Job description
– Salary: £28,804* FTE per year, pro rata
– Contract: 2 days per week, 1 year fixed term contract.
– Please note, you will need to be able to work on Tuesdays which is a core
working day for Wen staff.
– Location: Based at Limborough Hub in Poplar, Tower Hamlets, London
– Reporting to: Limborough Hub Manager, Rebecca Evans-Merritt
– To apply: Please complete an application form and equal opportunities form (on our website) and send
to jobs@wen.org.uk
– Deadline: 9am, Monday 20th March 2023
-Interviews: w/c 3rd April 2023
* Wen is planning for a 5% cost of living increase in April 2023 which – if confirmed – will bring the FTE per annum
salary to £30,244
Wen (Women’s Environmental Network) is the only UK organisation working on issues that link women, health, equality and the environment. We inspire people to take action for a healthier planet.
Limborough Hub is a community food and action hub on the Burdett Estate in Poplar that aims to enable community-led climate action through creating a better food system. Supported by the housing association Poplar HARCA, this unique site provides a year-round activity programme for local families and community groups, working together to grow, cook and eat in a way that is healthy and sustainable for people and planet. It consists of a
community garden, greenhouse, Chelsea flower garden, community kitchen, an established food pantry and a flexible workshop/meeting space.
The Limborough Hub forms a vital part of our new five-year climate action project in Tower Hamlets – Just FACT (A Just Food and Climate Transition). Working with local residents and community organisations, this ambitious project focuses on reducing the environmental impacts of our local food system and designing genuinely community led
alternatives.
We believe that food has a unique power to bring people together across difference to create positive change collectively. It creates a place where we can share knowledge, skills and gain confidence to take high impact action together as a community. Food is also at the heart of many of Tower Hamlet’s greatest challenges. The cost of living crisis has starkly highlighted this as more people struggle to access affordable food.
Who we’re looking for
We are looking for a Syhleti speaker who is imaginative, hardworking and passionate about the importance of food (growing it, buying it, cooking it, eating it) for community wellbeing and the climate.
You should be highly organised and enthusiastic about working in a community setting and raising the profile of Limborough Hub in the local area. By working collaboratively with local residents, you will ensure that activities at the hub are responsive and relevant to
people’s everyday lives.
We particularly encourage applications from People of Colour/ People of the Global Majority, LGBTQI+ people, people with disabilities, and those who identify as working-class/ from low-income backgrounds or who have done so in the past. Where two or more candidates are judged to be of equal merit, priority may be given to a candidate who belongs to a group less represented at Wen.
Wen is committed to anti-racism and inclusive intersectional feminism which acknowledges how race, class and sexuality intersect with gender in our day-to-day lives. Wen is open to all genders and is a trans-inclusive organisation.
We are working to make Limborough Hub as accessible to as many people as possible.
At present, we have step free access to the kitchen, workshop space and garden, however our WC is not yet accessible to wheelchair users. If you’d like to discuss access needs or adjustments prior to application or interview, please get in touch.
Key Benefits
• 25 days annual leave and all bank holidays, pro rata
• Pension scheme, contributing 6% of salary. Under auto-enrolment, eligibility to join is after three months
• Access to our Employee Assistance Programme
• Flexible and hybrid working available
• Access to training and development opportunities
Responsibilities and Duties
Outreach:
• Engage with local residents in person to let them know about Limborough Hub and encourage their involvement
• Research and find out what local residents want from Limborough Hub, e .g. through surveys, interviews and conversations.
• Attend community events and networks to build relationships with other local organisations, help develop new
partnerships and strengthen existing ones
• Support with the planning of partner meetings
• Assist with the running of workshops (e.g. preparing materials and assisting with the collection of evaluation
feedback, such as quotes and images)
• Distributing flyers to community centres, homes and shops; seeking new places to promote the Hub – including
local newsletters, noticeboards and online
• Attend coffee mornings and other events and activities to maximise outreach opportunities with groups that
meet regularly on site
• Identify areas for improvement in outreach and other avenues for promoting Limborough Hub
Communications and marketing:
• Create short videos / vox pops – collecting stories from the heart of the community
• Raise Limborough’s online presence via social media and Wen’s website, including through written blog posts
• Help with the creation of workshop materials and resources
• Keep noticeboards up to date with upcoming events and activities
• Document events and activities through photos, videos and other creative methods
• Work with the Wen’s Communications Manager to create engaging flyers and other materials to promote Limborough Hub locally and across Tower Hamlets
Administration:
• Help to keep Limborough Hub’s calendar of events up to date
• Ensure that our email inbox is checked regularly, and respond to enquiries through emails and phone calls
• Help to ensure that documents and records are organised and stored in compliance with GDPR (data protection
legislation), including evaluation feedback and survey data
• Explore and help create different evaluation tools that could be used for gathering information and learning –e.g
creative and participatory methods, as well as feedback forms or surveys
• Help to create an internal database of workshop facilitators, resources and services
Other tasks
• As a participatory organisation, staff are invited to take part in organisational decision-making processes and
working groups.
• You may be required to undertake other tasks relevant to the role or the wider organisation.
Person Specification
Essential Experience and Knowledge
• An enthusiastic communicator and networker with the ability to build strong relationships and nurture partnerships
• A good command of English and Sylheti languages (spoken)
• Excellent communication, planning, time management and organisational skills
• A passion and commitment for building positive, inclusive cultures and communities
• Previous experience in a community or public facing role
• A good eye for design in creating promotional material
• Basic photography and video-making skills
• Ability to tailor communication to a range of audiences
• Working knowledge/experience of using social media: Twitter, Facebook and Instagram
• Solid IT skills, including the Microsoft Office suite (Word, Outlook, Powerpoint, Excel)
• Good understanding and knowledge of Tower Hamlets (e.g. you live or work in the borough)
• Flexible and adaptable to the needs of the role and organisation
Desirable
• Sylheti (written as well as spoken)
• Previous experience in a community building role
• Awareness of local community services
• An interest in gardening and cooking
• Video editing skills
• Experience working with women’s groups
• Experience working in the charity sector
About the recruitment process
To apply for this role please fill in the application form and the equal opportunities form (on our website). We will be marking your application based on how you fulfil the person specification. Please ensure your statement answers the points on the person specification. You may want to use the points as subheadings in your response. You should prioritize covering the points in the person specification thoroughly above the ‘flow’ of your writing.
Let us know if there’s any reasonable adjustments, you’d like us to make in the application and interview process in view of a disability or health issue. If you have any questions about the role or the application process, please email
jobs@wen.org.uk
We are happy to talk over the role with you in more detail, and having questions now will not
count against you in the interview.
About Organisation
About Wen
Wen works both in East London and nationally to support women and their communities to take environmental
action. We work across a wide range of environmental issues, including building resilient and sustainable local food
systems, food growing, nature based wellbeing sessions in women’s refuges, our Environmenstrual campaign and
our work on a UK Feminist Green New Deal.
Wen strives to take an inclusive and intersectional approach to everything we do, and are actively trying to improve
this through our participatory leadership model, the types of projects and campaigns we choose to work on and
movement building.
• We are online: www.wen.org.uk
• Instagram: @Wen_UK
• Twitter: @Wen_UK
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/WEN.UK1988