Volunteering & Community Officer

Our careers are as varied as the places we care for and that’s why we look for people from all backgrounds, with a variety of skills and abilities to help us maintain our places ‘for everyone, for ever’.

As our Volunteering & Community Officer, you will ultimately be the voice of our volunteers and our local community. You will be equally responsible for creating a consistent and quality volunteer experience across our portfolio and working closely with our local communities and partners as a champion for our ambition to ensure everyone feels welcome to our places. You will collaborate with partners to help create opportunities that are attractive and accessible to different audiences.

This role is a fixed term 12 month, maternity cover contract.

What it's like to work here:The Hinton Portfolio comprises of Hinton Ampner, Uppark House and Garden, Winchester City Mill and Ludshott and Selborne Commons. The portfolio is large and varied, covering the Western part of the South Downs National Park. In it we have 2 pay for entry sites with glorious mansions, priceless collections and stunning gardens; 1 city centre water mill which is free entry for everyone, still milling flour that we use in our café and sell to our visitors; and several pockets of beautiful countryside providing access to nature for everyone.

No two days are the same in this portfolio. Not only will you be working at different sites most days, but you will also be helping to ensure our programme of experiences and events are adapted and delivered to our diverse audiences through excellent volunteering and in collaboration with our local communities.

What you'll be doing:Day to day, you’ll find yourself with two hats. You’ll be leading our Volunteer Development & Support team across the portfolio with the aim of having a large and efficient family of volunteers in the right, mutually beneficial roles. We want our volunteers to feel engaged and invested in because of the work you’ll be doing. You’ll be working on everything from general system queries and volunteer recruitment to delivering inductions and creating training plans.

The other hat will be working alongside our Senior Programming & Partnerships Officer maintaining and growing our strong pool of local stakeholders who help us to ensure our places are attractive and accessible to everyone. This could be anything from working closely with local universities on a market research project that will ultimately help us improve our visitor offer for diverse audiences at Winchester City Mill to thinking of new ways of involving our local community in different projects, such as tree planting at Hinton Ampner or Christmas at Uppark. The possibilities and opportunities are endless and you’ll be full of exciting ideas to get everyone involved.

The role sits within the spirited Visitor Operations & Experiences Team which lead for the entire visitor journey, all the way from marketing through to the programme of events we offer whilst our visitors are on site and finally their feedback from the visitor survey and how we grow and learn from that. Our volunteers and local communities are a vital part of the history of our property and the experience our visitors have when on site, and you’ll be a key part of ensuring it works cohesively with our narrative.

Who we're looking forWe'd love to hear from you, if this sounds like you;
- A sound understanding of volunteering and be enthusiastic about promoting the benefits of great volunteer involvement and opportunities
- Enthusiastic about working with volunteers and understand the differences between staff and volunteers, particularly the legal frameworks
- Customer services and communication skills
- A flexible approach and be a great team player, be able to lead on and work with other people's agendas towards a common purpose
- Well organised and attentive to detail
- A sound working knowledge of volunteering principles and practice
- IT skills (Microsoft Office)
- Knowledge and experience of budget management

The packageThe National Trust has the motto ‘For everyone, for ever’ at its heart. We’re working hard to create an inclusive culture, where everyone feels they belong. It’s important that our people reflect and represent the diversity of the communities and audiences we serve. We welcome and value difference, so when we say we’re for everyone, we want everyone to be welcome in our teams too.
- Flexible working whenever possible
- Free parking at most locations
- Free entry to our properties for you, a guest and your children (under 18)
- Substantial pension scheme of up to 10% basic salary

Requirements :Compliance.Eligibility to Work in the UK