Greening Officer Greenock, Scotland
Job description
Job Title: Greening Officer
Hours/Week: 10
Location: RIG Arts, Unit 7, 11 Clarence Street, Greenock, PA15 1LP
The Drying Green, Inverkip Road, Greenock, PA16 9HG
Hourly Rate: £14/ hr (£7,280 per annum)
Project Dates: 3rd April ‘23 to 28th March’ 26 (length of post can be negotiated)
Responsible to: Karen Orr, Ceo
Post Advertised: 8th March 2023
Closing Date: 22nd March 2023 | 5pm
Shortlist Notified: 24th March 2023
Interviews: w/c 27th March 2023
In post: 3rd April 2023
Overview:
RIG Arts are hiring a part time Greening Officer for our RIG Communities project funded by Investing in Communities, Scottish Government (Appendix 1) which aims to enable community empowerment through targeted outreach, participant development, and managing varied and accessible infrastructure for local people to become involved in the shaping of the project.
The role will lead the Green/Growing aspect of the project through participatory engagement based mainly at The Drying Green, PA16 9HG. The individual will be supported by RIG Arts Project Manager and our Business Administrator to gain an understanding of the company ethos and project ambitions. They will also work closely with a RIG Communities Engagement Officer to build cross organisational links, share resources and collaborate with other local providers. RIG Arts are seeking someone who will make the role their own, develop new and innovative ways to engage local people and inspire and facilitate community ownership of local greenspace. The project will run from April 2023 to March 2026 and the length of post can be flexible adjusted from 6 months to three years for the right candidate.
Responsibilities:
- Delivering regular weekly activities harnessing horticulture as a tool for engagement and wellbeing support
- Actively working towards the regeneration of community greenspaces as assets for mental health, wellbeing, and food access
- Support volunteer development through regular gardening days and skillbuilding to leave legacy skills and infrastructure within the community to maintain greenspaces, and lead activities and events.
- Transferring power to communities so that they can thrive independently beyond the project
- Sharing knowledge and tools to grow fresh food locally, support local ecosystems and habitats.
- Facilitating cross-working between creative engagement and local greenspaces, connecting with the wider greening network to build capacity and crossworking
- Build upon established relationships with others to share resources, create a connected approach and to deepen benefits
- Explore new opportunities i.e. sharing harvests to ensure food grown is reaching those most in need
- Develop social infrastructure including peer support, lead volunteers, and community action groups
- Attracting, retaining, developing and coordinating a strong bank of regular volunteers
Requirements: The role is flexible and involves hybrid working on site and in office for 10 hours/week. Employees can be hired as Payroll or Freelance staff, freelance staff will be responsible for their own tax and national insurance. The contract type can be discussed at the interview stage.
The ideal candidate will have:
- Experience in food growing/gardening
- An interest in climate, ecology, environment, and transition to net zero
- Excellent organisational skills and the ability to prioritise workload, multi-task, work to agreed deadlines
- Strong interpersonal skills with the proven ability to build good working relationships within the community and with key stakeholders
- A willingness to work collaboratively with a small and dedicated team
- Enthusiasm to make the role their own, take initiative, and set ambitious goals.
- Experience or strong interest in arts driven community engagement and the third sector.
Application Process
Please submit a CV and an expression of interest (EOI) detailing why you are interested in this post and what you can offer to the role to Beth Duffy at [email protected]. Please clearly mark your name & post in the subject heading and save all files with your name and post.
The EOI can be submitted via video or audio recording, or written word. Please keep written expressions to no more than approximately 500 words and audio or video recordings to no more than approximately 4 minutes.
After submitting your EOI, we will acknowledge receipt and inform you on the 24th March 2023 whether you have been shortlisted for interview. We will arrange a suitable interview date for the week commencing the 27th March 2023 and we will send over the interview questions in advance.
The successful applicant will be notified by 31st March 2023 to be in post for the 3rd April’23. We appreciate this is a short turnaround so we can be flexible on the physical start date.
If you have any questions about the role or application process, need clarification on any point or need this information provided in a different format, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. We’re keen to promote an accessible, equitable and respectful working culture for all.
Contact: [email protected]
Website: www.rigarts.org
Instagram: @rigartsgreenock
Twitter: @rigartsgreenock
Facebook: @rigartsinverclyde
Appendix 1: An Overview of the RIG Communities Project
The RIG Communities project is a three year project and will deliver a regular programme of creative interventions providing respite, emotional nourishment, and enjoyment for a wide range of the community with no barriers to access. An integrated arts approach to community regeneration will harness culture to reduce inequalities and improve life chances. Expand upon a valued, tried and tested approach, enhanced by additional green focus.
The project will deliver 5 workshops per week under the themes of Youth, Older Adult, Mental Health, Climate Mitigation/Adaptation, and Green/Growing. All workshops will be underpinned by a commitment to wellbeing, skillbuilding, and community empowerment. Workshops will be delivered in rolling blocks codesigned and co produced with the community. RIG has experience offering workshops across multiple and diverse art forms ranging from film, music to visual arts. We will expand our community focused art practice to widen participation and increase engagement with green spaces to meaningfully support our own and Investing in Communities Fund objectives.
RIG Arts have experience as lead partners in the development of 2 community greenspaces, and have delivered creative-led climate work since 2015, supported by a number of funders including Climate Challenge Fund, Keep Scotland Beautiful, National Lottery & Creative Carbon Scotland.
The RIG Communities project will haveCommunity Informed Outputs which will be a portion of the project budget dedicated to empowering communities. Budget allocation will be decided upon by service users and the wider community - informed by community consultation throughout delivery and decided by a public vote - giving local people more power over how and where resources are allocated. Community Informed Outputs are designed to shift the power to communities and empower residents. To build on existing strengths and capacity supporting Inverclyde residents to build back from recent hardships in a democratic, engaged way. Building self esteem by creating tangible community led action quickly in response to priorities identified and decided upon by communities themselves.
Job Types: Part-time, Temporary contract, Fixed term contract, Freelance
Contract length: 6-36 months
Part-time hours: 10 per week
Salary: £14.00 per hour
Benefits:
- Company events
- Flexitime
- Free parking
Schedule:
- Flexitime
Work Location: In person
Application deadline: 22/03/2023
Reference ID: RIG Arts - Engagement Officer
Expected start date: 03/04/2023
