Description
Bexley Council, in partnership with The Friends of Lesnes Abbey and Woods (FOLAW), has secured funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF) to mark the 500th anniversary of the dissolution of Lesnes Abbey. Lesnes 500 is a 2-year programme of events, activities and small capital programme.
Bringing your experience of externally funded community participation programmes, formal and informal learning, working with volunteers, event delivery and working in partnerships, your focus will be to ensure the successful and high-quality delivery of the project's activities. You will work closely with diverse local communities surrounding the park and the London Borough of Bexley to deliver the various strands of the project.
Lesnes 500 is a partnership project involving current key partners at Lesnes Abbey Woods who will deliver different elements of the programme. They are: -
- Friends of Lesnes Abbey & Woods (creation of a Woodland Festival and exhibition)
- North West Kent Countryside Partnership (development of an early years and community engagement programme)
- Creative Nature HQ & Forest Club (expansion of their volunteer programme and promotion of woodland heritage crafts)
- Ruined Theatre (commissioning a new play focusing on the history of the abbey that will be performed to schools and public performance)
- DigVentures (community archaeological dig)
The Project Manager will oversee the whole programme, and will be responsible for:-
- Overseeing partnerships and commissioned elements of the programme
- Marketing the programme, liaising with partners and Bexley Communications Team
- Chairing Lesnes 500 Steering Group comprising of a representative from each Partnership project
- Managing the Evaluation Strategy and budgets including reporting to National Lottery Heritage Fund
- Ensuring each element of the programme meet Health and Safety requirements
- Ensure that the grant funding is used in accordance with funding guidelines.
We are looking for a project manager who has experience of:-
- Delivering National Lottery Funded or equivalent grant funded programmes
- Working with a range of partners and managing partnership agreements
- Event and programme management
- Financial management
- Working with volunteers
- Marketing across different social media platforms, writing copy for web content and communications, liaising with graphic design teams to create promotional material
- Evaluating projects and creating evaluation strategies
Including:-
- The ability to manage workloads and competing priorities in an often deadline orientated environment
- The ability to think creatively, problem-solve and work on own initiative with minimal supervision
- Excellent communication, presentation and negotiating skills, both written and verbal. The ability to communicate with a wide variety of groups both internally and externally
The Lesnes 500 Project Manager will be responsible for :-
- Co-ordination and delivery of Lesnes 500 activities as outlined in the bid.
- Overseeing and co-ordinating all Lesnes 500 marketing, publicity and communications.
- Lesnes 500 management, structures and systems.
- Overseeing the Lesnes 500 Evaluation Consultants who will deliver the evaluation strategy. Ensuring that the project is properly monitored and evaluated.
- The Lesnes 500 budget, ensuring it is well managed, and assisting partners with paperwork as required. Liaising National Lottery Heritage Fund as required and submitting progress and financial reports to drawdown funding.
- Health & safety for the Activity Plan participants and visitors.
For the full list of essential and desirable criteria for this role then please download and refer to the Person Specification within the Job Description