Student Liaison Officer

Calthorpe Community Garden, an award winning community project, seeks a personable, creative and organised individual to be the key liaison between staff, students and volunteers. As an ambassador your role is vital in supporting staff to increase volunteer outreach, inspire people about our work and ensure our community facilities are at their best.

About us: 

Calthorpe Community Garden (CCG), based in King’s Cross, is an asset of community value, innovative and unique in London. As an inner city community garden and centre of 1.2acres it exists to improve the physical and emotional wellbeing of those who live, work or study in Camden and surrounding areas. Supporting children, young people and vulnerable groups in the community, CCG proudly offers a range of participatory and supervised creative, wellbeing, horticultural and sporting activities for people to meet and take care of each other and the environment, as well as programmes generating vital revenue. We are active members of a wide range of local, Camden and London-wide partnerships.

Celebrating 35 years of providing essential community services, CCG is now preparing to embark on an exciting period of development as we transform our provision for years to come. Part of our strategy is to develop our commercial activities to further the CCG’s wider charitable objectives, providing the best service possible to the local community.

About the role/what we are looking for:

We are seeking a self-motivated individual who is passionate about engaging with students and volunteers to increase interaction with Calthorpe. Your role is pivotal in supporting the work of the operational staff across CCG’s four main areas: volunteer management, community programmes, operations and business development. 

This is a new creative role to enhance CCG’s current offering, including the garden, sports facilities, visitor centre and café. With your ability to build and maintain relationships, you will support the team to ensure the physical site is an inviting hub for the community. This is a hands-on role covering all aspects of running the garden and surrounding site to organising volunteers.  As an ambassador, you will actively liaise with local universities and local businesses to promote our exciting range of services. 

Make the role your own by bringing your drive and creativity to the team to help increase engagement and service delivery.

Main Duties:

• First point of contact for new and existing community links and stakeholders developing, building and strengthening relationships
• Work with other team members to ensure there are clear routes for community enquiries within the charity
• Work with staff members to create new initiatives to improve the aesthetics, maintenance and presentation of the gardens and building, as well as getting involved in hands on jobs 
• Assisting the Volunteer Manager on volunteer days to execute tasks to widely promote volunteering opportunities 
• Assist the Community Programmes Manager with developing food growing projects
• Support the Operations Manager and Business Development Manager with various tasks
• Help recruit a large number of volunteers from nearby universities and develop positive relationships with the student unions, to help develop community  projects and promote CCG/demonstrate or explain the services available and/or the use of facilities
• Develop and implement a social media strategy for volunteer outreach – to engage wider and more diverse audiences, promote effective partnership working and support objectives

Experience and qualities required:

• Demonstrated experience working independently and as part of a team
• Excellent organisation, planning skills and ability to balance competing demands and work on your own initiative
• A can-do attitude, an ability to learn, and sense of humour
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills and ability to build and maintain relationships across a diverse range of stakeholders
• Experience of developing positive relationships with community volunteers and champions to enable change
• A creative thinker and problem solver
• Good project management/IT skills and the ability to prioritise projects and tasks
• Hands-on person that enjoys challenges  and happy to help out where needed
• Ability to flourish, be proactive, and handle uncertainty
• An interest in the environment and the CCG closed loop system

What difference will you make?

With your experience and input, you will have the opportunity to help shape the direction of the charity ensuring it is sustainable for the future. This is an exciting role allowing you to work with volunteers and help maintain the appearance of CCG, whilst also working to support the other team members in their tasks. Most importantly, this is a great opportunity for you to make a positive difference by supporting and enhancing a local community.

What’s in it for you?

It is an exciting time to join CCG in making decisions about growing its current offerings to the community and playing an important part in realising a range of medium to long term strategic opportunities for the garden, including expansion of activities. 

• Working closely with local universities, including UCL, to help deliver a growing and important volunteer programme at CCG
• Collaborating with senior staff members to enhance their capacity, providing valuable knowledge and to take ownership of the physical management of the site

How to apply:

We would love to hear from you. We welcome applications from Camden or any London borough irrespective of ethnicity, race, nationality, disability, age, religion or belief, gender and sexual orientation.

• Permanent with 6 months’ probation.
• Full-time based at Calthorpe Community Gardens. Preferably Tuesday-Saturday, but flexible for the right candidate. 
• Competitive starting salary of 22,000-24,000 per annum
• Please send your CV and a cover letter (no more than one side of A4) demonstrating your suitability for the role.
• The closing date for applications is 14th July. Successful applicants will be notified and invited for interview
• All applications will be reviewed in the strictest confidence and data will be held in accordance with GDPR policies and procedures
• COVID-19 considerations: we work in a flexible office with plenty of room for social distancing

Our building is cleaned regularly our services have been adapted to ensure a safe environment for staff and visitors.

Thank you for your interest, we look forward to hearing from you.

Reference ID: CCG Student Liaison Managers

Job Type: Full-time