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

Job description

Energy Garden is recruiting a full time Communications & Events Officer to join our dedicated team. This is an exciting opportunity to work with our team to support the communication of all our activities and lead on the organisation, promotion and delivery of Energy Garden events. 

To see the role advertised on our website click here

About the role: 

Salary: £30,250 per annum

Location: London

Hours: Full Time (5 days / 40 hours per week) flexible hours with time off in lieu

Contract: Permanent

About the Role: 

As a Communications & Events Officer, your will play a leading role in the communication of ‘The Energy Garden story’ both internally and externally to all our partners, members, volunteers and supporters. You will actively share and promote Energy Garden to existing stakeholders as well as engaging new individuals and organisations to become part of this movement. 

Working closely with our existing team, you will be a representative of Energy Garden in the community, engaging with volunteers, members and other stakeholders. You will support our community engagement officers to curate and develop stories about the changes being delivered at each garden and across our network. You will capture and promote the impact of our School Workshops and Youth Training programmes to reach a wider audience. You will organise the delivery of our annual celebratory events (Winter, Summer and Harvest Parties) attended by 100+ people. You will work with the management team to understand our model for using renewable energy to drive the delivery of social and environmental programmes, promoting this to our members and other parties, through the creation of share offer documents, member communications and other promotional materials. 

This is an exciting opportunity for the right candidate to join a growing team and help share the Energy Garden story through multiple channels including in person, online, newsletter and social media. You will use creative writing, film and photo to bring these stories to life to produce highly impactful communications that engage and inspire others to become part of the Energy Garden movement. 

Key objectives: 

1. To expand and grow the Energy Garden movement across a diverse mix of individuals, businesses, volunteers, members, partners and supporters. 
2. To directly engage and involve garden volunteers in this process to capture and curate stories of change from across our gardens network 
3. To regularly engage all our existing community benefit society members in our sustainable development mission and work to expand our membership 
4. To provide all members, partners, supporters and volunteers with quality content that makes them feel part of a wider movement for change. 
5. To support our communication with volunteers, individuals and businesses to increase investment in Energy Garden, through direct investment, purchase of community energy or the lease of physical assets to support the development of new solar/gardens 
6. To promote Energy Garden through events and other media as a thought leader and innovator in Sustainability, capable of influencing local, national, and international decision-making in the transition to a green economy. 
7. To plan, promote and organise delivery of engaging, entertaining and inspiring events that foster a real sense of empowerment, achievement and collaboration with all our members, volunteers and partners. 

Your Responsibilities:   

1. Work closely with the CEO to communicate the Energy Garden narrative to a diverse stakeholder group through a variety of channels 
2. Attend and write about individual community gardening sessions to create content for sharing 
3. Photograph and film Energy Garden community volunteering sessions to support content creation via our website, social media, newsletter and reporting. 
4. Research, identify and connect with interested groups, businesses and other parties located in proximity to our gardens and connect with them using a combination of storytelling and imagery to expand our volunteer base and develop new partnerships. 
5. Work with the wider Energy Garden team to identify and explore ways for further integrating our gardens within the wider community   
6. Support the ongoing promotion and storytelling of Energy Garden activities with our organisation partners across public, private and third sectors. 
7. Work with Energy Garden staff to support the sharing of a consistent and collective narrative.  
8. Supporting the planning and delivery of multiple public-facing events (e.g. Energy Garden Share Offers, Annual General Meeting, and other seasonal events) often attended by 100+ people. Activities include: events advertising and promotion, ordering and sourcing items for events, tracking attendance for events, responding to enquiries about events. 
9. Support the wider team in the delivery of ad-hoc projects and events (e.g. hosting corporate away days, development and creation of new community gardens, attending external events) 
10. Managing our general email inbox and ensure timely response to external requests for information. 

About You:   

Energy Garden is a small but growing team, and you will often be expected to assist other members of staff in delivering projects that may sit outside of your role for example, projects in the garden. Knowing this you will need to be flexible and able to manage your workload and effectively prioritising tasks.  

Experience and Qualifications:   

• Experience of producing high quality and professional written communications through multiple channels – websites, newsletters, blogs, social media. 
• Experience of using different community outreach approaches and techniques to grow a volunteer group.   
• You have worked 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 managing multiple projects: from the planning and initiation to the delivery and maintenance of a 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 liaising with external stakeholders at all varying levels of seniority.   
• Experience of planning, organising and facilitating events 
• Experience of developing websites for professional purposes  

Other desirable skills include:  

• You are a people person. You will be consistently working alongside various stakeholders representing and advocating for Energy Garden, whether it’s with volunteers, station staff, community groups, or partners.

Abilities:   

• Fluent in use of different social media and online platforms – X, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn 
• Proficient using programs such as Adobe Suites to produce high quality designs and fliers 
• Ability to work as part of a team.   
• Ability to work alone and on own initiative, managing workload and effectively prioritising tasks.  
• Comfortable facilitating groups of people on your own 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 with your hands. This role will require a combination of desk-based work and practical, hands-on activities in our gardens. 

Traits we like:

We are seeking individuals who are:

• 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. 

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 and maintained 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 space, 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 our 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.

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.

Application information

When applying please include, your portfolio or relevant examples of your work, your CV and a cover letter

Submit application to: agamemnon@energygarden.org.uk

For more information: https://www.energygarden.org.uk/jobs

Please mention Roots to Work when applying for these jobs