Wigtown Festival Company is seeking a creative leader to guide one of Scotland’s most valued cultural organisations into its next chapter. Our new Chief Executive Officer will champion our mission, strengthen our impact and build on our hard-earned reputation.
Wigtown is Scotland’s National Book Town and the annual Wigtown Book Festival is now one of the UK’s best-established literary gatherings, featuring more than 200 sessions each year for all ages, encompassing visual arts, music, theatre and food as well as literary events.
The festival draws writers and members of its audience from far and wide, while continuing to celebrate the rich history and culture of south-west Scotland. Wigtown Festival Company was established as a charity in 2007 to deliver the annual festival, and since then both the festival and its year-round engagement and educational activity has grown significantly: developing new audiences, helping writers fulfil their potential, cultivating a love of reading for pleasure in children, and providing creative opportunities for young people.
This is an exciting time for Wigtown Festival Company. Having secured Multi-Year Funding from Creative Scotland and recently acquiring a permanent home in Wigtown, the new position of Chief Executive Officer provides an opportunity for the right individual to make a significant positive impact on the creative direction of the organisation and contribute to the wider ongoing regeneration of Scotland’s National Book Town.
If you are passionate about books and their power to change lives, and are interested in shaping culture-led regeneration of Scotland’s National Book Town, then we would love to hear from you.
The Role
As CEO, you will provide strong, visible leadership, ensuring Wigtown Festival Company remains a sustainable, creative organisation that meets the evolving needs of Scotland’s cultural sector. Reporting to the Board, you will drive the creative and strategic vision of the organisation, leading a staff team to deliver operational excellence, financial sustainability, and sustainable growth.
You will be the public face of the organisation, representing the organisation at the highest levels, advocating for our activities and fostering relationships with key funders and stakeholders across the cultural sector.
Who we’re looking for
We are seeking a creative and strategic leader with the following attributes:-
Volunteering Matters Brighter Futures work with pupils (aged 12-16), we offer disadvantaged pupils struggling to engage with the regular school curriculum the opportunity to undertake a volunteering placement as well as the option of having a mentor. We support and empower pupils to gain skills and confidence in a new environment within the wider community, promoting a sense of belonging, whilst extending horizons and aspirations.
We are looking for a talented, dynamic, and compassionate Youth Engagement Manager to join our team in Dumfries and Galloway. The right candidate would be someone who can work flexibly and demonstrate an understanding and total commitment to our organisational values.
This role will be working in partnership with North West Community Campus and the successful candidate will be working exclusively with North West Community Campus students.
Joining our new Economic Development and Enterprise Team, we’re looking for a colleague who is passionate about local participation with an interest in supporting the building of strong local/social enterprising activity. Our new colleague will support the delivery of our Social Enterprise Strategy through the development of resources and models of advice for new and existing social enterprises to help them grow and develop. As a great communicator and someone who thrives in developing new connections and relationships, the Officer will also be involved in events and projects for the third sector working with colleagues across the organisation.
We are looking for a colleague passionate about supporting collaboration, developing capacity and highlighting the role and impact of the third sector in nurturing and developing local economies and enterprise. You will provide oversight and leadership of our work across the building of strong local economies, development of local enterprise and cross-portoflio working for a wellbeing economy, developing relationships with local anchor organisations like the local authority and South of Scotland Enterprise, with communities and across our sector.
Develop and deliver plans to support capacity building for third sector organisations across Dumfries and Galloway in areas of economic development and enterprise.
Ensure the provision of resources and advice for the sector on key themes of policy, practice, research and the further development of an economy and enterprise online hub.
Oversee the coordination and support of the Social Enterprise Dumfries and Galloway (SEDG) network.
Develop and manage relationships and partnership working with a variety of organisations to support the role of, and capacity within, the third sector, including the role of the sector and communities in economic investment and development decisions.
With partners, support the understanding of Community Wealth Building, the importance of local economies and the role of social enterprises.
Promote shared learning about Community Wealth Building and how we explore the pillars of CWB to benefit local people and place, working alongside CLES and SoSE.
Ensure the appropriate allocation of resources to maximise impact, including through high quality tools, advice and routes to signposting to sources of expert help so that our advice for the sector is consistent and of high quality.
WithYou provides free and confidential support, without judgement, to more than 100,000 people every year experiencing challenges with drugs, alcohol and mental health across England and Scotland.
Our name reflects who we are – a positive place where people can progress, connect with others and get friendly, expert help in a way that’s right for them.
Our staff team changes lives. If you’re passionate about helping people get the support they need for issues with drugs, alcohol and mental health, we’d love to hear from you.
About the role
Our vibrant and busy services in Dumfries and Galloway provides support to people concerned about their own or someone else's alcohol or drug use. We are looking for an enthusiastic and dynamic Recovery Worker who is motivated to work as part of a thriving and diverse team, ensuring recovery opportunities are available for individuals at any point in their recovery journey. You will strive to work collaboratively with partners and communities, ensuring that we are as accessible as possible and that the principles of a Recovery Oriented System of Care and true person centred practice are at the heart of all that we do. An SVQ Level 3 in Social Services and Health care and registration with the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) is essential for this post.
As a leading charity supporting people with drug, alcohol, and mental health challenges, we operate over 80 services across England and Scotland, providing free and confidential support to more than 100,000 people each year. Find out more about us here.
Job Description
Our Recovery Workers work with our service users to help them to determine what their goals, ambitions and passions are, working with them to create the best treatment plan for their needs and to get them back onto the path to recovery. This is an integral role for With You - as a frontline worker, you will deliver continuity of care through effective partnership working, care coordination, delivery of interventions and key work responsibilities. You will manage an active caseload of service users, connecting quickly with the people we support, treating them respectfully and with dignity. Our Recovery Workers play a vital role in supporting clients to identify their goals, ambitions, and passions. You’ll work with them to create the best treatment plan for their needs and to guide them on their path to recovery.
The service in Dumfries and Galloway operate out of two main offices, all others locations are covered by outreach work. This is a busy established service and WithYou have held the contract here since 2011. Partnership working is essential and flexibility is required by staff to ensure clients are offered the best support available to help them in recovery.
This is a full time, permanent position with a salary of £23,821.35 per annum.
Company Benefits
Essential Skills
We are looking for positive and motivated candidates who are able to communicate with a wide range of people and in different settings. You will also be organised with excellent time management skills.
To be successful in this role you will:
Ideally you will also have previous experience of working or volunteering with people who misuse substances. We welcome applications from those with lived experience.
You will also need to meet our safeguarding requirements of a satisfactory enhanced PVG check.
Creating an Inclusive Environment
As an organisation, we continue to build an inclusive culture that encourages, supports and celebrates the diverse voices and experiences of our staff. We know that representing the communities we serve is key to us meeting our goals of radically improving people's lives. We welcome the unique contributions that you can bring, and we encourage people from underrepresented communities and backgrounds to apply to join our team, including people with lived experience, people with disabilities, people from racialised communities, LGBTQ+ people, people of all ages and armed forces veterans.
As part of our commitment to the Armed Forces Covenant, we provide a guaranteed interview scheme for candidates that are veterans and meet all the essential criteria for a role.
WithYou is also a Disability Confident Employer, and we offer a guaranteed interview scheme for candidates with a disability and meet all the essential criteria for a role.
If you have a disability, a learning difficulty such as dyslexia or a medical condition which you believe may affect your performance during any aspect of our selection process, we’ll be happy to make reasonable adjustments to enable you to perform at your best.