Scottish Book Trust is a national charity that believes books, reading and writing have the power to change lives. A love of reading inspires creativity, improves employment opportunities, mental health and wellbeing and is one of the most effective ways to help break the poverty cycle. We work towards a Scotland where everyone has an equal opportunity to thrive through literacy.

This is an excellent opportunity for you to support Scottish Book Trust as a School Communities Learning Co-ordinator. The position offers flexible, fulltime working within our School Communities Team.

The post holder works closely with the School Communities Manager (Learning and Development)) on the administration, development, and delivery of the School Communities Learning programme nationally providing support and guidance for all participants.

What we offer

• Full time, permanent role
• Competitive salary
• Flexible hybrid working between home and our Edinburgh City Centre Office, with great access by train, bus, and tram
• Generous holiday entitlement
• Company Sick Pay
• Pension with additional 5% employer contributions
• Death in service benefit
• Free access to employee assistance programme

We want to hear from you if you have the skills, passion and experience of developing and delivering professional training for teachers and librarians.

Could you make a difference for members of the LGBT+ community in Edinburgh and beyond?

The Lavender Menace Queer Books Archive has grown out of Scotland’s first LGBT+ bookshops, Lavender Menace (1982-87) and West & Wilde (1987-97). They sold what we now call queer books – by, about or for LGBT+ people – at a time mainstream bookshops would not stock them. The bookshops also provided openly queer meeting places, where LGBT+ people were able to connect and felt affirmed and welcomed.

Bob Orr and Sigrid Nielsen, the owners of the original Lavender Menace Bookshop, in 2019 founded the Lavender Menace Queer Books Archive to keep this valuable LGBT+ book heritage alive and share it with the community. Through its amazing collection of books, the archive tells the story of queer people’s resistance, and the rise of what is now known as ‘queer pride’. These books told the stories of queer lives; they were written honestly and positively for the first time, and they changed lives.

This post represents a unique opportunity to work with Edinburgh’s Lavender Menace Queer Books Archive to develop an Oral History Project (OHP). The OHP will explore the impact and legacy of the Lavender Menace and West & Wilde Bookshops (1982-97), and more generally community experiences of reading LGBT+ books and magazines, and ways reading – now and in the past – has impacted on their identity. Stories and interpretation will be shared online as well as through a programme of events and a temporary exhibition.

The Oral History Project’s key activities are:

• Recruiting, supporting, training and coordinating volunteers to become involved in the OHP.
• Identifying OHP interview participants and devise ways to capture the individual and collective voices and stories of LGBT+ community members.
• Working with partners and stakeholders in the development and delivery of the project.
• Acting as the main point of contact for the volunteers and interviewees, to arrange and set up interviews, liaise with volunteers and interviewees.
• Ensuring policies, systems and processes are in place to collect, store and use all audio and visual material collected.
• Promoting the OHP and its programme of events, creating materials for use on social media, website and in the temporary exhibition, and ensuring the Archive’s profile is raised through these activities.

These activities build on the existing programme of events and projects under the responsibility of the Community Project Coordinator with the team of volunteers. The post holder will thus be able to tap into their experience, contacts and knowledge in taking this work forward.

Employee benefits package

• 35 days of leave (pro-rata including public holidays)
• Enhanced pension scheme
• Flexible working options
• Training and development opportunities

Based in the beautiful East Neuk of Fife, the Cellardyke Trust is a small charity established to support innovative community projects. We aim to work with individuals, families, groups, organisations and companies to help strengthen the community, and we have a particular focus on arts and heritage projects.

The Trust now has an exciting opportunity for a Project Coordinator to join our team, working closely with the board of trustees. We are seeking a highly organised, self-motivated individual with a strong interest in both heritage and community, to take our Manx Beauty Project through its initial development phase.

The Manx Beauty is an historic fishing vessel, built in Cellardyke in 1937 and subsequently owned and operated from various ports across the British Isles. Now in a poor state of repair, our ambition is to rebuild the Manx Beauty and improve lives and community in the process. The priorities of the Manx Beauty Project are to create training opportunities for young people and volunteers to engage in practical boat rebuilding, restoration and recycling. Alongside students from the local high school in Anstruther, the target volunteers are those isolated through social, economic or health issues. We will create a supportive environment for certificated training opportunities. There will also be additional openings for volunteers to engage in related arts and cultural heritage projects.

We have funding in place from the National Lottery Fund Heritage Fund to begin this process and take the project through to the next stage of funding. If the additional funding is granted then the Project Coordinator will have the option to extend their contract for a further period of 4 years to manage the project, alongside the recruitment of additional positions to deliver the project.

The Project Coordinator will prepare the application for the delivery phase and work with partners to ensure that all preparations are complete. This includes developing all policies and procedures, managing budgets and resources, developing training courses with partners, carrying out risk assessments, developing links with other agencies and seeking additional funding from trusts and foundations or other funding sources. They will also help build the sustainability of the organisation.

The successful candidate will bring a proven track record of successful project management, delivering projects within budgets and timescales, with environmental sustainability at the core. We are seeking an individual with excellent people and communication skills, preferably with experience of managing volunteers. An inclusive approach with a drive to facilitate access for all to engage with heritage and the ability to motivate and inspire others to do likewise is a key value. A track record of successful partnership building and a creative and collaborative approach are essential, together with problem solving and negotiation skills.

Fundraising experience from a variety of sources is strongly preferred. Experience of Heritage Lottery projects, Youth and Community work and/or Maritime Heritage are highly desirable.