Greater Manchester Community Engagement Officer (Fixed-Term)

Job Description

The RSPB has a mission to put people at the heart of our work, and to establish and develop community centred work in urban areas, engaging with a large and diverse audience. Can you help us?

We’re looking for an experienced project officer with a passion for working with communities, to inspire and support people to discover, explore and take community-led action for nature in Greater Manchester. This role will work closely with established partners and existing RSPB local groups and volunteers, including the Greater Manchester Swift Champions, to develop new opportunities to work with community groups, focusing on supporting creating new habitats for swifts, one of the UK’s most threatened species. You will explore opportunities for working more closely with young people, with the aspiration to establish two RSPB youth groups in Greater Manchester and a Swift Youth Action Group focused on 16 – 24-year-olds. You will identify where the RSPB can best support and enhance nature, with guidance from local conservation staff.

This role offers an exciting opportunity to lead front-line delivery of RSPB’s community engagement work at a local level, inspiring people to connect with nature through an 18-month programme of events and activities. Central to this will be recruitment and management of a network of volunteers. The Project Officer will be responsible for developing and running a rolling programme of training to enable volunteers to develop skills to allow them to continue to support nature-based initiatives.

You will have experience of delivering community projects, events and experience of volunteer recruitment, induction and management, and the ability to motivate volunteers to independently deliver organisational objectives. The confidence to make decisions that enable the continued delivery of key objectives and to keep the project on track is crucial, as is the ability to communicate these decisions, where applicable, with stakeholders and partners.

Specific tasks:

• To lead our community engagement work in Greater Manchester, inspiring local communities to take action for nature, ensuring work is resilient and sustainable beyond the life of the project.
• To build a full picture of local environmental networks and the range of nature recovery and environmental work taking place locally, identifying opportunities to develop new partnerships.
• Act as an advocate for nature recovery within a diverse range of sectors including local government and private businesses to further our support for nature.
• Build links and strengthen existing relationships with RSPB Local Groups and other volunteer-led work taking place in urban green spaces, liaising closely with partners.
• To lead and continue to grow the Greater Manchester Swift Champion network of volunteers with the support of the Species Volunteer Network (SVN), which will allow us to do more for Swifts within local communities.
• Identify opportunities for youth involvement in establishing a Swift Champions Youth Action Group and two new RSPB Youth Groups, working closely with relevant stakeholders.
• Develop and deliver a series of volunteer recruitment, induction, and training days to increase numbers of new active volunteers within Manchester as well as building resilience and upskilling existing volunteers.
• Develop and deliver an 18-month programme of diverse nature-based events and activities (with a focus on Swifts including the installation of Swift boxes and/or bricks).
• To embed evaluation measures and provide regular reports to show impact across Greater Manchester.

Essential skills, knowledge, and experience: When applying for this role, please state in turn how you meet each of these criteria:

• The ability to develop partnerships and network – internally and externally and experience of working with community groups to deliver shared objectives.
• Experience of developing and managing projects.
• Experience of recruiting and managing volunteers.
• Great verbal and written communication skills.
• Experience or understanding of community led nature conservation action including working with both adults and young people on co-created outcomes.
• The ability to deliver reporting and evaluation to show impact against agreed objectives.
• Excellent planning and organisational skills with the ability to manage and deliver a diverse workload ensuring effective prioritisation and balancing of the needs of a range of stakeholders.

This is a fixed-term, full-time role ending 31st March 2026. The RSPB reserves the right to extend or make this role permanent without further advertising dependent on business needs at the end of the contract term.

We are looking to conduct interviews for this position from 3rd June 2024. For further information please contact gail.graham@rspb.org.uk

As part of this application process, you will be asked to complete an application form including evidence on how you meet the skills, knowledge, and experience listed above.

This role will require completion of a DBS in addition to the standard pre-employment checks.

We are committed to developing an inclusive and diverse RSPB, in which everyone feels supported, valued, and able to be their full selves. To achieve our vision of creating a world richer in nature, we need more people, and more diverse people, on nature’s side. People of colour and disabled people are currently underrepresented across the environment, climate, sustainability, and conservation sector. If you identify as a person of colour and/or disabled/neurodiverse, we are particularly interested in receiving your application. Contact us to discuss any additional support you may need to complete your application.

The RSPB is an equal opportunities employer. This role is covered by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974.

This role is not eligible for UK Visa Sponsorship - the successful applicant will need to have a pre-existing Right to Work in the UK in order to be offered an employment contract.

Before applying for this role, we recommend reading through the candidate guidance notes attached to the top of this advert.