Engagement Officer

Job Title: Engagement Officer

Hours/Week: 12

Location: RIG Arts Office, Unit 7, 11 Clarence Street, Greenock, PA15 1LP

Hourly Rate: £14/ hr (£8,736 per annum)

Project Dates: 3rd April ‘23 to 28th March’ 26 (length of post can be negotiated)

Responsible to: Karen Orr, Ceo

Post Advertised: 8th March 2023

Closing Date: 22nd March 2023 | 5pm

Shortlist Notified: 24th March 2023

Interviews: w/c 27th March 2023

In post: 3rd April 2023

Overview:

RIG Arts are hiring a part time Engagement Officer for our RIG Communities project funded by Investing in Communities, Scottish Government (Appendix 1) which aims to enable community empowerment through targeted outreach, participant development, and managing varied and accessible infrastructure for local people to become involved in the shaping of the project.

The Engagement Officer will work with RIG Arts Project Manager and Business Administrator to gain an understanding of the company ethos and project ambitions. This role will build capacity within the Inverclyde community, generate interest in the project, and work actively with communities to curate the programme of activities that will best suit their needs and priorities. The role will ensure delivery remains democratic and community led, facilitating consultation & steering groups and identifying and nurturing community champions. It will support residents to lead decisions around resources - how money is spent, how spaces are used, how people become engaged.

RIG Arts are seeking someone who will make the role their own, develop new and innovative ways to engage local people and represent community voices. The position will involve outreach, marketing and promotion to identify new partners, build networks and unify all aspects of the project to a cohesive and complimentary programme. The project will run from April 2023 to March 2026 and the length of post can be flexible adjusted from 6 months to three years for the right candidate.

Responsibilities:

• Empowering participants and communities by creating a safe space for a diverse range of voices to be heard and valued through a multifaceted approach to outreach, engagement, and consultation.
• Maintaining open communication with participants and partners to ensure the project remains responsive and reactive.
• Leading outreach and making connections with local community groups and organisations to build networks and capacity to increase engagement.
• Leading physical and digital consultation with service users and the wider public, with specific focus on outreach to marginalised, often overlooked communities.
• Working to empower communities by facilitating regular consultations including creating and sharing online surveys, setting up steering groups and closed facebook groups.
• Building community capacity by identifying lead volunteers, facilitating peer support and supporting community action groups
• Collaborating with RIG Artists to develop and implement plans based upon community consultation/engagement.
• Harnessing social media to encourage engagement: creating project specific copy for all platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and RIG Arts’ website and newsletter.
• Lead the projects Community Informed Output Programme (see Appendix 2 for more info)
• Supporting Greening Officer to build volunteer base and community connections with the wider growing network.
• Monitoring and evaluating delivery of the project against project KPIs
• Keeping up to date with best practice in co-design, co-production, and community collaboration
• Support service users to shape future priorities, develop projects, and generate further investment in the area in collaboration with RIG Arts Funding Officer.

Requirements:

The role is a flexible office based position for 12 hrs per week. Employees can be hired as Payroll or Freelance staff, freelance staff will be responsible for their own tax and national insurance. The contract type can be discussed at the interview stage and is flexible for the right candidate.

The ideal candidate will have:

• Excellent organisational skills and the ability to prioritise workload, multi-task, work to agreed deadlines
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills with the proven ability to build good working relationships within the office and with key stakeholders
• A willingness to work collaboratively with a small and dedicated team
• Proficiency in or eagerness to learn digital platforms including Squarespace, SurveyMonkey, Hootsuite and social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
• Enthusiasm to make the role their own, take initiative, and set ambitious goals.
• Experience or strong interest in arts driven community engagement and the third sector.

Application Process
Please submit a CV and an expression of interest (EOI) detailing why you are interested in this post and what you can offer to the role to Beth Duffy at info@rigarts.org. Please clearly mark your name & post in the subject heading and save all files with your name and post.

The EOI can be submitted via video or audio recording, or written word. Please keep written expressions to no more than approximately 500 words and audio or video recordings to no more than approximately 4 minutes.

After submitting your EOI, we will acknowledge receipt and inform you on the 24th March 2023 whether you have been shortlisted for interview. We will arrange a suitable interview date for the week commencing the 27th March 2023 and we will send over the interview questions in advance.

The successful applicant will be notified by 31st March 2023 to be in post for the 3rd April’23. We appreciate this is a short turnaround so we can be flexible on the physical start date.

If you have any questions about the role or application process, need clarification on any point or need this information provided in a different format, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. We’re keen to promote an accessible, equitable and respectful working culture for all.

Contact: info@rigarts.org

Website: www.rigarts.org

Instagram: @rigartsgreenock

Twitter: @rigartsgreenock

Facebook: @rigartsinverclyde

Appendix 1: Overview of the RIG Communities Project

The RIG Communities project will deliver a regular programme of creative interventions providing respite, emotional nourishment, and enjoyment for a wide range of the community with no barriers to access. An integrated arts approach to community regeneration will harness culture to reduce inequalities and improve life chances. Expand upon a valued, tried and tested approach, enhanced by additional green focus.

Delivering 5 workshops per week under the themes of Youth, Older Adult, Mental Health, Climate Mitigation/Adaptation, and Green/Growing. All workshops will be underpinned by a commitment to wellbeing, skillbuilding, and community empowerment. Workshops will be delivered in rolling blocks co-designed and co-produced with the community. RIG Arts have experience offering workshops across multiple and diverse art forms ranging from film, music to visual arts. We will expand our community focused art practice to widen participation and increase engagement with green spaces to meaningfully support our own and Investing in Communities Funding objectives.

The RIG Communities project will haveCommunity Informed Outputs which will be a portion of the project budget dedicated to empowering communities. Budget allocation will be decided upon by service users and the wider community - informed by community consultation throughout delivery and decided by a public vote - giving local people more power over how and where resources are allocated. Community Informed Outputs are designed to shift the power to communities and empower residents. To build on existing strengths and capacity supporting Inverclyde residents to build back from recent hardships in a democratic, engaged way. Building self esteem by creating tangible community led action quickly in response to priorities identified and decided upon by communities themselves.

Appendix 2:

RIG Communities: Community Informed Outputs is a portion of the project budget dedicated to empowering communities. Budget allocation will be decided upon by service users and the wider community - informed by community consultation throughout delivery and decided by a public vote - giving local people more power over how and where resources are allocated.

The Engagement officer will work alongside project participants and RIG service users to identify priorities and research possible outputs based on these. People can be limited by what they know so sharing sessions will help to widen participants' horizons, highlight what creative outputs can help them reach the desired outcomes; explore examples of best practice; offer a wide spectrum of options; further explore options through guided discussions & creative exercises. Transparency is key, supporting communities to understand what is achievable and realistic, and what isn’t and why. Outputs will be entirely informed by project participants, and may include additional workshops with a target demographic, improved access support, outreach to specific communities, fundays, events, festivals, murals, digital outputs, public art, improvements to local infrastructure. A shortlist will be created via consultation and final spends decided upon by public vote. The Engagement Officer will lead the programme with support from RIG Arts existing back office team.

Community Informed Outputs are designed to shift the power to communities and empower residents. To build on existing strengths and capacity supporting Inverclyde residents to build back from recent hardships in a democratic, engaged way. Building self esteem by creating tangible community led action quickly in response to priorities identified and decided upon by communities themselves.

Job Types: Part-time, Temporary contract, Fixed term contract, Freelance
Contract length: 6-36 months
Part-time hours: 12 per week

Salary: £14.00 per hour

Benefits:

• Company events
• Flexitime
• Free parking

Schedule:

• Flexitime

Work Location: In person

Application deadline: 22/03/2023
Reference ID: RIG Arts - Engagement Officer
Expected start date: 03/04/2023