Are you an experienced, communicator with excellent interpersonal skills and a strong understanding of the Scottish statutory, voluntary, community and faith sectors?

We are looking for a Relationship and Communications Lead in Scotland. Join our team at Eden Project Communities and you could help us create real social capital on a mass scale. Eden Project Communities is the home of inspiration, ideas and peer to peer support for people who want to make a positive change where they live. Our aim is to improve the happiness and wellbeing of people across the UK by helping to build more resilient, better connected communities. We believe that people are better able to tackle the challenges they face when they face them together.

We’re the people behind The Big Lunch movement, helping neighbourhoods thrive through the connections people make and the actions they go on to take locally. Alongside this, Eden Project Communities runs a programme and peer to peer network, supporting people to build the skills and confidence to drive positive social action in their community.

The successful candidate will be able to embed Eden Project Communities vision in the hearts and minds of the public, and develop stakeholder relationships in Government, Housing, Religious and Voluntary and Community sectors. Working together increasing participation in The Big Lunch movement and further enabling growth of a strong Scottish network of wider support for those who want to do more for their communities.

As a front-line ambassador in nation, you will sit within with the Scotland and Northern Ireland Regional team, helping to identify, develop and maintain strong mutually beneficial relationships across a broad range of sectors and stakeholders in Scotland. You will work alongside regionally based UK wide delivery colleagues and have the support of a highly experienced central comms team. Your focus will be increasing awareness, reach and participation in our core programme of activity and events including The Big Lunch movement.

Our ideal candidate will have gained a minimum of two years’ experience developing and maximising stakeholder relationships in Scotland, enthusiastic about social action and have strong relationship management abilities, creatively and innovatively solving problems and identifying new approaches to deliver a continually evolving programme within Scotland. Social media and strong communication skills are essential as well as solid understanding of the political, cultural and societal issues affecting local communities in Scotland today.

Working for the Eden Project (Charity number 1093070), roles within the programme are funded by the National Lottery through National Lottery Communities Fund. This is a fixed term contract until December 2023 with potential to extend subject to funding.

The post holder will work from home within Scotland, and will be required to regularly travel across the territory and occasionally to our base at the Eden Project in Cornwall or other UK regions for key events and meetings. Travel expenses paid.

Eden Project Communities are looking for new Community Network Developers to join their growing team. If you are an experienced networker and relationship builder who enjoys working with people this could be a great opportunity for you to join the team.

Eden Project Communities’ mission is to bring people together and encourage them to actively engage with one another and the places where they live. They have a vision of a world full of happier and healthier communities where people know one another and neighbourhoods thrive. They have UK wide reach and deliver initiatives that encourage public engagement and participation in positive action and create real social capital on a mass scale.

Their Community Network Developers are responsible for leading community engagement and development of participation in Eden Project Communities’ activity programme including The Big Lunch, Community Camps and their peer to peer Network across a specific geography within the UK. This will include the need to deliver workshops online and host face to face regional events to bring people together from a broad geography to learn and develop community-based skills.

This role is tasked with increasing participation in all aspects of the Communities programme, including their flagship activity The Big Lunch. The post holder will build networks for those who take part in The Big Lunch and our online and in person events, defining and developing engagement and support models that will work within the context of the territory supported. This includes raising awareness, developing activities that boost community skills and facilitating networking with a view to this becoming sustained more locally by participants.

What we’re looking for:

We’re looking for someone with experience of working in the community, with a variety of stakeholders. Ideally you will have experience of Event Management too. You’ll be able to evidence the building of networks along with experience in delivering projects. Most importantly we’re seeking someone creative and personable who has the ability to build outstanding relationships in person and online. We hope you’ll be as ambitious as the rest of the team at Eden Project Communities, for affecting real change at a community level.

Eden Project Communities’ vision is to create happier and healthier communities where people know one another and neighbourhoods thrive. We do this by bringing people together to actively engage with each other, helping to build more resilient and better connected communities. We inspire people to take small steps that make a big difference. We bring people together.

Each year on the first weekend in June, millions of people take part in The Big Lunch, the UK’s annual get together for neighbours. The Big Lunch is an idea from the Eden Project made possible by the National Lottery that sees people sharing food and having fun as they get to know each other. Big Lunches happen in gardens, parks and in the streets – in 2020, we even held Big Lunches online! This year, The Big Lunch date is 5th and 6th June.

This shared moment, held annually on the first weekend in June, creates vital space in our busy modern lives to come together in a nationwide act of community friendship. The Big Lunch is fully inclusive and brings people of all ages, faiths, ethnicities, and backgrounds together.

We are looking for freelance support in Scotland to help make The Big Lunch Weekend famous. We want the initiative to become a household name, and a recognised event in the national calendar with millions of people from all walks of life taking part and benefiting annually. We want to build a narrative that speaks to people in Scotland, that recognises what it’s like to live in Scotland and the amazing things going on in our communities.

To ‘make The Big Lunch famous’ we need to increase awareness of The Big Lunch Weekend, and convert this awareness into participation. Given the current lockdown, we feel that the best way to do this is through digital marketing, using paid advertising and effective digital content to reach people in their homes. Secondly, we also feel that Scottish media, particularly local media, are effective ways to reach people engaged in community life. We’re also exploring working with Scottish ambassadors, and other forms of paid advertising. However, your knowledge and expertise will help us develop this strategy.