Community Woodland Communications and Interpretation Officer

Closing Date: 7th January 2024

Location: Westonbirt, the National Arboretum, Tetbury, Gloucestershire, GL8 8QS

Salary: GBP26,534 (pro rate for part time applicants) plus 27% employer contribution pension

Contract Type: Fixed term - 2 years

Work Pattern: Full time, part time, flexible working

Hours: Monday - Friday, 37 hours

Job summary

Westonbirt, the National Arboretum ( ) is one of the UK's most famous botanical tree collections and is internationally renowned both for its tree collection and historic landscape. It was founded in 1829 by Robert Holford and is classed as Grade 1 on the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens and is one of the world's greatest examples of an arboretum laid out in the 'picturesque' style. As well as holding five National Collections the site has over 130 champion trees - the largest of their kind in Britain. It's home to some of the rarest trees in the world with trees from Australia, China as well as native trees and a semi-ancient woodland.

It's an exciting time as we progress our ten-year vision to become a world leader in trees, inspiring people through education, participation and conservation. It is now more crucial than ever with climate change that we ensure we achieve our net zero ambitions and we engage our visitors with the importance of trees and caring for the environment.

Since 1956 the arboretum has been managed by the Forestry Commission and is one of the six districts managed by Forestry England who manages the nation's forests. Our mission is to connect everyone with them, by creating and caring for our forests for people to enjoy, wildlife to flourish and businesses to grow. We look after more land and more trees than any other organisation in the country cared for by around 1,000 staff and volunteers and enjoyed by over 226 million visits each year.

The team are supported by the Friends of Westonbirt Arboretum, an-onsite fundraising and membership charity with over 36,000 members. The arboretum now attracts over 500,000 visitors per year and is the largest pay to enter visitor attraction in Gloucestershire.

As part of our ten-year vision, we are regenerating an area of Silk Wood as a community woodland. We want to engage school groups, community groups, volunteers, and others with the lifecycle of tree planting at the Arboretum.

Job description

You will work alongside the Project Manager and the Engagement Officer to support the project. There will also be support from the Marketing and Communications Team to increase your skills and knowledge as well as opportunities to support other engagement projects in development at the arboretum.

This new role will deliver the communications and interpretation based outcomes of the Silk Wood Community Planting Project. This project is focused on regenerating 5 hectares of clear felled woodland in Silk Wood, due to an ash dieback outbreak.

In this 2-year fixed term position, you will be responsible for informing our visitors on the threats our trees face, how Westonbirt is working to make Silk Wood more resilient, and what visitors can do to support the activity and get involved. You will tell the story of the Community Woodland through designing and printing new signage, liaising with photographers and videographers, sourcing quotes from volunteers and staff, liasing with the local press and keeping digital media platforms up to date. As a part of your role in building awareness and support, you will also work closely with the marketing team to handle communications to all stakeholders and promote the project.

The Project Team will support fundraising and create reports against funding targets.

This role will involve some year-round outdoor work in all weathers and on rough ground.

An enhanced DBS check is required as this role will involve working with schools and community groups including those with vulnerable adults. This may also include leading and/or working with small groups and in one-to-one situations.

Key Work Areas

Communications

• Actively participate with the wider site team, ensuring effective internal and external communication.

• Work with our Marketing Team to promote the Project within the community through production of publicity and marketing materials as required, and participation at local events and conferences.

• Ensuring relevant GDPR forms and safeguarding processes are used when organising photography and filming of participants, including children and vulnerable adults.

Programme delivery

• Manage the delivery of key interpretation projects including developing briefs, working with external designers / contractors, writing content / sourcing imagery, installation and project management to ensure delivery on time and budget.

• Develop / supervise volunteer groups to support delivery of programmes.

• Develop and supervise physical interpretation / engagement activities with participants and members of the public.

Building long term capacity

• Assist with implementing a rigorous evaluation process that captures both the success of projects and allows us to refine our ways of working, ensuring timely and accurate reporting to funders.

• Work with our fundraising team to identify and develop external funding opportunities to support the Project.

Essential:

• A suitable qualification (e.g. graphics, art, marketing or communications) or equivalent experience. Please clearly demonstrate which applies to you throughout your application. Failure to do so will mean that your application is automatically sifted out

• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to convey complex ideas and concepts to a range of audiences.

• Proven experience in creating social media content.

• Strong organisational and project management skills, including the ability to plan, prioritise and manage workload effectively.

• Experience of collating visual content, stories or data to create physical or digital outputs.

• Experience of using evaluation tools to measure the impact of communication and/or interpretation activities.

• A sound working knowledge of Microsoft Office packages and design applications such as adobe creative suite.

• A full driving licence that enables driving in the UK.

Desirable:

• Experience of working with the press to promote a project.

• Experience of working in heritage, environmental or visitor attraction sectors.

• Experience of designing content.

• Experience of working with schools, volunteers or community groups.

• Demonstrable understanding of supervising volunteers.

• Knowledge and understanding of threats to trees and woodlands, as well as the importance of conservation and sustainability.

Benefits

We are focused on ensuring that our staff are respected, included, supported, and engaged. We love difference and know that every single person is unique. We encourage an environment that values the uniqueness in everyone.

• Working in one of the UK's most beautiful landscapes and tree collections with flexible working options and a range of family friendly benefits.

• Supported by the Civil Engineering team, including other supervisors, engineers based across the country. There is no guarantee of job progression but there are more opportunities in the wider engineering team, estates or recreation teams.

• Generous annual leave allowance starting at 25 days per year (pro-rata for part time). Leave increases by 1 day each year to a maximum of 30 days. After 20 years' service you will receive a one-off award of 5 extra days' holiday. In addition, you will receive all public holidays plus an additional 2.5 'privilege' days (pro-rata for part time).

• Additional opportunities to support our Events programme including concerts and 10k's including potential overtime payments.

• A range of wellbeing benefits, including access to an Employee Assistance Programme 24/7, Bike to Work Scheme plus many more.

• A culture which promotes a diverse and inclusive work environment.

• Free parking at Forestry England sites and free entry to our National Arboretums.

• Three paid volunteering days per year (pro-rata for part time).

We are committed to lifelong learning, and we will support your career development in a variety of ways, including:

• Learning and development tailored to your role.

• Continual Professional Development: support for individual learning plans and sponsored membership of professional bodies (APM).

• 5 dedicated learning days a year (from e-learning to traditional training, team activities to coaching and shadowing), to target the skills you need to take your career forward.

• Civil Service Learning (CSL) online platform provides access to a host of high-quality training courses on a variety of useful and relevant subjects.

• Dedicated Technical Training in support of our operational functions, ensuring that keeping people safe is central to everything we do.