We love Ruskin Park. We want it to be a haven of relaxation, exercise and health for the whole community. Could you help mobilise local people to support us?

The Friends of Ruskin Park are looking for an enthusiastic and capable freelancer to work with us for approximately 40 days over the next six months. Their main tasks will be:

●  Manage the launch of a new, more coordinated volunteering programme
●  Facilitate new activities and volunteering opportunities
●  Help us increase the profile of our activities
●  Support the Trustees and other key volunteers with other elements of our work where appropriate, including making sure that we are prepared to continue this work after the end of the project without your help.

About us

The Friends of Ruskin Park is a registered charity (number 1166358) led by a group of trustees who are all local people. We work to ensure our park is well cared for and maintained, and has a planned and healthy future. 2016 was a significant year for the Friends. We saved the park’s popular paddling pool from closure, raising money through a crowdfunding appeal and put in place a team of volunteers to help maintain it. We also continued with many other highly successful activities, including our summer fete and bandstand concerts. These activities are supported by a group of regular volunteers.

We are committed to our vision for Ruskin Park as a health and wellbeing park . This will include building better links with the nearby Maudsley and King’s College hospitals. Critically, we need to develop a broader approach to volunteer recruitment and engagement that allows us to draw on local enthusiasm to support the park, while better co-ordinating the skills of our existing trustees and volunteers.

The role

The opportunity is for an agreement to supply services, not an employment contract. We expect the rate to be between £120 and £170 per day depending on skills and experience. You will be paid within 30 days on presentation of an invoice and agreed timesheets. We are not registered for VAT.

The Development Worker will:

1.Manage the launch of a new, more coordinated volunteering programme for Ruskin Park

●  Build and grow a simple volunteer database, signposting and supporting potential volunteers to get involved
●  Promote membership and volunteering, including a significant ‘volunteer drive’ at the Ruskin Park Summer Fete on Saturday 24th June 2017
●  Work with existing projects such as the Paddling Pool, Bandstand Concerts and Summer Fete to ensure they have sufficient volunteers for their activities

2.Facilitate new activities and volunteering opportunities that support our vision for a health and wellbeing park
●  Set up joint volunteering sessions with partners such as Trees for Cities and the Ruskin Park Community Garden
●  Building other relationships, e.g. with local schools, hospitals, community groups and other membership organisations, particularly to create opportunities for groups such as hospital patients and young people

3.Help us increase the profile of our activities through publicity materials, attendance at community events (including our own events) and social media

4.Support the Trustees and other key volunteers with other elements of our work where appropriate, including to make sure we are prepared to continue this work after the end of the project without your help.

Who are we looking for?

You will need to be:

●  Passionate about parks, and with a keen interest in health, community activities, food growing and/or horticulture
●  Experienced in working with, supporting and inspiring volunteers. This will include developing a good relationship with our trustees and project group leaders who all have busy lives
●  Able to work with a range of organisations, build networks, spot and exploit new opportunities
●  Well organised and focused on getting things done
●  Able to work independently and flexibly. We’re a small organisation, with no paid employees. Your work schedule will need to accommodate some evening and weekend activities
●  Able to set up simple and efficient processes (e.g. for registering volunteers) and train other people to use them
●  Computer literate (Office, WordPress, Mailchimp) and great at managing social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram)
Optional : As some of our volunteering sessions will require some ‘hands on’
facilitation, we would also like to hear about any practical experience and knowledge you have related to horticulture, food growing, community gardening or other park based activities . However, we are flexible on this requirement and can bring in additional expertise as required.

How to apply

If you’re interested please send your CV and a short covering letter to Chris Norris at cmnorris@gmail.com by midnight on 14th April 2017. We are very happy to answer questions.