Community Outreach Officer

THE RAMBLERS; City of Edinburgh; Hybrid; GBP 36,000; Full time

Job summary

An outdoor charity is seeking a Community Outreach Officer in Scotland to lead initiatives that promote walking among communities facing barriers. Responsibilities include designing outreach projects, engaging stakeholders, and ensuring effective risk management. The ideal candidate will have qualifications in outdoor leadership, experience in community engagement, and excellent communication skills. This role is based hybrid, with pay ranging from £32,395 to £48,593 depending on experience, and is fixed-term for 9 months with potential for extension.

Qualifications

• Experience managing volunteers and outdoor leaders.
• Experience engaging communities in physical activity.
• Proven ability to develop partnerships.

Responsibilities

• Lead design and implementation of Community Outreach Project.
• Manage the project budget and evaluation.
• Contribute to the organisation's community engagement strategy.

Skills

Project coordination

Stakeholder engagement

Community outreach

Training and mentoring

Risk assessment

Excellent communication

Education

Hill and Moorland or Mountain leader qualification

16-hour Outdoor First Aid Certificate

Job description

Job Title

Community Outreach Officer (Scotland)

Team

Ramblers Scotland

Contract

Fixed-term 9 months (with potential to extend)

Location

Scotland (Home-based or hybrid with access to Edinburgh co-working office and team meetings/connect days in Edinburgh and London)

Pay range: £32,395 to £48,593. Salary on appointment will be set at the lower end of the pay range, to a maximum of £35,635 depending on the candidate's skills and experience.

It’s an exciting time to join the Ramblers as we have recently refreshed our strategy to support the delivery of our long-term ambitions.

We need your drive, knowledge, skills, and creativity to help us raise awareness of the Ramblers and what we stand for, enabling the charity to grow its supporter base and open up the joys and wellbeing benefits of walking to many more people.

Context and Purpose

The Community Outreach Project (Scotland) is an initiative to bring the Ramblers strategy to life, and open the outdoors to some of the groups that have the most barriers to getting out walking. The project works with community-based contacts in urban areas with a focus on refugees, asylum seekers and people from global majority communities.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead on the design, development and implementation of the Community Outreach Project Scotland.
• Identify and develop new partnerships and opportunities to help grow and expand the project and impact.
• Assess and monitor risks, resolve issues, and ensure compliance with relevant policies and regulations.
• Contribute to the organisation’s approach to risk management.
• Lead on and manage the project budget, programme evaluation and reporting.
• Overall responsibility for groups of inexperienced participants in outdoor settings using industry best practice in risk management.
• Capture success stories, case studies and good practice in how our work makes a difference.
• Work with the Scotland’s director and fundraising team to secure the funding and support required to sustain and expand the project.
• Develop effective ways to build bridges between excluded communities and existing Ramblers walking groups by building strong and proactive relationships with volunteers.
• Engage and work collaboratively with a range of stakeholders to provide accessible and sustainable walking experiences.
• Contribute to GB-wide strategic approach to community engagement with those who face the greatest barriers to benefit from being outdoors.
• Engage and proactively develop excellent working relationships across the organisation.
• Design and develop Community Outreach Traineeship.
• Line‑manage Community Outreach Trainees.

The Person

Qualification

• Hill and Moorland or Mountain leader qualified (or trained with assessment pending) and a valid 16 hour Outdoor First Aid Certificate.

Knowledge and Experience

• Experience of managing volunteers and staff including training and mentoring outdoor leaders.
• Experience of initiating strong external partnerships and collaborative internal relationships to deliver mutually beneficial activities and outcomes.
• Experience of successfully engaging communities in sport and physical activity programmes, in particular, outdoor activity provision.
• Experience of implementing change and working with others to adopt new ways of working.
• Experience of assessing and managing risk in relation to outdoor physical activity.

Skills and Leadership

• Ability to plan, lead and develop a project with the related coordination, planning, organisational skills.
• Ability to spot and exploit opportunities for growth in scale and impact, including by developing existing and new funder relationships.
• Excellent communication & interpersonal skills.
• The ability to deliver training whilst leading safe and inspiring group walks in lowland and/or hill & moorland environments.
• Ability to analyse and identify solutions to moderately complex problems, working with multiple stakeholders with different backgrounds and expectations, while operating at the edge of existing organisational systems or ways of working.
• Able to play a leading role in developing organisation-wide thinking on engaging excluded communities.

Personal Attributes

• Interest in walking and a commitment to the principles of inclusion and enabling everyone to feel welcome in the outdoors, with a particular understanding of the needs of people seeking asylum, refugees and people from global majority communities.
• Flexible, resilient and self‑motivated with a willingness to take on different tasks and responsibilities as needed.
• Access to own transport and willing to travel and spend some evenings and weekends away from home.
• Willing to undertake training and professional development to ensure skills and knowledge are up to date.

Values and Behaviours

Our values are the core principles that guide us daily in our work and our membership of the Ramblers. We all share the passion that walking is for everyone and by living our shared values we can ensure the Ramblers is an organisation to be proud of. Our values will earn trust for the Ramblers brand which will allow us to open up a world of walking opportunities for even more people.

Inclusive

We make everyone feel welcome and part of the Ramblers community. We make sure we all feel respected and accepted and know our contributions make a difference in achieving our mission.

Inspiring

We strive to inspire people through the way we act and the things we say. We channel our passion and ambition so others are moved to help us achieve our mission.

Empowering

We empower and encourage each other to make a positive contribution to our teams and the Ramblers. We do all we can to make sure everyone has the ability, and feels confident, to take action.

Responsible

We take responsibility for ourselves and those around us seriously, by always acting in a safe and supportive way. We care about the environment and make sure we do what we say we will do.

EEO Statement

The Ramblers promote diversity and welcome applications from all sections of the community.