Stocks / Procurement / Logistics Coordinator

About the Refugee Women’s Centre

The Refugee Women's Centre (RWC) is a feminist and all-female organisation working to provide close support to displaced women and family units in northern France. The organisation welcomes all female identifying persons over the age of 21 to apply to join our team. We are a team of 10-14 long-term volunteers and two full-time employees: Calais Coordinator, and Grande-Synthe Coordinator.

Our support consists primarily of:

• Material distributions on an individual basis (clothes, bedding, and hygiene products).
• Providing information about, and access to, shelter (both state and private accommodation).
• Activities for women with the aim of creating safe spaces and with a focus on psychosocial support (such as arts and crafts, sports, pampering and language classes).
• Closely monitoring the needs and concerns of the women and families, and responding to their individual needs.
• Advocacy for the rights of displaced women and families in northern France.

Each member of the volunteer team is under the coordination of the 3 paid members of staff on the ground (2 ground coordinators and 1 administrative and finance responsible). The minimum stay for this position is 2 months.

Role Description

During a Warehouse. Stocks and Procurement placement, your role will focus on ensuring the effective running of our warehouses, maintaining stock level, keeping our space organised and strengthening partnerships with forecasts, deliveries, orders, and other distribution organisations. Throughout this work, you will continue to do the main daily tasks required by everyone on the team - warehouse sorting, distributions, activities with women - but with a specific focus on the management of RWC’s warehouse space and stock.

Key Responsibilities

Common tasks

On the ground, with the women we support (2 days/week on average)

• Take an active role in daily ground activities including distributions and maraudes (outreach visits in the camps), along with other team members. This can include work such as late evenings bringing tents to families, preparing distribution items, sorting in the warehouse, and driving people to appointments.
• Build supportive and professional relationships with the women we support and be able to monitor and identify their needs and vulnerabilities which you will raise to the social worker.
• Take a leading role in ensuring our material support and distribution on the ground is meeting women's needs, well coordinated and communicated with both the women and with the team members

Organisational and administrative tasks (3 days/week on average)

• E-Mail management of the logistics e-mail adress
• Attending Coordonation warehouse meetings (with L’Auberge des Migrants) (1/week) and NFI stock meetings (1/month), and keeping the team informed of outcomes.
• Monitoring stock levels and inventory, identifying needs, and ensuring the purchase of necessary stock with support with the off ground stocks volunteer (Shanice in distance).
• Coordinate the reception of big donations, be present to meet the partners.
• Animate the RWC warehouse training for all newcomers.
• Partnerships
  • Local : Strengthening and maintaining partnerships with organisations in Calais and Dunkirk. Includes seeking out new stock relationships in both areas and combining purchases where possible.
  • Other departments & international : more in partnership development, and Germany, Netherlands for partnerships that already exist for accountability
• Management of NFI Emergency stock : make orders, develop a network of private B2B donors in link with the treasurer
• Management of the vehicles (with the support of technical members of the warehouse and coordinators) : link with the mechanical shop, repairs and maintenance
• Call and fundraising proposals (with the support of the board).
• Helping to develop distribution protocols with the ground coordinators
• Management of the volunteer team on warehouse duty. Managing the effective running of our warehouses. This includes managing the space and team sorting, defining and delegating tasks to all team members including cleaning and organising storage areas:
  • Ensuring that photos are taken on reception of larger donations organised by specific organisations.
  • Ensuring that the goals of the day (inventory, sorting donations) are followed)

In autonomy

• Sourcing and organising collects of specific items for distribution in Calais/Dunkirk (eg. items that are readily available in supermarkets like wet wipes and blankets), management of all the specific items : hygiene, specific items (call for donations : phone, baby milk)
• Support RWC’s social media presence by contributing to posts when needed (e.g. donation needs, thank you to donors, other team projects)

Required skills

• Be at least 21 years old.
• Working knowledge of English and/or French.
• High levels of organisation.
• Confident in entering and organising data into Excel.
• Confident in forming partnerships with other support groups where possible.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced environment and adapt projects quickly.
• Ability to mentally and physically sustain yourself in an intense setting with long days.
• Be good at problem solving and finding solutions on the spot.
• Being able to work in a team with care and motivation.
• Have an interest in and awareness of issues facing refugees and migrants in Europe and an awareness of European asylum procedures.

Preferred:

• Experience in logistics.
• Valid driving licence and driving experience with stick-shift vehicules.
• Experience in working sustainably with vulnerable people, including vulnerability/safeguarding identification and building empathetic and professional relationships.