Volunteer Coordinator

**VOLUNTEER COORDINATOR POSITION**

**8HRS PER WEEK (WEEKEND DAYS) £15 to 20PH (dependent on skills and experience)**
**FIXED TERM CONTRACT: START DATE: ASAP END DATE: 31ST MARCH 2024**

Project area:10.3Ha

Seaswept Farm is a small regenerative farm in West Cornwall that blends the disciplines of farming, integrative medicine and psychology into a sustainable, multi-faceted and community-focused business.

**We are focused on**:
1. Connecting people of all ages and from diverse backgrounds with the natural environment, supporting the development of an interest in conservation, farming and wildlife.
2. Provision of therapeutic services and activities that promote and enhance physical and mental health
3. Treatment of mental illness
4. Promoting and enhancing the biodiversity and wildlife on the farm
5. Regenerating the soil, preventing soil erosion and reducing surface water run-off into Mousehole
6. Creation of a sustainable, regenerative farm and a local source of healthy food and farm produce.

**Objective of Volunteer Coordinator Role**:
We are aiming for an established team of 10-15 volunteers to work on the farm and in the associated activities (e.g.PR, website maintenance). The Volunteer Coordinator would be responsible for recruiting volunteers, developing the volunteer opportunities and training voluntary successors for the coordinator position.

**Volunteer and volunteer coordinator tasks include**:

- Recruitment and support of volunteers, ensuring their welfare and safety whilst volunteering with Seaswept Farm
- Establishing and maintaining market garden and medicinal gardens
- Use of the two-wheeled tractor to mow, bale and remove grass around the trees across the farm
- Linking the volunteers with their community - e.g. by selling farm produce and showing people around the farm
- Creating carbon sequestering systems and regenerative techniques that improve the organic matter in the soil
- Establishing a large farm-scale composting system-cut grass from the low-density wooded pastures will feed into this
- Hügelkultur beds (also used to provide shelter and microclimates for delicate crops)
- No-dig market garden/medicinal crop beds
- Green manures
- Organic mulching of new hedgerows and trees
- Managing the grassland in the low-density wooded fields
- Growing medicinal and market garden crops that benefit from high nutrient content
- Oversee the volunteer team sensitively managing a range of habitats and recording the predicted increase in biodiversity
- Rotovating and sowing green manures around the young trees
- Providing school tours of the farm, night-time badger and fox watching trips and nature walks
- Managing our social media and wildlife camera live streams
- Oversee the volunteer team creating content for the website and linking it with the QR codes
- Training of volunteers in leadership skills - how to run and support a volunteer team.

The volunteer opportunities will provide training and experience in a wide range of areas, from tree care and market gardening, through to clinical internships (starting in 2024) designed to prepare graduates to compete for places in competitive clinical training programmes (such as Medicine and Clinical Psychology).

At the end of the contract period the proposal is to wind down the Volunteer Coordinator position and hand over of leadership responsibilities to trained volunteers.

**Skills required**:
The successful contractor will have to demonstrate experience in the recruitment, management, support and training of diverse groups of volunteers. The contractor will need to have strong communication skills for engaging with the public and nurturing volunteers.

**The contractor will also need to have experience in at least one of**:

- Management of land for nature conservation
- Establishment and management of beds for growing food and medicinal herbs
- Estate management and maintenance.

They will need to be pro-active and work on Seaswept Farm without direct supervision and be able to communicate with the site owners via direct meetings, and remote meetings via Zoom. They will need to follow a pre-agreed work programme and record their activities for monitoring and planning purposes.

**The following qualifications and knowledge would be desirable**:

- First Aid at Work / Outdoor First Aid
- Operation of a pedestrian operated mower
- Preparing and delivering risk assessments
- Wildlife identification and monitoring
- IT literacy - uploading information and media to websites and social media
- Foraging, bushcraft and Forest School activities
- Medicinal uses of plants
- Composting
- Tree planting and aftercare
- Countryside furniture construction (compost bins, raised beds, benches etc.).

The role would require contractors to undertake or provide evidence of a recent DBS check. All the tools and equipment required will be provided.

The activities would be covered under insurance provided by Seaswept Farm.

**Job Types**: Part-time, Fixed term