Community Development Lead

Makespace Oxfordshire; Oxford; On-site; GBP 55,000 - 75,000; Full time

Job summary

Makespace Oxfordshire invites a Communities Lead to steer strategy for community development across its spaces. You will lead the Communities Team, steward the National Lottery funded Common Rooms project, and align work with spatial justice and ecological resilience.

You’ll build capacity, nurture partnerships with residents, creatives and local organisations, translate vision into deliverables, manage multi-year programmes, and ensure high-quality outcomes across Oxfordshire.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience of community development and support for social enterprises, community groups, creatives and/or not-for-profits.
• Experience of planning and managing projects, budgets, programmes and partnerships across multi-year timeframes.
• A demonstrable passion for spatial justice and/or lived experience of tackling spatial injustice
• Proactive in organising events and programmes to support community needs and build resident capacity, at a planning level.
• Strategic vision: able to hold the wider picture across the hubs and mission projects and turn it into clear priorities.
• Confident in managing and supporting others to do their best work.
• Excellent time and project management skills.
• Excellent communicator, adept at bridging and forming networks, and at building rapport with a diverse range of community members and stakeholders.
• Excellent at building relationships with residents and local communities, with the ability to respond to needs and address conflicts as they arise.
• Ability to work on own initiative and be self-motivated.
• Ability and willingness to travel across Oxfordshire, and to work occasional evenings and weekends.
• Experience of setting up or running community spaces, and of recruiting, supporting and developing volunteers.
• Experience of monitoring and evaluation, ideally story-based or participatory approaches.
• Experience of designing and delivering learning programmes.
• Knowledge and connections across other community development work in Oxfordshire.
• Familiarity with concepts relating to spatial justice, meanwhile space and community assets.
• Strong connections to networks and social justice organisations in the local area
• A knowledge of and passion for working towards climate justice and social justice
• Ability to use and develop Makespace systems, e.g. GDrive, Slack, Monday.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Communities Team and set the strategy, mission and yearly plan for community development.
• Oversee multi-year, funded projects like Common Rooms under National Lottery programmes.
• Cultivate partnerships with residents, community groups, creatives and local organisations.
• Translate vision into deliverables and keep an eye on the bigger picture while ensuring high-quality delivery.
• Manage and develop volunteers and staff, balancing strategic leadership with hands-on guidance.

Skills

Community development

Project management

Budget planning

Stakeholder engagement

Strategic planning

Team leadership

Networking

Facilitation

Conflict resolution

Monitoring & evaluation

Tools

GDrive

Slack

Monday.com

Job description

Company Description Makespace Oxfordshire unlocks underused and empty spaces across the county, turning them into affordable, community-driven workspaces for social enterprises, creatives, and local changemakers. The organization focuses on community empowerment, tackling inequality, addressing the climate emergency, and responding to homelessness through collaborative and inclusive approaches. By prioritizing people over profit, Makespace Oxfordshire promotes systems change and strong collective action rooted in local needs.

Role Description

The Communities Lead holds the strategy, mission and yearly plan for community development across Makespace's buildings, and leads and manages the Communities Team in line with our organisational strategy and our North Star of spatial justice. The purpose of the role is to widen access to space and build local capacity and agency, creating an environment where Makespace and local residents can transform their neighbourhoods towards social justice and ecological resilience.

The role is also the strategic and project lead for our funded community work: currently the Common Rooms project within a three-year National Lottery programme, Reclaiming Place. Rebuilding Power. Alongside any future funded community projects. This role manages the Community Organisers, who hold the day-to-day support of residents and the running of the Common Rooms, so this role can stay lighter-touch and focused on the bigger picture.

Is this the right role for you?

This role suits someone who is confident and adept at leading a team or a programme, and feels at home being accountable for how something turns out. You hold the wider view naturally, whilst still paying close attention to the details to ensure high quality and timely delivery. You'll be someone who can hold several projects at once without losing sight of the bigger picture, you are comfortable setting priorities, working under pressure, and comfortable making a call and being accountable for it. You lead with and through others. You’re a natural collaborator, excellent listener, empowering enabler and able to bring people along the journey with you; whether that’s team members, local residents or partners. You know how to turn a

good idea into an action plan with a set of deliverables that makes a real impact. You can hold a vision for where the work is heading, translating it into clear, steady guidance for the people you’re responsible for day to day. You read relationships well, and you know when to step in and when to let someone find their own way. If that mix of vision, making impact and care for people appeals, this could suit you well.

Essential Qualifications

• Extensive experience of community development and support for social enterprises, community groups, creatives and/or not-for-profits.
• Experience of planning and managing projects, budgets, programmes and partnerships across multi-year timeframes.
• A demonstrable passion for spatial justice and/or lived experience of tackling spatial injustice
• Proactive in organising events and programmes to support community needs and build resident capacity, at a planning level.
• Strategic vision: able to hold the wider picture across the hubs and mission projects and turn it into clear priorities.
• Confident in managing and supporting others to do their best work.
• Excellent time and project management skills.
• Excellent communicator, adept at bridging and forming networks, and at building rapport with a diverse range of community members and stakeholders.
• Excellent at building relationships with residents and local communities, with the ability to respond to needs and address conflicts as they arise.
• Ability to work on own initiative and be self-motivated.
• Ability and willingness to travel across Oxfordshire, and to work occasional evenings and weekends.
• Experience of setting up or running community spaces, and of recruiting, supporting and developing volunteers.
• Experience of monitoring and evaluation, ideally story-based or participatory approaches.
• Experience of designing and delivering learning programmes.
• Knowledge and connections across other community development work in Oxfordshire.
• Familiarity with concepts relating to spatial justice, meanwhile space and community assets.
• Strong connections to networks and social justice organisations in the local area
• A knowledge of and passion for working towards climate justice and social justice
• Ability to use and develop Makespace systems, e.g. GDrive, Slack, Monday.