PR volunteer

About Our Time Our Time is the only UK charity dedicated to improving the lives of children growing up with a parent who has a mental illness. Around 4 million children in the UK are affected, yet there is still no dedicated national support for this group. For over 20 years, Our Time has been making sure these children aren’t overlooked. We work across a child’s whole support network, offering training for professionals, resources for schools, and safe, welcoming spaces for families through our unique KidsTime Workshops. Our mission is to break the cycle of intergenerational mental ill health by supporting and empowering children to live confident, connected, and emotionally healthy lives. We’re a small team with a big mission, and we’re always looking for passionate people and partners to help us reach more children and families. About the “I Wish” campaign Launching in September 2026 and running through to Mental Health Awareness Week 2027, “I Wish” is an ambitious awareness raising campaign. People with lived experience of parental mental illness share, in their own handwriting, in their own words, the one thing they wish an adult had known, asked, or done. The photograph series creates a powerful visual campaign that calls professionals to act and invites everyone to listen. The campaign aims to: • Reach new audiences and reduce stigma around parental mental illness • Drive teachers and education professionals to sign up to Our Time’s training and school support services • Build a cohort of committed schools across the academic year • Generate national and education press coverage using compelling human stories backed by statistics • Engage the wider public, supporters and donors The role We are looking for a PR-savvy volunteer to support around media outreach for the I Wish campaign launch. Working closely with Our Time’s Communications Lead, you will help us get this campaign in front of the journalists and editors who can amplify it; from education press to national human interest desks. This is a hands-on, delivery-focused role. The campaign has a clear press release angle, strong statistics, and compelling human stories ready to go. We need someone to help us pitch them effectively. What you’ll be doing Building the media database • Research and compile a tailored media list covering our priority target outlets: education press (TES, SecEd, Schools Week, Headteacher Update), national titles (Guardian Education, BBC, i paper), parenting media (Mumsnet, Netmums, Mother & Baby), mental health charity sector press, and relevant regional outlets • Identify the right individual contacts (journalists, editors, and news desks) for each outlet and audience • Maintain and organise the database so it is clear, up to date, and easy for the team to use going forward • Access to Cision, Vuelio, or a similar media database is a significant advantage for this part of the role Preparing pitches • Working with the Communications Lead, develop tailored pitch angles for different outlets and audiences. For example, a data-led pitch for education press versus a human-interest pitch for national titles or parenting media • Draft pitch emails and follow-up copy that is concise, compelling, and campaignready • Help prepare supporting materials including ambassador story profiles and key statistics for journalists Pitching and follow-up • Send pitches to target journalists and editors, ahead of the campaign embargo lift (approx. 1–5 September 2026) • Manage follow-up contact in a timely and professional way • Track responses and coverage, flagging interest and opportunities to the Communications Lead • Support any requests for interviews or additional information from media contacts Who we’re looking for We’d love to hear from you if you have: • Experience in PR, journalism, communications, or a related field; agency, in-house, or freelance all welcome • A good working knowledge of the UK media landscape, particularly education, national, and/or charity sector press • Strong written communication skills and confidence drafting pitches and press materials • A systematic, organised approach to building and maintaining media lists • Access to Cision, Vuelio, or a similar media intelligence tool (desirable but not essential, we can work together on this if not) • An interest in mental health, children’s wellbeing, education, or the charity sector • Availability from August 2026, with the ability to commit through to October 2026 You don’t need to have volunteered for a charity before. What matters most is your PR instinct, your ability to craft a pitch, and your willingness to get stuck in. What you’ll get in return • The chance to work on a powerful campaign with real social impact • Hands-on experience working with a small, dedicated charity team • A named credit and reference on request • Flexibility to fit the role around your existing commitments • The knowledge that your work directly helps more children of parents with