Find your place in the field of good food

Our goal is to connect good people with good food. We advertise sustainable food jobs and training opportunities to help jobseekers and employers find each other.

Roots to Work is a project of Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming.

Job description

Energy Garden is recruiting two full-time Community Engagement Officers to join our dedicated team! This is an exciting opportunity to work with local communities who are taking action on climate change and on improving biodiversity across London. One Engagement Officer will be working in West/Southwest London, the other in North/East London.

You can also find the job description here: Jobs Energy Garden

About Energy Garden 

Energy Garden is a not-for-profit Community Benefit Society that works across London to transform Overground platforms into vibrant and biodiverse community gardens for the benefit of local people, commuters and nature. 

Since 2012, Energy Garden has developed a network of community gardens and solar projects across London, transforming under-utilised station platforms into vibrant green spaces that improve biodiversity and enable food growing on transport infrastructure. Each garden is managed by a dedicated engagement officer working closely with local communities and station staff and is supported by our wider team of education, biodiversity, arborist and horticulture experts. Regular volunteering sessions held throughout the year are used to create and maintain these spaces, with larger seasonal events used to bring volunteers together from across our network. Collaboration is central to our work and every station garden reflects the community that lives and travels there. With over 1.2 billion passenger journeys on the London Underground and Overground each year, our energy gardens are seen by millions of people each year and the average station will see 15,000 passenger visits a day.  

Our volunteers benefit from access to green space, the ability to connect with fellow community members, participating in practical gardening design and maintenance activities, as well as expert sessions on horticulture, biodiversity and energy.  Energy Garden also runs education programmes that further connect our gardens to local communities, engaging and educating future generations on a range of social and environmental issues.  Specifically, we work with local schools (key stages 2 to 5) and our paid AQA accredited Youth Training Programme (for young Londoners aged 18-24) also offers opportunities for interacting with the gardens.  

Central to our model is the use of community-owned solar energy to provide a sustainable source of funding for delivering social and environmental benefits to communities. That many of the gardens have an off-grid micro solar installation, our activities are primarily funded by revenues from large-scale community solar PV projects installed on rail depots across the UK. These award-winning projects fund our social and environmental community programmes (gardens and education), decarbonise the rail, and generate a reasonable financial return for members.

About the Role:

Hours: Full Time (5 days / 40 hours per week) with Time Off in Lieu for additional time outside core office hours

Deadline: Sunday 5th January 2024

Preferred Start Date: February / March 2025

As a Community Engagement Officer, you will be part of our Engagement Team and be responsible for managing up to five community ‘energy gardens’ within our network. In this public facing role, you will be a representative of Energy Garden in the community, working alongside volunteers, station staff, community groups and other stakeholders at each under your care. You will develop the gardens in accordance with an agreed horticultural plan, biodiversity plan, community consultation, and partner feedback so that the spaces improve the health and wellbeing for those visiting the gardens.

As a facilitator, your role is to build a strong and cohesive volunteer user group for each of your gardens. You will also guide volunteers in different gardening tasks, teach them new skills, and foster curiosity and independence, enabling volunteers to develop a sense of connection and ownership with the garden. Your days will be a blend of being out and about in the gardens and working from the office or from home to do all the necessary admin and logistic handling that it takes to facilitate the gardens under your care.

Successfully managing these gardens will entail:

• Planning and running weekly volunteering sessions at each site
• Seeking new volunteers through creative engagement methods and onboarding them
• Developing and maintaining relationships with other local community groups
• Delivering the yearly horticultural plan for each garden.

This is a demanding role that requires extensive travel across London, working outside in all weather conditions, and performing physically strenuous tasks. Working as part of the engagement team, you will collaborate with other engagement officers, education officers, tree officers, and biodiversity officers to share best practice and manage your gardens effectively to ensure that they are well integrated in our network and reflective of Energy Gardens values.

Energy Garden is a small, flexible and dynamic team, and you will often be expected to assist other members of staff to deliver projects that may sit outside of your role. Knowing this, you will need to be flexible and able to manage your own workload effectively.

Key responsibilities: 

GARDENING

• Planning and delivering engaging gardening sessions for local volunteers
• Leading varying weekly gardening activities according to the season
• Identifying and designing specific garden improvement projects to be collaboratively delivered
• Ensure gardens / projects are delivered in accordance with best Energy Garden practices while remaining within budget.
• Manage up to five community gardens concurrently, in collaboration with individual volunteers, community groups, rail industry organisations and local councils.

ENGAGEMENT

• Regularly communicating with existing volunteer groups with garden updates
• Advertising and promoting weekly garden sessions to increase volunteer numbers
• Building relationships with other existing projects and groups to integrate within the wider community
• Seeking out volunteers through creative engagement methods and community outreach
• Onboarding and welcoming new volunteers to group/space.

PLANNING

• Conducting annual consultation with volunteer groups to celebrate achievements and create plans for following year
• Working with our Biodiversity Lead to identify and deliver biodiversity improvements in our gardens.
• Working with volunteers and our Horticulture Lead to create a yearly plan for each garden based upon the wants and needs of the group uncovered through annual consultation.
• Implementing this plan throughout the year during your sessions to incrementally design garden spaces.
• Working with other members of the team to deliver new Energy Gardens.

LOGISTICS

• Ensuring all appropriate tools and equipment supplied to your gardens. Smaller items will be required to be taken with you on public transportation. Larger tools and supplies will need to have delivery arranged.
• Travel throughout London to different Energy Garden sites (All work related travel expenses are reimbursed)

OTHER RESPONSIBILITIES

• Support planning and delivery of multiple public events; Energy Garden Share Offers, Annual General Meeting, and other seasonal events 
• Support other members of the team to deliver wider Energy Garden projects.

Note: Whilst core office hours are Monday to Friday, 9am to 6pm, the nature of the role involves a degree of some evening and weekend working, which will count towards your 40-hour week. Energy Garden operates a Time Off in Lieu (TOIL) policy, to reimburse additional full days / half days worked. This will typically require:

1. At least one Saturday a month
2. In summer months (May to September) at least one evening a week

Your Experience:

• Horticultural experience:you have worked at least 1 year in a similar role or have other demonstrable experience gardening.
• Experience using different methods of community outreach to grow a volunteer group.
• You have worked at least 2 years in a similar role or have other demonstrable experience in a similar project, such as a community garden or other grassroots community project.
• Experience working with and managing volunteers.
• Experience facilitating groups of varying sizes, preferably in an outdoor setting, with an eye to being inclusive to all members of the community.
• Experience managing multiple projects: from the planning and initiation to the delivery and maintenance of a project
• Experience liaising with external stakeholder at different levels of seniority.

Other desirable skills include:

• You are a people person. You will be consistently working alongside various stakeholders representing and advocating for Energy Garden. In your day to day, you will be meeting new people and integrating them into your garden group networks.  
• You have experience working with sustainability concepts such as: gardening without pesticides, implementing circular economy practices, using permaculture techniques, and designing for wildlife. 

Abilities:

• Ability to work effectively as part of a team.
• Ability to use own initiative and work independently, effectively managing workload and prioritising tasks.
• Comfortable facilitating groups of people with mixed abilities and directing them in a task.
• Excellent organisational abilities, including the skill to set and deliver individual and group targets.
• Experience/ability to discuss and resolve issues in a diplomatic way.
• Flexibility to work occasional weekends and evenings as required.
• Physically able - with a passion for working in nature and with your hands.

Traits we like:

• Energetic and proactive, working autonomy in all weather conditions! 
• Friendly and collegiate, able to engage and collaborate with people from different backgrounds 
• Strong communicator, effective at supporting people with the right skills, tools and networks. 
• Team player – comfortable working with community groups to deliver shared goals 
• Flexible and organised – can work in a fast-paced environment with evolving priorities 
• Ability to rise to a challenge
• Experienced and knowledgeable about the local area 
• Passionate about sustainability and committed, with a strong desire to support local people to make lasting change in their borough. 

Disclaimer:

You must have the right to live and work in the UK. Non-EU nationals who require a work permit to take up employment will not be considered. Energy Garden is an equal opportunities employer and positively encourages applications from suitably qualified and eligible candidates regardless of sex, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, religion or belief, marital status, or pregnancy and maternity. 

We regret that we will only be able to reply, and give feedback, to short-listed applicants. 

https://www.energygarden.org.uk/

Application information

How to apply: Email CV and cover letter to info@energygarden.org.uk , please also include which borough you live in as we are seeking applicants close to our gardens.

Interview process: We will hold three stages of interviews, the first stage of interviews will be held the week of January 13th, 2025

Please mention Roots to Work when applying for these jobs