Closing date: 5pm on Tuesday 29 March 2022.

Are you experienced in organising or delivering training, or coordinating the work of volunteers? We’re looking for someone with the skills and expertise to grow our network of community climate champions across Cumbria, and give them the support they need to increase awareness and understanding about climate change in their communities.

You’ll recruit and train new champions, and create materials for all our champions to use in the events and activities they organise in their communities. Our ideal candidate is someone who thrives on helping others to succeed. You’ll empower our champions and help them build the confidence and skills they need to influence people in their communities to take action on climate change.

This is an outstanding opportunity to make a real difference to climate action in Cumbria, spreading awareness and knowledge of climate science and solutions, and inspiring and motivating people to act. When you join Cumbria Action for Sustainability, you’ll be part of an organisation that’s been helping Cumbrians to live more sustainability for more than 20 years. We’re a friendly and dedicated team of almost 30 staff, most of us part time, offering a supportive and flexible working environment with lots of great benefits.

Application & Interview Process

Please apply by completing the application form below. Please do not send a CV. Guidance for submitting your application is included in the form.

CAfS Application Form

Closing date for return of applications is 5pm on 29 March 2022.

Interviews will be held via Zoom on Thursday 21 April 2022.

Job description

If you prefer to download the job description and person specification, please use the link below:

Community Climate Champions Coordinator – Job Description

BENEFITS: CAfS offers an excellent working environment, with benefits ranging from flexible working to a pension contribution. Find out more about the benefits of working at CAfS >

THE EMPLOYER:  Cumbria Action for Sustainability (CAfS) 

LOCATION: Contractually based at our office, Rural Eden Foyer, Old London Road, Penrith, CA11 8ET. Home working may be possible with manager’s agreement.  

REPORTS TO:  Climate and Carbon Literacy Training Manager 

HOURS:  15 hrs per week. An additional 7.5 hours per week may also be available for the role holder to act as a training deliverer – details of this can be found below and can be discussed at interview. Hours can be worked flexibly across the week. 

SALARY RANGE:  £21,000 – £24,000 per annum FTE, (equivalent to £8,400-£9,600 at 15 hours/week, or £12,600-£14,400 at 22.5 hours/week.) 

DURATION:  Fixed-term contract, starting May 2022 or sooner, to end February 2023 (with potential to extend or opportunity for extra hours subject to additional funding). 

APPLICATIONS BY: 5pm on Tuesday 29 March 2022. Please apply using the application form. CVs will not be considered. Interviews will be held via Zoom on Thursday 21 April 2022. 

ABOUT CAfS:

Our vision is a zero carbon Cumbria which is socially, environmentally, and economically beneficial for all. 

Our mission is to promote and facilitate low carbon living and its benefits – inspiring and supporting individuals, communities and organisations across Cumbria and beyond to take action to decarbonise lives, communities and businesses by 2037 or sooner. We do this through events, advice, training and practical projects across the county as well as providing specialist consultancy services. We share our knowledge, skills and practical experience as widely as possible.  

CAfS is an award-winning charity with a team of 28 highly skilled staff, working with a pool of specialist contractors and volunteers to deliver around 20 major, transformational low-carbon projects each year. Now in our 24th year, CAfS is the first point of reference in the county for information on sustainability and low-carbon living. 

BACKGROUND TO THE COMMUNITY CLIMATE CHAMPIONS PROJECT  

Over the past year, CAfS has set up and supported a network of people across Cumbria to raise awareness about climate change in their communities. We did this in response to demand from people, already embedded in their communities, who wanted to communicate more effectively about climate change to their existing networks.  

We recruited and trained around 20 of these community climate champions, giving them the confidence to communicate about climate change among their own networks, so that they can help people in their communities to play their part in the journey to a zero carbon Cumbria. 

Overall through this project, we’re aiming to build a collaborative network of community climate champions, increase their confidence and feelings of empowerment, and support them to increase the knowledge of the people they go on to communicate with.  

It’s been a very successful start, with champions running activities in their communities – from coffee mornings to talks for local groups. We want to build on this by recruiting and training another group of 20 champions in 2022. Our goal is for our new and existing champions to run or speak at a wide range of free events on climate science and solutions across Cumbria, engaging 700-1000 people over 10 months. 

This post will sit within our existing climate training team, who run a comprehensive, professional climate training programme across Cumbria. 

The focus will be on engaging Cumbrians who are harder to reach or whose voices are less heard – people who are concerned about climate change but who are not already connected with organisations or a supportive climate network. We particularly want to reach people from previously underrepresented communities in terms of income, areas of multiple deprivation, disability and ethnicity. We wish to increase this representation across both the champion group and those they reach. 

MAIN PURPOSE OF ROLE: 

The Community Climate Champions Coordinator will take overall responsibility for continuing CAfS’ Community Climate Champions project. Specifically, they will: 

  • Recruit and train 20 new community climate champions and coordinate and support them, and our existing 17 champions, to deliver training, events and/or discussions to groups within a diverse range of communities; 
  • Support our existing champions to share their learning with the new cohort of volunteers; 
  • Develop a training package of information and interactive exercises for champions to use; 
  • Support the champions to communicate with the people they want to influence in their communities, including businesses, councils, churches and other organisations; 
  • Ensure that all champions receive an induction, a full day of training as a group, one-to-one support, opportunities for additional training and learning, and opportunities to socialise and support each other. 

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES AND TASKS :

Community climate champions coordination and support 

  • Support the training, events and/or presentations (these may be virtual due to covid considerations) which are delivered by community climate champions to ensure that 700 – 1000 people are engaged within nine months (May 2022 to January 2023) 
  • Recruit and induct 20 new community climate champions 
  • Support the existing 17 community climate champions 
  • Develop clear offer for community climate champions regarding CAfS’ expectations of them and what they can expect from CAS 
  • Ensure all community climate champions attend full day accredited carbon literacy training. Ideally this would be delivered by the coordinator. 
  • Ensure all climate champions are aware of requirements around safeguarding, GDPR and insurance 
  • Coordinate 3 or 4 focused one-hour training sessions for community climate champions to meet any support needs they identify 
  • Direct community climate champions to further opportunities for learning and development 
  • Coordinate opportunities for community climate champions to socialise and support each other. 
  • Ensure that community climate champions represent and engage with a diverse range of groups, reflective of Cumbria’s population and that they actively promote to underrepresented groups 
  • Manage enquiries about training courses or events and direct to community climate champions or the Climate and Carbon Literacy Training Manager, as appropriate. 
  • Develop a basic slide-set and script for use by community climate champions, if they wish to use it 
  • Mentor and support community climate champions at the first session they deliver, if needed 
  • Update and improve materials as needed 
  • Support community climate champions with answers to queries 
  • Administer community climate champion expenses claims, pay for room bookings, refreshments as required, where within the project budget 

Project Management 

  • Adapt and work to project Gannt chart 
  • Manage project budget 
  • Improve and apply the existing monitoring and evaluation approach 
  • Ensure that community climate champions complete all required monitoring and evaluation 
  • Liaise with and report to funder 

General 

  • Provide updates for CAfS Climate and Carbon Literacy Training Manager as required 
  • To be a channel for information to individuals on wider CAfS projects. 
  • To contribute news articles, web content and other information about the project to the CAfS Marketing Team for publicity and CAfS profile raising. 
  • Take part in staff and team meetings and training sessions. 
  • To carry out other tasks as required from time to time. 
  • Every opportunity should be taken to ensure this work is integrated into the other work that CAfS delivers so that benefits are maximised. 

Potential 7.5 additional hours per week as a CAfS Climate Trainer 

  • Deliver professional, accredited Climate and Carbon Literacy training sessions to a range of audiences and organisations across the county, both face-to-face and online. 
  • Support the Climate and Carbon Literacy Training Manager with other tasks as requested. 

Person Specification

Essential skills and attributes: 

  • Good knowledge of climate science, sustainable living and low carbon solutions.  
  • Experience of volunteer coordination and support 
  • Highly organised with experience of planning, scheduling and delivering projects and events 
  • Ability to host and attend events and speak confidently in front of small groups, both online and in person 
  • Experience of developing and delivering training sessions or presentations  
  • Ability to work flexibly including evening and weekend working 
  • Highly motivated and independent worker requiring minimal supervision 
  • Ability to work cooperatively as part of a small team 

Desirable skills and attributes  

The following attributes are desirable but not essential: 

  • Experience of managing grant-funded projects 
  • Experience of holding meetings, events or delivering training remotely using Zoom, MS Teams or other means 
  • Train-the-trainer experience 
  • Knowledge of, and contacts across Cumbria’s network of sustainability groups 
  • Experience of managing budgets 
  • Good knowledge of Cumbrian geography and the ability to travel independently throughout rural Cumbria. 
  • Certified Carbon Literate. 
  • Knowledge of safeguarding, GDPR and copyright. 

If you would like more information about the role, please email [email protected] 

This project is part-funded by the National Lottery’s Climate Action Fund as part of the Zero Carbon Cumbria project and part-funded by The Emergence Foundation. 

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