Help build the conditions for people to be part of Blend.

Would you like to help build a new chapter of Blend?
Blend Amsterdam is a volunteer-run community and third place for young adults aged 18–35. Over the years, Blend has brought people together through its café, activities, workshops and informal gatherings.
Blend is open to everyone: local residents, visitors, tourists and anyone looking for coffee, lunch, conversation or connection. The café and the activities around it have always been made possible by volunteers. Blend is an open and diverse community where people with different backgrounds, experiences and circumstances meet. Some young adults involved with Blend may be going through a vulnerable or changing period in their lives. At the same time, they bring their own strengths, talents, experiences and initiative.

Blend is not a care organisation or a day-care facility. It is a low-threshold place where people can meet, contribute and participate in different ways, with as much autonomy as possible.

A new chapter
Blend is currently closed following the flooding. The café will not simply return to its previous form, and we are currently exploring what a sustainable new chapter for Blend could look like.

This gives us an opportunity to take a step back and carefully consider what Blend needs, how we want to work together, and what role the community can play in shaping the future. Rather than immediately rebuilding everything as it was, we want to start small and build step by step: with new energy, a clear purpose and a largely new team. We want to be ambitious about what Blend can become, while being careful not to rush the process.

Blend has successfully operated without a café in the past, through activities, workshops and informal gatherings. There is therefore more to Blend than the café itself.
We are now looking for people who would like to help build the foundations for this next chapter.

Team People & Participation
The People & Participation team helps create the conditions that make it easy for people to join Blend, find their place, contribute and stay involved for a period of time.

This is not about creating a large HR system or lots of rules. It is about providing enough structure, clarity and continuity for people to participate with confidence and autonomy.
This is also not a role in a finished organisation. You will help shape the foundations of how a new version of Blend works: how people join, how they find a role, how responsibilities are shared, and how knowledge and relationships are carried forward.

Who are we looking for?
We are looking for someone who gets energy from people as well as from making an organisation work in practice.

You are:
• social, approachable and easy to talk to
• practical, well organised and digitally confident
• good at listening while also keeping an overview
• able to create structure without making things unnecessarily complicated or formal
• independent, while also enjoying working with others
• curious about what people can and want to contribute, and able to recognise different needs and circumstances without defining people by them
• someone who takes responsibility and gets things moving, while naturally giving others space

Experience in HR, volunteer coordination, community building or a similar role is an advantage, but not essential. More important is that you understand what people need in order to participate in a positive, meaningful and independent way.

This is a small-scale role to begin with — the aim is not to build a large HR structure, but a simple, workable foundation that can grow with Blend. You can contribute approximately 4 hours per week, in consultation, and ideally stay involved for at least 4–6 months, so that something meaningful can be built and handed over.

What will you do?
As part of the People & Participation team, you will help build the foundation for participation within the new chapter of Blend.

You will:
• welcome new and returning volunteers and help them find their way around Blend
• think along about how people can find roles that fit their interests, abilities and available time
• keep an overview of who is involved, what roles people have and where support or follow-up may be needed
• help make important information, agreements and ways of working clear and accessible
• support team leads and volunteers when questions or challenges arise
• help recruit new volunteers when needed
• maintain the basic administration and People & Participation mailbox
• help create good knowledge transfer, so that important knowledge does not remain with one person
• think about ways in which people can connect to Blend for a specific period, for example around an activity or project
• help develop a way of working that provides continuity while remaining light, flexible and appropriate for a volunteer-run organisation
• work together with Community, Activities, Communication, Organisation and Café to make it easy for people to contribute to whatever is happening within Blend

The role is ultimately about creating the conditions in which people can take initiative and contribute themselves.

What do you get in return?
• The opportunity to help shape a new chapter of a unique community in Amsterdam.
• The chance to help determine how people can participate and contribute to Blend in the future.
• A role in which you can make a real difference to an open and diverse community.
• Plenty of space to think, experiment and discover together what works.
• Collaboration with people across different teams and parts of Blend.
• The opportunity not just to implement ideas, but to help shape how Blend works in the future.
• Nice teamactivities and lunch
• And, hopefully soon, good coffee again.

Interested?
You do not need to meet every point on the list.
If you are excited by the combination of people, participation and organisation, and you like the idea of helping to build something new from the ground up, we would love to meet you.
Get in touch for an informal conversation. We are happy to tell you more about Blend, where we are now and what we are exploring for the future. And we would especially like to hear what you would like to contribute.