Community Partnerships Advisor

Taituarā; Canterbury; On-site; NZD 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Career coaching

Wellbeing leave

Additional paid leave

Sick leave from day one

Discounts with local businesses

Job summary

Taituarā is seeking a Community Development Coordinator to support Selwyn's community in leading their own events and projects. This 13-month fixed term role involves coaching and mentoring volunteers and local groups, transitioning from Council-supported initiatives to community-led initiatives.

The ideal candidate has strong community development experience and excellent facilitation skills. You will guide townships in activating projects while fostering local leadership and collaboration.

Qualifications

• Strong experience in community development, volunteer support, or event delivery.
• Confident facilitation, training, and mentoring skills.
• Experience working alongside community groups and local businesses.

Responsibilities

• Help volunteers lead their own events and projects.
• Coach and mentor local event organisers.
• Guide event organisers through Council processes.

Skills

Community development

Event delivery

Stakeholder engagement

Mentoring skills

Organisational skills

Project coordination

Written communication

Verbal communication

Job description

• Help volunteers, community groups and local businesses to lead their own events and projects.
• 13-month fixed term role working across Selwyn's townships, schools and business networks.
• Leave a legacy, with groups still running their own events and projects long after your support ends.

About the role

Our Community Development team helps the Selwyn community thrive. We're looking for someone to work alongside volunteers, community groups and local businesses, working with them to build skills and confidence to plan and run their own events, campaigns and projects.

This is a 13-month fixed term role. Your support is deliberately time limited, so you'll coach, mentor and connect people, then step back once they are ready to lead on their own.

You'll work to help townships activate projects and events, Dark Sky activities, business sector initiatives and communication and visitor-focused activities, helping groups move from Council-supported delivery to community-led and business-led delivery.

Key areas of focus include:

• Providing practical training, mentoring and support to volunteers, community groups and local businesses leading projects and events.
• Coaching local event organisers to shape the purpose, audience, budget and delivery plan for their events.
• Helping groups prepare clear business cases, project plans, budgets and sponsorship proposals.
• Guiding event organisers through Council processes, permissions and the practical use of reserves, parks and public spaces.
• Connecting community organisations, local businesses, schools, mana whenua and partner agencies around shared activities.
• Supporting the transition of selected Council-supported events and programmes to community-led, business-led or partner-led delivery.
• Building reusable templates, tools and examples that community can keep using after your support ends.
• Gathering and sharing stories that show what local leadership and collaboration achieve across the district.
• Support the delivery of local business events, communications and activities
• Support the planning and delivery of local visitor campaigns and tourism related activity

About You

You’ll be someone people warm to quickly, who enjoys sharing what you know and gets real satisfaction from seeing others succeed without you. You’ll bring a genuine commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi and to working well alongside mana whenua and diverse communities.

You’ll bring:

• Strong experience in community development, volunteer support, event delivery, or stakeholder engagement.
• Confident facilitation, training and mentoring skills, with the patience to build capability at other people's pace.
• Experience working alongside mana whenua, community groups, volunteers, local businesses and partner organisations.
• Practical experience coordinating or supporting events, campaigns or community projects or initiatives.
• The ability to help others prepare business cases, budgets, sponsorship proposals and simple outcome reporting.
• Strong organisational skills and the ability to juggle several streams of work, stakeholders, groups and priorities at once.
• Project coordination skills and the ability to keep projects driving forward.
• The ability to coordinate and work with townships to promote local areas through visitor tourism campaigns and local projects
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• A current full New Zealand driver licence.

Experience in local government would be advantageous, as would community-led development approaches, an understanding of community funding and sponsorship, or training in facilitation or event management.

What we can offer:

• Career coaching and development
• Wellbeing and volunteer leave
• Three additional paid leave days each year
• Two weeks paid Partners Leave
• Sick leave from day one
• Discounts with local and national businesses

About us:

Selwyn is New Zealand's fastest growing district. We have a fantastic quality of life, great communities, and a thriving economy. Our Council works actively with residents to provide the services and facilities that help our communities to thrive and grow.

Our head office is based in Rolleston (only 25km from Christchurch), which offers an enviable family lifestyle, outstanding local facilities and an easy drive to the ski fields, rivers and hills that make up Canterbury's stunning landscape.

Our values are important to us and represent the way we work: Be a good human Be brave - Think differently Better together - Make it happen for Selwyn.

We honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi and we are committed to working with our Treaty partner to deliver on our obligations under Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

We value the safety of our community - this role requires a satisfactory safety check including police vetting and for you to pass a drug and alcohol test.