Community gardener jobs

Job Title: Gardener Project Officer for Young Marketeers Barnsley

Position Type: Freelance

Reports to: Project Coordinator

Based at: Home-working and at schools in Barnsley

Working Hours: 28 days @ £165 per day from February – July (£4,620) plus 16 x school gardening sessions at £110 per session plus 1 day planning @ £220 (£1,980).

Contract: Temporary

Job Purpose

· To manage the delivery of Young Marketeers in Barnsley in eight primary schools

Background to School Food Matters

School Food Matters (SFM) exists to teach children about food and to improve children’s access to healthy, sustainable food during their time at school. We provide fully funded food education programmes to schools. Our experience delivering these programmes informs and strengthens our campaigns, bringing the voices of children, parents and teachers to government policy.

Young Marketeers

This much-loved programme was started in London in 2012. It is now running in 16 cities across England and is funded by the National Lottery Community Fund for three years.  The programme provides hands-on opportunities for children from primary schools to grow fruit and veg from seed to sell at their local market. Young Marketeers is also a platform for School Food Matters to promote food education to schools and communities as a way to support children to live happy and healthy lives.  Children learn the art of growing veg from seed, and market traders will share their secrets on how to create a winning market stall.  Primary schools will be visited by our gardener in March/April and then again in May/June and receive further tips on how to ensure a bumper crop. And in July, they head to the market to sell their produce, and to meet the mayor!

Key Tasks include:

· Assist with recruitment of eight schools to take part in Young Marketeers

· Build and maintain relationships with teachers, teaching assistants and senior leaders to ensure the smooth running of the project

· Build and support relationships with contacts in partner organisations

· Schedule, organise and deliver

o One assembly in each school

o Two food growing sessions in each school

o One market trader training session in each school

o Market Day in the city centre in July for all schools

· Maintain accurate records relating to the programme

• Complete monitoring and evaluation forms in accordance with instructions from our Evaluation team
• Take photos of workshops and events where possible
• Keep Project Coordinator fully updated on progress

· Keep up to date with safeguarding requirements and reporting procedures

• Maintain the ethos of the charity and positively promote our work at all times

Person specification

 Essential  

· Experience of delivering food growing sessions to children

· Knowledge of fruit and vegetable growing

· Excellent administrative and organisational skills with great attention to detail

· Excellent IT skills including excel, word and email

· Experience of building relationships with partner organisations and individuals

· Ability to work in a team, and seek help when needed

· Self-motivated and optimistic with a can-do attitude

Desirable  

· Experience of working for a charity or not for profit organisation

· Experience of working in primary schools and engaging children

The Organisation

The Royal Parks (TRP) is a charity created in March 2017. We manage over 5,000 acres of diverse parkland, rare habitats and historic buildings and monuments in eight Royal Parks across London. These are: Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens, The Green Park, St James’s Park, The Regent's Park and Primrose Hill, Greenwich Park, Richmond Park and Bushy Park.

We also manage other important public spaces including Brompton Cemetery and Victoria Tower Gardens. Our eight Royal Parks and other public spaces are among the most visited attractions in the UK with tens of millions of visits every year.

We are now looking for a Fundraising Officer to join our team on a full-time basis on a permanent contract, working 36 hours per week.

The Benefits

• Salary of £33,666 - £37,176 per annum, depending on experience.
• 26 days' annual leave plus public holidays, increasing to 29 days after 3 years’ service
• Pension scheme (3% employee contribution; up to 10% employer contribution)
• Hybrid/agile working options
• Private medical insurance and healthcare cash plan
• Employee assistance programme and access to mental health first aiders
• Learning and development opportunities
• Cycle to work scheme
• Offices in a beautiful location

If you’re an empathetic individual with fundraising experience and fantastic administrative skills, this is an excellent opportunity to join our prestigious organisation.

As the Fundraising Officer, you will deliver existing campaigns but will also have an opportunity to lead, shape and drive results. You will spot opportunities to develop appeals to support park specific projects and create engaging content to steward our supporters. You will have to be motivated to look for new opportunities, engage with various stakeholders and take initiative to introduce new tests.

Supporting our fundraising initiatives, you’ll play a vital role in ensuring we can continue to protect the parks and safeguard their future for the millions of visitors who rely on them for access to green spaces and wellbeing each year.

Not only will you help us to preserve the wildlife, plants and heritage that call the parks home, but you’ll be rewarded with an exceptional array of benefits that include flexible working options, career development schemes and wellbeing initiatives!

The Role

As a Fundraising Officer, you will lead on all individual giving activity. You will manage our two annual appeals through a mix of email and direct mail, as well as the supporter journeys for all new and existing individual giving supporters.

You’ll help the Corporate Volunteering team with the administration and development of our Corporate Volunteering pipelines.

Additionally, you will:

• Develop the Marketing Plan for individual campaigns with all stakeholders, to meet agreed objectives
• Review artwork and edit copy to ensure it meets both campaign objectives and The Royal Parks brand guidelines
• Ensure best value for money for campaign production and prepare detailed campaign management reports
• Ensure that all supporters are adequately thanked and receiving the best supporter experience
• Manage and steward relationships with existing corporate volunteering partners

About You

To be considered as a Fundraising Officer, you will need:

• Fundraising experience, ideally in a small to medium-sized charity
• Experience of, or that would be transferable to, handling sensitive conversations with people who have been bereaved with empathy and tact
• Excellent administrative skills with the ability to accurately maintain large quantities of data
• Excellent writing skills
• Excellent organisation and prioritisation skills

Other organisations may call this role, Fundraising Operations Officer, Events and Community Fundraising Officer, Fundraising Assistant, or Development Officer.

We want to put everyone in the best possible position to succeed and use Recite-me accessibility software. At the top of the application page, there is an “Accessibility Tools” button which you can use to complete the application form in a way that works for you. If you think that you may need more support to complete our application process, please do get in touch.

Other organisations may call this role Fundraising Operations Officer, Events and Community Fundraising Officer, Fundraising Assistant, or Development Officer.

The Royal Parks is strongly committed to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace and is an equal opportunities employer. We value diversity and encourage applications from candidates from all backgrounds. We believe that the more inclusive we are, the better our work will be.

So, if you are interested in this unique opportunity as a Skilled Gardener, please apply via the button shown. Successful candidates will be appointed on merit.