Covering the central communities of Somerset and incorporating the Climate Adaptation Project

Job Description – Key Responsibilities and Tasks

The post will be focused on work across the central part of Somerset, supporting communities across this area to take meaningful action for nature. The post will work with the wider engagement team and climate adaptation project team to deliver the ‘Act to Adapt’ process across Somerset to support communities and to develop plans to adapt their local areas to the impacts of climate change.

 Responsibility 1: Delivery of ‘Act to Adapt’ community engagement (12-month funded project) by

• Working closely with the Climate Change Adaptation Officer and wider project team, to develop and deliver a programme of online and in-person communications, meetings and workshops.
• Supervising Climate Adaptation volunteers in person and online.
• Developing information for diverse audiences with a variety of knowledge baselines, including people already living with the impacts of climate change, regarding the role of nature in reducing the impacts of climate change, including sea-level rise; predicted changes in land use; warming, etc. and to help people understand what the future may bring especially in Somerset’s more vulnerable nature habitats.
• Supporting people’s wider understanding of the role of nature to mitigate climate change through carbon sequestration and storage.
• Continuing the rollout of the Act to Adapt process in local communities, organising events and workshops and using the Climate Adaptation Toolkit to explain the process of developing community and nature based solutions to the big issues of climate change.
• Supporting communities to identify and implement adaptation actions from their Climate Adaptation Plans, including deploying seed funding (£1,000 per community) for nature-based solutions such as rain gardens, tree planting, and 'slow the flow' measures.
• Developing an Enhanced Climate Adaptation Toolkit (Version 2) enabling communities to develop adaptation plans with minimal external support, including flood-focused guidance and step-by-step planning templates. 

Responsibility 2: Community action for nature by

•  Building on the ‘Act to Adapt’ process to engage with new and existing individuals, community leaders and community groups across Central Somerset to develop working relationships that seek to take positive action for nature in their local areas by identifying opportunities and developing action plans.
• Understanding barriers and motivations to taking action for priority audiences and work with priority audiences on how to remove these barriers.
• Being a visible and approachable presence within the work area. Be clear on the remit and offer of Somerset Wildlife Trust and how you can “add value” to the projects you engage with.
• Supporting communities to scope, develop and facilitate action plans and deliver self-sustaining community-led practical local wilding actions, creating new local wilder spaces, and other nature recovery interventions, building the ‘Act to Adapt’ process into your toolkit of resources to support this.
• Identifying any training and development needs and delivering training and resources to support targeted communities to deliver their plans.
• Developing and building on positive relationships with other organisations who are delivering community engagement activity in the area, including environmental NGOs, Local Authorities, and voluntary sector infrastructure bodies at the appropriate level.
• Supporting under-represented and disconnected groups within their local communities, working with them to enhance community cohesion and collaborative working.
• Using your specialist knowledge, work with community leaders and volunteers supporting us to deliver Team Wilder, to link them to our target communities and support the delivery of agreed actions.
• Championing the Team Wilder approach to create a movement for nature, sharing skills, experience, knowledge and learning about community organising and behaviour change science within Somerset Wildlife Trust, throughout the Wildlife Trusts movement, and with other organisations working in Somerset.
• Working with other team members to ensure community enquiries are filtered through our established channels and act as a point of contact for enquiries from the Central Somerset region.

Responsibility 3: Project Impact and reporting by

• Completing ongoing monitoring, reporting and evaluation of progress, recording activities and engagement using internal reporting procedures.
• Digitally literate and competent using various digital platforms to maintain records, communications and cross-team working, including SharePoint, Mailchimp, Facebook, Eventbrite and Microsoft teams.
• Use journaling and reflective practice methods to measure and report against organisational impact measures on a quarterly basis.
• Working with our communications team, develop and implement a communications plan that raises awareness of the ‘Act to Adapt’ project and its impact
• Representing SWT externally in meetings, in the media and by giving presentations to various audiences
• Assisting the Climate Change Adaptation Officer in sharing information and project developments with project partners in the UK
• Proactively providing content for external communications to highlight our work, Team Wilder and the communities you work with. Promote both local and national campaigns through community networks, liaising with communications contacts to maximise their reach and impact.
• Completing external funding reporting and being mindful of any funding acknowledgement online, in comms and in all activities.
• Keeping effective records to evidence where there are gaps and needs within the community that can form the basis of future funding applications.
• Helping to ensure Team Wilder is representative of our communities and proactively looks to engage across diverse groups of people and is fully inclusive, helping us to deliver our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan.