Community Volunteer (Community Conservation Ambassador)

Nature faces many challenges. The RSPB works hard to save nature but is keen to involve many more people and help build a movement to do even more. We have conservation staff providing high quality advice to land managers and working hard to save nature across the country. However, we are regularly approached by individuals and organisations asking for advice at a much more local level which we would like to support by offering a friendly face to help navigate through the range of advice we currently publish.

The sorts of queries we receive include: • What can I do for nature where I live? • We have an area of land, we’d love to turn into a nature reserve • How do I protect the local trees and hedgerows? • Who do I contact to save my local road verges?

If you are passionate about helping nature and helping others save nature, then we’d love to hear from you! (We are trialling this role now, with a view to rolling out a network of similar roles across England later in 2022).

Key Tasks • Answer queries from communities/individuals about protecting their local area. • Answer queries from the communities/individuals around conservation measures. • Answer queries from the communities/individuals about how to liaise with and influence their local authority. • Help navigate RSPB information. Provide a bespoke service, providing specific information, printed materials, verbally. • Liaise with RSPB specialists to develop framework of community queries and solutions.

We’re looking for someone with:

• Good ecological knowledge
• Strong organisational skills
• A great networker and communicator for engaging with different audiences, internal and external to the RSPB.
• A passion for enhancing gardens, greenspace, understanding what nature needs
• Ability to enthuse, support and empowering others to save their nature
• IT skills, creating documents, managing spreadsheets, submitting records.
• Ability to work independently, or possibly in a small team.

From regular enquiries, we know there is a real need for a role which provides conservation advice for individuals and groups about how they can enhance or protect their local area.

You will be at the forefront of this new community-based RSPB pilot, have access to RSPB training materials, have the opportunity to identify community needs and help develop new materials and have the opportunity to work with a range of internal specialists.

This role, (hopefully the first in a network of roles), will allow us to be more helpful to more people, and save even more nature!

This role can be based anywhere in England and can be done from home.