Chair of Trustees

Oursecondhome; Greater London; On-site; GBP 10,000 - GBP 40,000; Full time

Job summary

A values-led charity seeks a Chair of Trustees to shape governance and support growth. The role requires substantial strategic leadership experience, with a focus on good governance and organizational development. The ideal candidate will have a proactive mindset, be highly organized, and possess excellent interpersonal skills. This is a pivotal opportunity to influence a charity during a transformative moment and engage closely with staff, volunteers, and young leaders.

Qualifications

• Significant experience in organisational and strategic leadership, ideally for a charity.
• A proactive mindset with the ability to identify opportunities and risks.
• Strong understanding of good governance.
• Experience with fundraising and financial sustainability.
• Ability to balance support and challenge in leadership roles.

Responsibilities

• Help the board develop alongside OSH.
• Support the CEO with accountability and challenge.
• Ensure systems and strategy keep pace with growth.
• Steward OSH through critical sustainability periods.

Skills

Organisational leadership

Strategic thinking

Good governance

Fundraising

Interpersonal skills

Job description

You could be the next Chair of Trustees of our youth movement of people with refugee backgrounds. The Chair will combine strategic leadership, governance grounded in lived experience, and thoughtful challenge to ensure the organisation scales with ambition, care, and purpose.

What difference will you make?

This is not a ceremonial role. It is an opportunity to shape how a values‑led charity grows well – strengthening governance without dampening spirit, and building structures that enable lived‑experience leadership to thrive.

For the right person, this role offers the chance to have real influence at a formative moment. Working closely with committed trustees, staff, volunteers, and young leaders, the Chair will help OSH become a resilient, impactful organisation for the long term.

What are we looking for?

Essential

• Significant experience in organisational and strategic leadership, ideally including guiding a charity or mission‑driven organisation from small to medium scale
• A proactive and forward‑thinking mindset, demonstrating the ability to anticipate potential issues and risks while identifying opportunities.
• Strong understanding of good governance, with the confidence to lead a board and hold senior executives to account
• Experience of or exposure to fundraising, financial sustainability, and organisational development
• The ability to balance support and challenge, particularly in a Chair – CEO relationship
• Commitment to OSH’s mission and values, including a genuine willingness to engage with and be guided by those with lived experience of the asylum system
• Highly organised and dynamic, with the ability to prioritise the effective use of Board time, facilitate the timely and focused distribution of information, and ensure appropriate follow‑up to Board decisions.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, with the emotional intelligence to lead inclusively, collaboratively, and sensitively

Desirable

• Lived experience of asylum or forced migration
• Previous experience as a Chair or Vice‑Chair of a charity or similar organisation
• Experience working with youth‑led or lived‑experience‑led organisations
• Familiarity with safeguarding in youth or community settings

What will you be doing?

OSH is at a pivotal point in its development.

Over the past few years, OSH has grown from a small, founder‑led organisation into a national movement with increasing reach, complexity, and ambition. Our income has risen from £250,000 to £500,000, our staff and volunteer base is expanding, and our programmes are reaching more young people than ever before.

OSH now needs confident, experienced, and future‑focused governance that can support scaling while protecting the culture, values, and relational way of working that make the organisation distinctive.

The Chair of Trustees will play a central role in this next phase. They will

• help the board develop alongside the organisation;
• support the CEO with clear accountability and thoughtful challenge;
• ensure systems and strategy keep pace with growth;
• steward OSH through a period where long‑term sustainability and leadership development are critical.