Careers at Grapevine

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Work with us

We’re a social action charity that’s best at reinventing itself in response to people’s needs.

We help services, funders and systems find new ways to create deep social change. We’re willing to be bold, remove the box and bring edge-based solutions into the middle.

Current vacancies

Grapevine team members sit and stand in a circle at a team away day

Our three strands of action in Coventry, Warwickshire and wider are Strengthening People, Sparking Community and Shifting Power.

We want others to join us in making our people and communities fairer, stronger and more connected. Read our strategy here.

Here’s a quick round-up of recent years:

  • We were keeping over 500 isolated people well as the Covid-19 crisis struck. That number more than doubled to over 1,200 during 2020.
  • We hosted two online summits to help harness community spirit for the road ahead.
  • A public sector summit for professionals helped cement new ways of working accelerated by the pandemic into everyday practice.
  • In April 2021 we brought together businesses and retailers to co-design a local ‘build back better’ plan founded on connection, sociability and belonging for our city and town centres.
  • A pledge made at this summit to highlight places, spaces and people putting these values at the heart of what they do became the Cov Cares Awards 2023. Now becoming a city-wide network of connection and belonging.
  • Since 2022, alongside our day-to-day work and in response to the rising cost of living, we have been forming a Poverty Alliance network for Coventry in partnership with Central England Law Centre. It’s the only place where frontline grass roots organisations, medium and larger charities and the public sector come together.
  • Also in 2022, we hosted the final stop of a UK-wide Reconnection Tour celebrating communities coming together through some of the toughest times Britain has faced.
  • In 2024, we were invited to speak about community and belonging at the national social fabric summit Restitch.
  • Also in 2024, we released findings of a peer-led evaluation of the impact of our social movement Connecting for Good on Coventry people and communities.
Our experience

We started life in 1994 as a drop-in in Spon End, Coventry for learning disabled people.

We learned who they were, what their dreams were and what they could offer and realised that way of working could help many others too. The answer to our problems lay in community, not specialised services.

Now we work with all kinds of people experiencing poverty, disadvantage and isolation.

Grapevine team member looks thoughtful as he sits in the foreground with the rest of the team behind him and out of focus

“Grapevine team members are intentionally reflective about the work that they carry out, thinking about what joy they are taking from it and how meaningful it is to them.

“I saw power and action from a completely different perspective, and it has made me feel optimistic about the future of sustainability. This experience has changed my understanding of what it means to have an impactful career.”

Bel Govier, student intern from University of Warwick

Working for us

We offer a friendly workplace with a strong culture of helping people uncover their potential. We’re committed to diversity and inclusion in our team and across our work, treating every person we meet as an individual with unique passions and skills.

This video was made by a group of Film, TV and Radio Production students from Coventry College for their final year project. One of them, Edwin, was inspired by our work after volunteering as a buddy on our Teenvine Plus programme for young people with special educational needs and disabilities.

In addition to our ethos, our employee benefits include:

  • Flexible working
  • Employee Assistance Programme
  • 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays (for full-time roles, pro rata for part-time)
  • Stakeholder pension scheme plus eight per cent employer contribution.
A man from Grapevine smiles as he talks to two team members who have their backs to the camera
Current vacancies

We don’t currently have any vacancies in our team but please check our website and social media channels regularly for the latest news.

Or sign up to join our mailing list by clicking this link.

Meet the Grapevine team

Here’s what some members of our team have to say about working for Grapevine. We look forward to getting to know you too!

If you haven’t found what you’re looking for or have a question for us, please get in touch.

Mel from Grapevine points to notes on a flipchart
“I came to Grapevine as a service user, I grew to believe in their work and saw how much it helped our family to grow and change our thinking.” (Mel Smith, Grapevine Deputy CEO)
Molly and Sam from Grapevine smile for the camera in the office community garden
“Our jobs are so varied. Seeing people achieve things that either they thought they wouldn’t be able to or were told by society they couldn’t. I can’t help but miss people when they move on to great things but I know it’s because they feel confident to do it without our support and that’s great.” (Molly Gillespie, left, from Coventry Youth Activists)
Melissa from the Grapevine team smiles holding a poster about Creative Kindness
“Grapevine has helped both my family and myself to find a new outlook for our lives. I have also witnessed several other transformational journeys as Grapevine staff have walked side by side with someone.” (Melissa Smith, Connecting for Good Cov community organiser)
Grapevine team members act out Three Blind Mice at a team away day
“I’m proud of the difference Grapevine Coventry and Warwickshire is trying to make in a UK that just keeps getting tougher for vulnerable people.” (Andrea Mbarushimana, back row centre, from Help and Connect)

 

Postal address
Grapevine (Coventry and Warwickshire) Ltd
123 Upper Spon Street, Spon End
Coventry, CV1 3BQ