Head of Horticulture

Hands of Hope seeks a Head of Horticulture to manage the Hope Farm Community Garde.

The Head of Horticulture will have overarching and day-to-day responsibility for managing Hands of Hope’s key social, educational, and therapeutic horticulture activities. The role will require an individual with exceptional experience in organic growing & training with knowledge in developing a market garden of scale, productivity, diversity, and beauty whilst adhering to organic methods.

The project(s) we are developing on-site includes the preservation and restoration of the heritage walled garden and glasshouses, two large greenhouses for extended community growing, and several participatory programmes developed around heritage, nutrition, growing and the conservation of the natural environment.

This exciting position would suit an applicant that believes in the power of nature and nutrition to improve people’s physical and mental well-being and who has the drive and desire to create a legacy space linking the past, present, and future for the benefit of all.

We are looking for someone who can work with a wide range of people from all backgrounds. Whilst not essential, knowledge of countryside management is also desirable.

Head of Horticulture Responsibilities will include:

- Management of two productive growing areas and indoor growing spaces
- Successful delivery of our social project Get Growing - teaching people in the region to grow their own food.
- Creation, development & delivery of horticulture-related programme content to various stakeholders, from primary to adult learners.
- Creation, development & delivery of Social Therapeutic Horticulture activities, including the relaunch of Growing Buddies
- Co-management of the new project(s) “Grow, Cook, Share” - Growing Together/Cooking Together and Food for the Future & GCSE “Growing, Cooking, Sustainability and the Environment”
- Identifying opportunities to develop innovative new programmes to complement the existing education landscape both as commercial opportunities and those that match grant funding priorities, particularly Horticulture for secondary school pupils and post-16 learners, tackling the current skills deficit.
- Maintaining effective administrative systems, policies, and procedures to provide an organised and efficient structure for the delivery of programmes.