person centred, strengths based support in community settings across Gloucestershire.
• Deliver high quality, recovery focused sessions that help people build resilience, independence and confidence.
• Support individuals for up to 3 months, helping reduce social isolation, improve wellbeing, and access community resources.
• Work closely with peer support workers, volunteers, and wider mental health professionals.
• Champion mental health awareness in the community, attending events, meetings and forums.
• Maintain accurate records and ensure safeguarding, confidentiality and lone working procedures are followed.
• Build strong relationships with referrers, partners and local organisations.
• Contribute to continuous service improvement, best practice and positive team culture.
What you’ll bring
You are someone who:
• Lives Rethink’s CARES values – Connect, Accountable, Respect, Evolve and Success.
• Is passionate about supporting people living with mental illness.
• Can reflect on your own wellbeing and ask for support when needed.
• Is creative, compassionate, adaptable and motivated to learn.
• Has strong interpersonal and communication skills.
• Has excellent organisational skills and can manage a varied caseload.
• Is confident using IT systems including Microsoft Office.
• Understands trauma informed approaches and person centred practice.
• Has knowledge of Gloucestershire communities and can travel across the county.
Desirable experience includes:
• Supporting people experiencing mental health crisis or complex emotional needs.
• Incident and safeguarding reporting.
• Partnership working with other agencies.
• Assessing and monitoring support plans and outcomes.
Why join us?
• A supportive, friendly and values driven team.
• Professional development and training opportunities.
• Flexible working requests considered to help you thrive.
• All equipment provided – laptop and smartphone.
• Travel expenses covered when working across Gloucestershire.
• The opportunity to shape a developing service with ambitions to expand.
Ready to make a difference?
If you’re passionate about empowering others, reducing stigma and building stronger, more connected communities, we’d love to hear from you.
Apply today and help us create a better life for everyone severely affected by mental illness.
Why Work With Rethink Mental Illness?
At Rethink Mental Illness, we believe that when you feel supported, you can make the biggest difference. That’s why we offer a range of benefits to help you thrive:
• Inclusive Culture: Join staff networks that champion diversity and inclusion.
• Wellbeing Support: Access our Wellbeing Hub, Employee Assistance Programme, and the Unmind mental health app.
• Recognition & Rewards: Enjoy discounts, cashback offers, and celebrate achievements through our PULSE platform.
• Flexible Working & Generous Leave: Starting at 25 days annual leave (plus bank holidays and your birthday off), with options to buy or sell extra days.
• Learning & Development: Grow your career with structured onboarding and training opportunities.
• Financial & Family Support: Contributory pension scheme, enhanced family leave, and travel benefits like season ticket loans and cycle-to-work schemes.
• Referral Bonus: Earn up to £300 for introducing someone to our team.
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion
Diversity is important to us, and we appreciate difference through difference, inclusiveness and belonging. It gives us a deeper understanding of the world, our society and the diverse communities we’re working with. By including everyone, we are able to draw on the unique experiences and expertise of our people to help shape and enrich our workplace and improve our services. One way we are doing is through our valued staff networks which play a critical and highly valued role in keeping us focused on creating a diverse, inclusive and engaged employer. We recognise and support staff networks and support groups for our ethnically diverse and LGBTQIA+ colleagues. We are also proud to have been awarded Disability Confident Employer status and are a signatory to the Business in the Community Race at Work Charter.
We aim for our workforce to reflect the diversity of the communities we serve; for those who work for us to feel heard, valued and feel they belong; and for our work to help tackle wider mental health inequalities. We therefore actively encourage and welcome applications from everyone, including applicants with lived experience of mental illness, those who are Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer or Questioning, Intersex, Asexual and any other gender identity not expressed here (LGBTQIA+); people who are neurodiverse, have a health condition, or a disability or hidden disability and people from an ethnically diverse background - regardless of your age, religious or spiritual belief, sexual orientation, marital status, veteran status, pregnancy, political view or socio-economic status.
Becoming a truly anti-racist organisation
We have an ambition of become a truly anti-racist employer, campaigning organisation and service provider - and in our efforts to influence policy and wider societal factors impacting on mental health set out in our anti-racist statement . We have designed a multi-year anti-racist programme of work contained in our Race Equality Action Plan which demonstrates our intention to hold ourselves accountable and be judged on our progress on becoming a truly anti-racist organisation.
