Specialist/Expert Volunteer (RSPB Youth Group Social Media Volunteer)
Why We Want You
At the RSPB we are passionate about young people and about nature. We run a variety of projects to help deepen people’s love of nature and connect, inspire and mobilise more people to save nature.
We are looking for enthusiastic volunteers with specialist skills to support the RSPB’s Education, Families and Youth team to develop our work with children and young people through our RSPB Youth Groups (known as Wildlife Explorers and Phoenix groups). This is a home-based role which can be flexible around your existing commitments. We are looking for someone who is able to volunteer for around 3-4 hours per week.
What you will be doing
As RSPB Youth Group Social Media Volunteer, you will help to enable RSPB Youth Groups to proactively promote their events and activities to increase the reach the groups have and encourage more children and young people to join in, as well as helping them to attract new volunteers to help run their groups. You will:
• Lead on the development and ongoing sustainable management of our Facebook social media account to promote our Youth Groups and engage families of young people aged 8 to 13 years. This will include regularly creating and posting engaging content that is also suitable for groups to repost on their own pages.
• Undertake research and providing recommendations e.g. by reviewing the ways Youth Groups currently promote their activities via social media and making recommendations for how to improve this, for example through training and upskilling opportunities.
• Monitor and record work on spreadsheets or internal databases
• Provide consultancy in social media and online promotions
• Support with delivering training and creating guidance to upskill and develop teams in this area.
The skills you need
We are looking for someone with the following essential experience and skills:
• Experience of promoting ideas, events or activities online and using a range of social media platforms particularly Facebook.
• Confidence to use your knowledge to create guidance/information and support with training to upskill others.
• Self-motivated and able to show initiative.
• Good organisational skills.
• Excellent communication skills for engaging with different audiences, internal and external to the RSPB.
• IT skills, creating documents, managing spreadsheets especially Microsoft Office applications.
In order to undertake this role, you would also need to have access to the internet. IT equipment can be provided if needed.
It would also be desirable (but not essential) for you to have:
• An understanding of the importance of promoting outdoor activities and events aimed at families, children and young people in a safe way.
• An appreciation of the importance of using the RSPB brand in our online promotions.
Don’t worry if you don’t have the desirable skills at the moment, we are here to help to support you to build your skills and experience as part of your ongoing development in this role.
What’s In It For You
This role offers an exciting opportunity to make use of your skills and experience to inspire young people about nature and wildlife and make a genuine contribution to nature conservation.
You will be part of RSPB’s Education, Families and Youth team and you will be supported in your role by a member of that team. An induction will be provided as well as relevant training, and we will offer ongoing support to enable you to further develop the skills you need for this role.
You will learn all about how the RSPB works and gain experience working for an environmental charity. We like to think we're a friendly and welcoming team, so you'll have the opportunity to make new friends too through meeting virtually with staff and volunteers.
Other information
We'd provide you with ongoing support in your role and reimburse any out-of-pocket travel expenses incurred whilst you're volunteering.
The RSPB speaks out for birds and wildlife, tackling the problems that threaten our environment. We rely upon memberships and donations to fund our work. By volunteering your time and skills, you could make a real difference to the work of the RSPB. Nature is amazing - help us keep it that way.
Please note we are also advertising for a Youth Group Website Volunteer – we would be happy for both roles to be undertaken by the same person if they had the skills and time. See https://volunteer.rspb.org.uk/opportunities/84541-specialist-expert-volunteer-rspb-youth-group-website-volunteer-2025-02-28 for more information.