JOB VACANCY AT MYATT’S FIELDS PARK: COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT MANAGER
£30-£33k pa (pro rata 3 days a week)
Myatts Fields Park Project (MFPP) wants the park to be a true community hub which is welcoming to and used by our whole diverse community. To make this happen, Myatt’s Fields Park Project is looking for an exceptional community engagement manager who will support local people to design and deliver a range of events in our beautiful park over the next two years. The project will empower new voices in the park, allowing people of all ages and backgrounds to deliver new and exciting events and activities showcasing local culture, food, heritage and enterprise.
Click here for JD and application process: https://www.myattsfieldspark.info/work-for-us.html. Deadline for applications: 7th March 2023
MYATT’S FIELDS PARK PROJECT
JOB DESCRIPTION
JOB TITLE MFPP Community Engagement Manager
PROPOSED PAY £30k – 33k per annum pro rata (depending on experience)
HOURS 21 hours per week (3 days a week)
CONTRACT 24 months
REPORTING TO: Director, Myatt’s Fields Park Project
Background: Myatt’s Fields Park Project
Myatt’s Fields Park is a beautiful small Victorian park in Lambeth, supported by the charity Myatt’s Fields Park Project (MFPP).
MFPP’s purpose is to develop and protect the park as a haven of wellbeing for our urban neighbourhood. We do this through managing the park’s horticulture for biodiversity as well as organising volunteering and offering events, food, wellbeing, education and enterprise projects that meet the needs of our diverse area. We see the park as a true community hub, welcoming people of all ages and backgrounds.
MFPP was started by a group of park users in 2000, becoming a charity in 2002. In the past we spearheaded a £3 million renovation of the park, providing a new playground, wildlife area, children’s building and toilets. We’ve grown food and cooked hundreds of meals in our community greenhouse and kitchen. We have supported local people to deliver a wide range of activities in the park including a café, nursery, football club, weekly market, gardening club and food bank. Our park is at the heart of a richly diverse community where 60% of the population is non-white.
MFPP is committed to being a diverse, inclusive, respectful, anti-racist organisation, where all persons are treated fairly and with respect. The post holder agrees to promote and uphold these principles.
Overview of the Role
We have secured funding from Lambeth’s Community Connections Fund to deliver a range of new events and activities in the park and are now seeking to recruit a Community Engagement Manager to manage the grant and oversee its activities. The Community Connections project aims to:
● Remove barriers to using the park for people across all communities
● Build trust between our communities
● Improve community access to food
● Build community safety
● Reduce isolation for older people, young people, families and children
The MFPP Community Engagement Manager will support people and organisations local to Myatt’s Fields Park to design and deliver a range of events activities in the park over the next two years that will meet a wide range of community needs. The aim is that at least sixteen local individuals and ten community organisations over two years are supported to carry out events and activities that engage more than 3000 people per year. The support will be targeted primarily to people from the African diaspora and other people of colour who are under-represented as park users at present. Support will include:
- Providing individuals with free use of our facilities and event equipment as well as mentoring, event management support, fundraising and progression support as needed
- Organise accredited training for them such as level 2 food safety and first aid.
- Support them to update their CV and where to find opportunities to continue after MFPP.
- For community organisations/groups, facilitating their use of the park and support with the application process for holding events
The Community Engagement Manager will be employed to manage and implement the programme of activities and events and provide advice and support to local individuals and organisations contracted to delivering them as noted above. Events will be tailored to align with a cultural event calendar marking eg Mardi Gras, Easter, Ramadan and Eid, Pride month, Black History Month, Christmas. Facilities available for use include the park bandstand, greenhouse, playground, nature area, sports pitches, quiet garden and a new depot building with a large community kitchen and meeting/eating room due to launch in 2023.
The role will be supported by the MFPP Board and will work closely with in particular the Trustees on the Events and Community Engagement Sub-Committee. The post will be line managed by the MFPP Director and will also work closely with other MFPP staff. The Community Engagement Manager will also engage and work with local community representatives who will be paid to reach out into the community to explore barriers to using the park via focus groups, feed back recommendations for engagement activities and monitor change through observations and annual park surveys. They will help recruit and work with a marketing officer who will provide communication support to recruit community representatives and target communities with information about training opportunities and events/activities. The post holder will work with a range of local community partners to recruit and publicise the programme such as schools, youth clubs, community and statutory organisations and local tenants and residents associations.
Responsibilities:
The Community Engagement Manager will:
- Devise and implement an annual programme for MFPP events and activities
- Devise and implement a community engagement plan for the programme and how to monitor and measure change
- Engage and manage community representatives and work with them to carry out park surveys and focus groups
- Devise and implement a framework and methodology for awarding support to individuals and groups
- Recruit members of the community and groups that want to deliver activities in the park
- Support 8 people and 5 groups per year to develop and deliver events in the park – provide mentoring, training, event management support, fundraising and progression support
- Support the recruitment of, and manage a marketing manager and work with them to deliver high quality communications including production of newsletters, monthly park ebulletins and social media (including publicising Community Connections project)
- Manage the budget for the project (Community Connections Grant) in line with grant requirements
- Fundraise to support delivery of events
- Gather monitoring information, manage funder reports and liaison; oversee evaluation of the project
- Report to the MFPP community engagement subcommittee and feed into its wider aims and work. Deliver updates/presentations to the Board of Trustees as required
- Help to shape and deliver the organisation’s wider community engagement strategy
- Support the development of governance of the subcommittee, as required
- Support recruitment to MFPP Board and induction of new Trustees, as required
Skills and Experience
| Community Engagement and Event Experience | |
| Track record of successfully implementing community development projects | Essential |
| Track record of successful community engagement, development and communications | Essential |
| Track record in community mentoring and capacity building | Essential |
| Track record in event management and delivery | Essential |
| Track record in health and safety management for events | Essential |
| Track record of successful and productive partnership working | Essential |
| Other Experience | |
| Experience of line management | Desirable |
| Successful track record in fundraising | Desirable |
| Skills | |
| Excellent project and financial management and IT skills | Essential |
| Excellent written skills, experience of report writing and funder reporting | Essential |
Person specification
| Ability to work effectively in forging cross-cultural relationships and partnerships with a wide range of stakeholders, including Lambeth Council, volunteers and park users | Essential |
| Ability to work with diverse communities and to balance their differing and complex needs | Essential |
| Empathic and diplomatic personality with an ability to listen | Essential |
| Creative and adaptable, organised and self-motivated | Essential |
| Can-do attitude and commitment to support the mission and vision of MFPP, capitalising on opportunities | Essential |
| Have knowledge of, and a connection to, the neighbourhood in which we work and its communities | Desirable |
MFPP is a values driven organisation. It is essential that the successful candidate supports our values:
Welcoming
The park is a place for our diverse community and a force for cohesion and unity
We work to remove barriers both seen and unseen to accessing the park and to governance
The park is a platform for celebrating local cultural wealth
Empowering
We are led by the community at all levels of our organisation.
We listen to, and are accountable to, local people
We empower local people through programs that build skills and confidence
Growing our roots
We value the heritage of our park
We value and celebrate the heritage of local communities
We steward the park sustainably for future generations
We grow the park as a refuge for wildlife and promote biodiversity
We promote local sustainable food
We collaborate with partners and build networks to bring about change for our community
Recruitment process
To apply, please send a CV and covering letter (maximun 1 page A4) outlining how you meet the criteria for the role to [email protected] by 5pm on 7th March 2023. We expect Interviews to take place w/c 20th March.
We especially encourage applications from people from Black and Minority Ethnic backgrounds and while the role is open to all applicants, Myatt’s Fields Park Project will utilise the positive action provisions of the Equality Act 2010 to appoint a candidate from a Black and Minority Ethnic background where there is a choice between two candidates of equal merit.
