Grassroots Liaison Lead

Location: Remote (UK based)

Contract: Initial 3-month freelance contract, 2.5 days a week, with the potential to extend

Pay: Day rate, in line with charity sector rates for similar roles

Start date: January 2027

Applications close: Midnight, Monday 9 November 2026
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About Smartphone Free Childhood (SFC)

Smartphone Free Childhood is a grassroots movement bringing people together to stand up for healthier, happier childhoods. We believe every child deserves time and space to learn, grow, and thrive, free from the addictive pull of smartphones and social media.

Our mission is to bring people together to take a stand for children’s wellbeing, and to equip parents, schools and communities with the tools, confidence and support they need to change culture from the ground up.

Role overview

Grassroots activity is the beating heart of SFC. Our Grassroots Network Leads, Regional Leaders and School Organisers are the people turning a national conversation into real change in their own streets, schools and communities, right across the UK.

Behind them is a central SFC team providing the strategy, campaigns, tools and support that help the movement grow and succeed. This role is a vital link between the central team (SFC HQ) and our grassroots network, helping ensure that national coordination and local action work hand in hand.

You’ll be someone our grassroots volunteers can turn to for advice, a sounding board and practical help. You’ll spend your time talking to local teams: hearing what they’re trying, what’s working and what’s getting in the way. You’ll spot the ideas that are working in one place and help them spread across the country. And you’ll bring what you hear back to the central team, so that our resources, campaigns and support are shaped by what the grassroots actually need.

This is a supporting role, not a managerial one. Our Grassroots Network Leads, Regional Leaders and School Organisers lead their own areas, in their own way. Your job is to make them more confident and capable, to connect them to each other and to the wider SFC team, and never to take over the relationships they hold locally.

Key responsibilities

Liaising with our grassroots

• Build close, trusted relationships with Regional Leaders and School Organisers across the UK.
• Hold regular check-ins to understand what’s working, what isn’t, and where they need help.
• Play an active role in SFC’s Discord community: welcoming new members, answering questions, sparking conversations and making it a lively place where local teams support each other.
• Help new Regional Leaders and School Organisers get started and connect with each other, so they are met with warmth and quickly set up for success.
• Get back in touch with local teams that have slowed down or gone quiet, find out what’s changed, and help them get going again.

Providing advice and support

• Be on hand to answer questions and give advice on organising locally, from getting a school on board to running a parent event.
• Run sessions with local teams to work through the blockers holding them back.
• Point local teams to the right resources, people and support within SFC.
• Help steer local energy in a positive direction: joy, not anger.

Learning and sharing what’s working

• Gather the stories, tactics and approaches that are getting results in different communities.
• Share what works across the network, through calls, resources, case studies and peer-to-peer connections.
• Connect Regional Leaders and School Organisers with each other so they can learn directly from their peers.

Feeding in to HQ

• Be a key voice representing the grassroots inside HQ, bringing back clear insight on what local teams need.
• Spot recurring gaps and blockers, and work with colleagues to fix them, whether that’s a new resource, a process change or better tools.
• Help shape SFC’s plans, campaigns and materials so they work on the ground.
• Notice anyone operating on behalf of SFC in a way that isn’t in line with our code of conduct, and help to steer them back on course.

Supporting grassroots growth

• Help grow the number of active School Organisers, Regional Leaders and the reach of the Parent Pact across the UK.
• Contribute to SFC’s efforts to drive engagement in underserved communities: understanding the barriers local families and schools face, and helping find the people, partners and approaches that make SFC relevant there.

Person specification

This role suits a natural connector and listener: someone who loves helping other people succeed, picks up quickly on what’s working, and can turn what they hear into practical change.

Essential

• Experience of community organising, whether through SFC or elsewhere.
• Strong people skills and a genuinely collaborative approach, with evidence of how you have used them in a similar role.
• A supporter’s instinct: you get your energy from helping other people succeed.
• A good listener who can spot patterns across many conversations and turn them into clear insight.
• Recognises that different areas face different challenges, and can work out what is likely to work in each place rather than applying a one-size-fits-all approach.
• Able to give practical, confident advice to volunteers.
• Able to motivate volunteers, including re-energising people whose momentum has slowed, without pressure or guilt.
• Commitment to SFC’s mission and values.
• Right to work in the UK.
• Able to work flexibly, including some evening calls and meetings, as that is often the only time local volunteers are free to talk.

Desirable

• Experience working with schools and/or parent communities.
• Familiarity with the different contexts across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
• Experience working in a startup, scaleup or non-profit context.

What we offer

• Flexible, part-time remote working.
• The chance to be the link between a fast-growing national movement and the people driving it locally, with real ownership from day one.
• A collaborative, values-driven environment where your work will directly improve children’s wellbeing across the UK.

How to apply

Apply using the application form. Applications close at midnight on Monday 9 November 2026, and are only accepted through the form, not by email or WhatsApp.

Every applicant hears by Friday 20 November whether they’ve been selected for an interview. Interviews take place online between 23 November and 4 December.

SFC is committed to an inclusive process and warmly welcomes applicants from all backgrounds and communities.