Trustee Role Profile

The Transforming Autism Project is seeking to create a new Trustee Board.

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, which has now been watched by nearly 250,000 people.

Our long-term goal is to truly transform lives through our life-changing Mifne Treatment Centre (details here).  On our way there, we're on the verge of launching our very first direct face-to-face family services (details here) in the late Spring.  They're backed by a therapeutic framework created for us by Norland College.

Guy Shahar's TEDx talk, The Beautiful Reality of Autism

Although we are currently at a very early stage in our development, we are looking to make fast progress to make our projects viable and help as many families as possible as soon as we can.

To that end, we are creating a team of capable and dedicated volunteers to ensure our success. A credible and passionate Trustee Board will be absolutely critical to this, and we are still in the process of building this.

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, and our working principles, here.

The Person and the Role

Given the above, our Board needs to be a little more operational (as opposed to purely governing) than it will be once we're fully established, perhaps overseeing and actively supporting other volunteers in an area of the charity, although this will depend on the person and their specialism.  Each will also be a natural Ambassador for the charity.

We are looking for people to serve as Trustees who:

  • are deeply passionate about our charity’s mission and values (ideally with a close personal connection to autism and/or parenting an autistic child)
  • can bring experience, specialist skills and a strong relevant network (at least one person should have strong understanding/experience of how to set up a charity board from a governance and a culture point of view and make it successful.  Other key skills we are looking for are: Fundraising, Finance, a credible Autism Specialist, Marketing, legal, HR, IT, etc, and it would be ideal for as many of the board as possible to be either parents of autistic children or autistic themselves - or both)
  • have the availability and commitment to actively and energetically drive the charity forwards, and willing to be seen internally and externally as active charity leaders.

This makes the opportunity an exciting and potentially very rewarding one for Trustees who like the sound of this, as they will be truly at the heart from the outset of turning our important mission into a reality, building a culture with our values at the centre, and establishing ourselves as a credible force offering real value to society.

It would be ideal if most or all of our Board is within travelling distance of London to make it possible to meet when needed, though we will consider other arrangements for exceptional candidates from further afield.  Our charity is based in TW13, though currently with no offices.

Key Trustee Roles Currently Required

We are especially interested at this time in the following positions on the Board:

  • Chair - This must be someone who is very confident and experienced in charity governance, as this is a perspective we lack at present.  Their job will be to turn our Board into a coherent one that is shaped to best support the charity, ensure that our charity governance is as it should be and to help other members of the board understand their duties.
  • Treasurer - To help manage the charities finance and ensure good financial planning, decision-making and tracking.

 

Basic Trustee Duties

Trustees should become familiar with the Six Essential Trustee Duties as defined by the Government (their full Essential Trustee Guide is here), and perform the standard Trustee responsibilities. However it is the passion for what we're doing and the determination to make it succeed that will be the critical factors that make the difference to the charity.

 

Next Steps

If you would like to apply to become a Trustee, please submit the following to jobs@transformingautism.org (also use this address if you have any questions or need further information):

  • A full CV, tailored to this application
  • A Cover Letter outlining why you are applying, what you can bring and any connection to or interest in autism that you may have
  • An indication of what sort of availability you have to discuss this further

The Recruitment Process

The recruitment process will consist of the following steps:

  • An informal initial call with a recruiter
  • A questionnaire
  • The option of an informal conversation with the CEO
  • A final interview with 2 members of the current Board (where possible) and the CEO

If successful, there will follow a period of 4 months, during which you will work with the charity before being formally registered with the Charity Commission as a Trustee.

 

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.