Executive Director
£60,000-£65,000
Full time and permanent
London N7 and flexible hybrid working

The Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI) is an independent charity established in 1967. For over 57 years, we have promoted our vision of a society in which people can live safely and are treated with equal dignity and respect, regardless of where they are from or how they came to the UK.

To achieve this, we provide legal advice, representation and holistic support to migrants experiencing injustice, poverty, and discrimination; we undertake parliamentary advocacy and expert policy analysis; we speak out and challenge damaging and discriminatory media narratives about immigration; we use law as a tool of resistance; we work in solidarity with migrants and grassroots groups, and we build campaigns that both build power and influence power; working towards radically transforming immigration and asylum law and policy.

JCWI has been through a period of transition over recent years, with pressures on the organisation, its staff, capacity, and resources increased by successive political attacks on migrant communities, the eroding of migrants' rights through legal and policy change, the rise of the far-right in the UK and the widening gap between the rich and powerful and Britains multi-racial working class.

It is in this context that JCWI is seeking an empathetic and collaborative leader given we are in a time of immense political upheaval both in the UK and across borders. We need someone who can unite us towards a refreshed collective resistance to increasingly unfettered state and corporate power. Our advocacy and campaigning work has long been informed by the direct vital support we provide to many thousands of people and families as they face the UK's increasingly harsh and unfair immigration and nationality laws. We are led by an experienced Board including Anne Campbell, our Chair, who is formerly Director of North Kensington Law Centre, and Sally Causer, formerly Director of Southwark Law Centre. Our Legal Directors Laura Smith and Enny Choudhury lead our case work and challenge unjust policy through litigation, whilst our Interim Advocacy and Communications Director Griff Ferris coordinates our campaigns for long-term systemic change and oversees our work shifting the toxic narrative around migration.

The successful candidate is likely to have a sound grasp of the key issues JCWI works on and the political climate in which the organisation operates, to provide confident leadership and strategic guidance to all teams, and to maintain and build relationships with key stakeholders. This includes setting and reviewing the organisation's objectives within the framework of the five-year strategy, developing and reviewing the annual business plan and fundraising plan, maintaining JCWl's relationships with trusts, foundations, and other key partners, and acting as one of the lead spokespeople for the organisation in the media and elsewhere.

JCWI has a proud history of leadership from racialised people and people with lived experience of the immigration system, and therefore we strongly encourage applications from people with lived experience of the immigration system and those who are representative of the communities we work with. We also welcome applications from anyone who has faced marginalisation or oppression, including people of colour, people who identify as LGBTQIA+, disabled people, and/or people who are working class or from working class backgrounds.

How to Apply

Application is by way of CV with a Supporting Statement of no more than two sides of A4, that should set out your motivations for applying and outlines your suitability for the role as set out in the job description as well as how you meet the person specification.

Closing date: Midnight, Wednesday 1st October

First interview: Week commencing 13th October

Second interview: Week commencing 20th October

Final stage: Meet the team w/c 27 October (shortlisted candidates)

For an informal conversation about the role please contact Vikki Park to arrange an appointment with Carroll Lloyd, Director of NFP Consulting: vikki.park@nfpconsulting.co.uk

We are part of the Experts by Experience Employment Initiative (www.ebeemployment.org.uk). The network supports inclusive recruitment of people with lived experience of the UK asylum or immigration system. If this is your experience, you can find useful resources online - www.ebeemployment.org.uk/ebe