Department: Scotland
Reporting to: Woodland Trust Scotland Policy and Communications Manager
Salary: £19,000 - £24,000 pro rata
Location: Potential for post to be in the Woodland Trust Scotland offies in either Perth or Edinburgh or with the Forestry Commission Scotland Central Forest Conservancy, Hamilton. For an exceptional candidate, working from home may also be considered.
Contract: Fixed Term: Autumn 2010 - Autumn 2013 (36 month contract)
Hours: 22.5 hours per week - the standard week-day office hours are 8.30am-5pm. Some weekend and evening working may be required and you must be prepared to travel both in Scotland and occasionally the rest of the UK, in particular to the Woodland Trust's Grantham Headquarters.
Closing Date: Sunday 5 September 2010
Interview Date: Tuesday 28 September 2010, Woodland Trust Scotland offices (Perth)
Introduction
The Woodland Trust (the Trust, WT) is the UK’s leading woodland conservation charity dedicated to preventing no further loss of ancient woodland, restoring and improving biodiversity, increasing native woodland cover, as well as enhancing people’s awareness and enjoyment of woods. The WT owns and manages 1,264 sites that cover over 20,000 hectares throughout the UK, of which 8,500 hectares are in Scotland. The Woodland Trust Scotland (WTS) cares for and manages 80 of these sites. The Woodland Trust Scotland team comprises 22 people, with the main office based at Perth and a smaller office in Edinburgh.
The VisitWoods project – Scotland
VisitWoods Scotland is a partnership project, led by the Woodland Trust and part-funded by the Forestry Commission Scotland and Scottish Natural Heritage. VisitWoods Scotland is part of a UK-wide Woodland Trust partnership and communications project, with the Forestry Commission and other partners, promoting woodland for health, learning, recreation and enjoyment. The project is aimed in particular at children and young people, older people, families and people with disabilities and will be backed up by the first comprehensive online resource of open* woodland in the UK. (* woods accessible to public visitors)
We want more people and a greater diversity of people to benefit from visiting woods regularly and through such direct contact help to create and build greater support for the UK’s trees, woods and forests.
- The Woods for People database reveals there are 6,249 woods in Scotland today that are accessible by the public. This means that over 787,000 people have a 2 ha accessible wood within 500 m of where they live (15% of the population), and over 2.8 million (over half the population) have a large 20 ha wood within 4 km of where they live;
- This translates into approximately 175,000 children and young people, and over 140,000 older people with a wood within walking distance of their home
- Woodland can provide multiple benefits for a wide-range of audiences;
- Woodland offers great potential for people to appreciate and engage with one of the richest wildlife habitats in the UK, thus promoting understanding and appreciation of the biodiversity of our wooded landscape is important;
- It is widely researched that access to and enjoyment of trees and woodland offer significant health benefits.
Aims of the VisitWoods Scotland project
- Overcome the key barriers of lack of inspiration, information and familiarity that prevent more people visiting woodland regularly. To particularly include families with children, older people and people with disabilities.
- Launch and facilitate a sustainable communications campaign, integrate into the UK VisitWoods communications plan, with a number of partners and stakeholders to raise the profile of the wealth of Scottish woodland where visitors are welcome, highlighting its potential as a great place to visit and giving recognition to woodland owners and VisitWoods Scotland funding partners.
- Create the first comprehensive online gateway to all the woods in Scotland where visitors are welcome as part of the UK wide VisitWoods portal. Give people the information they need, in one place, to enable them to access the wood for exercise, to enjoy nature, to spend time with friends and family, to relax, to learn, to heal, to play in woods.
- Highlight the VisitWoods website as the gateway to a woodland experience, in the VisitWoods Scotland communications campaign.
- Volunteer involvement in gathering and presenting information on woods to visit and in engaging new visitors, led by a small well trained, enthusiastic and supported volunteer force of Woodland Web Guides, to be trained and supported by the Scotland Project Officer.
- Target specific priority audiences by engaging directly and meaningfully with representative partner organisations throughout Scotland (including UK wide partners) looking to leave a sustainable legacy of increased awareness, confidence, inspiration and use of woodland amongst their supporter base.
- Develop partnerships to enable meaningful involvement of those representing parts of society who traditionally have limited access to nature in the shaping of our communications and the creation of shared information resources.
- To facilitate dynamic, interactive user generated content (UGC) as a means of creating a relevant, credible, living resource.
Partnerships
The Woodland Trust will be working at the UK level with a wide range of partners from within and outside the conservation sector including the National Trust, Wildlife Trusts, RSPB and Action for Children, AgeUK, University of the Third Age, Mencap plus many others. In Scotland we will be working with the key funding partners FC Scotland and SNH, as well as the Central Scotland Forest Trust, National Trust Scotland, RSPB, Local Authority land owners and private individuals, plus organisations such as Capability Scotland, NHS Health Scotland, Paths for All, Scottish Association for Mental Health, the Scouts (Scotland), YouthScotland, Age Concern Scotland, Play Scotland and many others alongside a range of corporate supporters and media partners.
Job Purpose
To identify and work with partner organisations, and their programmes of activity within Scotland to promote a wider appreciation of trees, woods and forests, identifying opportunities for discovery and inspiration which will result in a measurable and sustainable change in awareness and visits to woodland amongst their audience base particularly families with children, older people and people with disabilities. The post holder will be required to recruit and manage 15 volunteer Woodland Web Guides, and to oversee the management of user generated content (UGC) with support from the UK VisitWoods Volunteering Officer and Content Development Officer.
Job Tasks and Responsibilities
- To identify and develop meaningful, effective relationships with project partners in Scotland ranging from the woodland landowners, corporate partners and organisations representing our target audiences, with support from other members of WT staff.
- To be fully up to speed with all relevant Woodland Trust and appropriate partner activity that could be relevant to all the partner organisations.
- To raise awareness of VisitWoods and trees and woods by developing a Scottish communications plan with support from the Scottish Communications Officer and UK Project team, fully integrated into the UK VisitWoods communications plan, that makes best use of all partners’ communications channels including corporate, PR and media partners, reaching 3.5 million people per year.
- To work closely with at least 5 key partners specific to Scotland representing our target audiences, building on the existing insight collected by the UK project team and through consultation with partners, and under the guidance of the UK Project Manager and Woodland Trust Scotland Policy & Communications Manager, to:
a) Develop a deeper understanding of the barriers preventing use and enjoyment of woods by the organisation and its supporter base.
b) Identify existing and planned initiatives that could be enhanced by the inclusion of VisitWoods related activity and information.
c) Ascertain the best way to implement robust monitoring and evaluation processes from the start of the relationship ensuring the effect of VisitWoods on their audiences, and the lessons learnt, can be measured, understood and disseminated.
d) Develop volunteering possibilities with partner organisations, working closely with the UK VisitWoods Volunteering Officer.
- To lead the recruitment, training and support of 15 volunteers in Scotland to visit woods and record their experiences as user reviews within the VisitWoods website, encourage and manage the content submitted by others, and feedback as appropriate to woodland owners, all with support from the UK VisitWoods Volunteering Officer. At least 5 volunteers will be drawn directly from our target audiences.
- To build sustainable relationships with partners in order to provide the best chance possible of achievements continuing beyond the 3 years.
- To use knowledge gained to influence the development of VisitWoods activity, content and resources, including identifying individuals or groups who could have meaningful input into the development of the VisitWoods website and communications plan.
- To contribute towards building partner organisations capacity e.g. through developing skills, volunteering or links with other partners and projects.
- To liaise with the UK VisitWoods team to identify and promote the best existing resources within the WT and other partner organisations, (including those developed as part of the VisitWoods Outreach in England) related to children, older people and people with disabilities, bringing them to new audiences.
- To ensure VisitWoods in Scotland is fully integrated with VisitWoods activity within the rest of the UK.
- In liaison with line manager to draw up a programme of personal development which addresses targets and performance measures.
- To regularly monitor and evaluate in order to fully understand the impact of the project activity being undertaken, as part of the VisitWoods Monitoring and Evaluation plan.
Skills/Experience
- Knowledge and understanding of latest thinking, developments and practice in outdoor learning.
- Knowledge and understanding of people’s rights and responsibilities relating to Scottish outdoor access legislation
- Thorough understanding of the voluntary sector.
- Experience of training and managing volunteers from a wide range of backgrounds, specifically with our one or more of our target beneficiary groups.
- Strong IT skills.
- Ability to manage own area of responsibility and prioritise own workload.
- Effective communication skills with the ability to develop relationships at all levels.
- Good influencing and presentation skills.
- Strong planning and organisational skills.
- Ability to quickly and effectively assimilate information for new areas of work and develop appropriate approaches.
- Excellent written and spoken communication skills.
- Capable of working alone, as part of a partner organisation, as part of a team and cross-departmentally within the Trust UK.
- Confident in representing the Trust in a professional and positive manner, promoting our corporate objectives and VisitWoods as a partnership project.
- Self-motivation to drive projects forward and adopt a thorough, determined and pragmatic approach.
- Able to build meaningful, effective relationships with a wide range of partner organisations and gain commitment at all levels, both internally and externally.
- Willingness to understand and acknowledge the different needs of others.
- Creative flair for developing practical, engaging, sustainable ideas that will inspire staff, volunteers and supporters/clients.
- Ability to work under pressure and manage demanding personal workloads with deadlines and ongoing developments.
- Knowledge and experience of involving a wide range of different people.
• Experience of developing practical but creative and innovative plans that engage, inspire and enable people to contribute.
- Flexible approach to effectively manage a range of contrasting projects at any one time.
- Ability to readily identify limits of own expertise and knowledge, seeking advice, support and information from others as appropriate.
- Good understanding of trees and woods.
- Willingness to travel and work unsociable hours occasionally.
The Person
Graduate calibre with enthusiasm for engaging people in the outdoors with excellent project management skills. Experience with working with the target beneficiary audiences of the project would be advantageous. The ability to quickly understand the needs and motivations of an organisation, identify and develop opportunities and inspire a wide range of people with your enthusiasm, professionalism and creative flair.
Due to the amount of travelling which may be required for this role, it is essential that the post holder hold a valid UK driving licence and preferably has access to a car. Please note the post holder will be required to go through the appropriate security checking process prior to commencing the role.
To Apply
Email a CV and covering letter to recruitment@woodlandtrust.org.uk to reach us by the closing date. For further guidance, see the Jobs section on the Woodland Trust’s website. Please assume that if you have not heard from the Woodland Trust within one month of the closing date of the advertisement that you have not been successful in your application.
VisitWoods Scotland is a partnership project, led by the Woodland Trust Scotland and funded by the Forestry Commission Scotland and Scottish Natural Heritage.
