The Transforming Autism Project is seeking a volunteer to join our team as our new External Affairs Lead.
Our Organisation
The Transforming Autism Project is a brand-new charity focusing on very early intervention for children with autism with a view to making transformative life-long changes that would not be possible later. We challenge the traditional understanding of autism and propose an inspiring, hopeful and truly empowering perspective. For more details, see our TED talk, below.
We are planning a revolutionary new early intervention autism clinic based on Israel’s pioneering Mifne Centre (find out more and see one family’s story here), and also a comprehensive online Hub of resources and inspiration for parents and carers of autistic children.
To find out more about our goals, values and activities, please view our brochure.
Although we are currently new and very small, we will need to grow quickly in order to make progress towards our large-scale goals. We are therefore – through our wonderful volunteers - building a strong professional team so that we can put the infrastructure in place to have the scope to generate and cope with rapid growth.
We have a strong set of values that define our culture, and which we strive to adhere to at all times. They are based around the themes of Unconditional Respect, Courage and Purpose. There are more details on these here.
Role Profile
This will be a new function for this new charity. The External Affairs team will be key in establishing and maintaining the networks anJto establish the foundations for future policy work promoting appropriate and early intervention in autism.
This role is about creating this function. It will be an opportunity to really shape the future success of the charity, and having scoped, together with the CEO, your vision for it, you will work with our recruitment team to bring on strong volunteers to lead the various sub-areas, and then build them into a coherent and successful team.
It is also an opportunity to shape the evolution of External Affairs in a brand new organisation.
We envisage External Affairs to be split into 4 sub-areas, each eventually with its own volunteer lead, so please also get in touch if you feel you would be better suited to leading one of these areas (we envisage the 2 of the leads of these sub-areas will be Assistant External Affairs Leads):
Network - forging, cultivating, nurturing and retaining strong relationships with other organisations & charities, influential individuals, potential ambassadors & donors, and others.
Events - Ensuring our visible and influential presence at relevant events, as well as holding our own events. Also ensuring speaking opportunities for the charity at events and to our collaborators.
Research - To have excellent command of the key research available to support our claims. As our Hub is further developed, this team will have a key role in researching relevant content for it.
Policy Work - This may need to come at a slightly later date, but the foundations can be laid now to influence policy towards age of diagnosis and approaches to early autism intervention. We also want to ensure that our voice is credible to the right people and is sought on important issues relating to autism early detection and intervention.
The Person
Above all, you will feel passionate and excited about building our External Affairs function, and confident that your experience and drive will be able to deliver this in the best possible way. You will have experience of some of the sub-areas above, and feel comfortable co-ordinating the 4 of them.
We are a strongly values-driven organisation, and are committed to manifesting our values in how we relate to each other, in what we are trying to achieve and in how we do it. You will be in complete resonance with these and dedicated to bringing them into all of your work and interactions.
To find out more about our values, please see our brochure or visit https://transformingautism.org/purpose/
How Many Hours?
This is flexible and can be discussed, however for a lead role such as this, our experience is that it requires at least 8-10 hours or so spread through the week.
The Transforming Autism Project is dedicated to helping create a world where all people are valued and treated according to their inner essential humanity rather than according to the many labels that each of us could wear (or that could be attached to us). We are thus naturally an equal opportunities organisation.
To apply, please e-mail your CV and a short covering letter to: