Project Officer - Social Circus

The Project Officer - Social Circus will work closely with the Youth Circus Director and the wider team to lead on the development of a framework for social circus delivery, evaluation and training, a first for Belfast Community Circus School. A key aspect of this role will be to ensure the framework supports delivery of BCCS’s recently redefined vision, mission and purpose which is being finalised at the moment.

The purpose of this role is to:

• build strong relationships that improve the effectiveness of our social circus programmes.
• design and introduce a planning, delivery and evaluation framework.
• use the framework as the basis from which to develop and grow BCCS’s social circus programme, including the developing the skills and confidence of our trainer team.

This new role will require you to take sole responsibility for discreet areas of work as well as working brilliantly as part of a team.

This role will be critical in helping BCCS to support the most vulnerable young people to succeed, thrive and benefit from the power of circus and street theatre.

Key Facts

• Reports to: Youth Circus Director (YCD).
• Hours per week: 25 hours per week, initially. (See note below.)   
• Salary: Up to £28k full time (40hrs p/w) – Pro-rata for part-time appointments.
• Holidays: 25 days plus Public Holidays full time (40hrs p/w) Pro-rata for part-time appointments.
• Contract Term: 12 months fixed term. (See note below.)
• Renewal: This may be renewed if additional funding is secured. 
• To apply: Submit your CV and up to two pages explaining your suitability for the role to [email protected] by 15:00hrs on the 13th January 2021. Thank you.

A note on how this post is funded and plans for the future

We are advertising this role now for two reasons:

• We believe the Coronavirus pandemic has made this work more important than ever.
• We have secured funding from the Halifax Foundation and Belfast City Council to pilot it for three months.

We are advertising it for a year as we are confident that we can build on our existing work and relationships to cover the salary costs for at least 12 months. We have applied for additional funding to part-fund the programme/post longer term, but we will not know the outcome of these applications until March 2021.

In the future, we hope for this role to become an important part of our permanent team, but cannot confirm that at this stage. An important part of this role is building strong relationships with other organisations. These relationships will be critical in supporting the costs of the role and programme and will combine to improve outcomes for children and young people across Northern Ireland.

Key responsibilities

• Social Circus Framework and associated training:
  • The design, delivery and evaluation of a high-quality framework for BCCS’s social circus work.
  • To lead on the delivery and evaluation of all associated training.
• Relationship building: To develop strong partnerships with a wide range of organisations that work with young people, including those with specialist support needs.
• Income generation, budget and programme/project management:
  • To oversee, manage and coordinate a range of on-going and ad-hoc social circus programmes across Northern Ireland, where possible using these to test the framework.
  • To generate income to support the salary for this role and BCCS’s social circus programme as a whole.
• Safeguarding and welfare: To act as a Designated Safeguarding Officer (DSO) for the organisation.
• Monitoring and evaluation: To ensure all social circus programmes are of high quality and monitored and evaluated effectively, in line with the new social circus frameworks, organisation’s new vision and the related Theory of Change.

Detailed description of duties and deliverables

Social circus framework

• Develop, pilot and refine a Theory of Change for this area of work.
• Map existing social circus provision by both BCCS and other organisations across the UK and internationally.
• Complete a literature review and ensure continual review of trends, changes and developments across all sectors working to improve outcomes for vulnerable young people.
• Develop, deliver, evaluate and refine a social circus framework through which BCCS can plan, deliver and evaluate the impact of work in this area.
• Ensure all social circus programmes are designed, delivered and evaluated to a high standard and in line with the framework.
• Take responsibility for ensuring all programmes are on track to meet the stated aims and objectives.
• Ensure the needs of all children/young people are at the centre of our approach and that our tutors have the skills/support needed to meet the needs of participants, where necessary identify training needs and ensure these are met through BCCS/other training sessions.
• Design, pilot and refine a training course specifically for tutors working to deliver social circus to vulnerable young people.
• Ensure the framework includes, but is not limited to, guidance on: 
  • briefing project leaders.
  • facilitating meetings with client groups/partner organisations.
  • receiving feedback from project leaders throughout the programme and ensuring appropriate evaluation and follow up.
  • ensuring high quality support is in place for all tutors/partner organisations,
  • ensuring a high quality approach to sharing systems, processes and learning across all social circus programmes and BCCS’s wider work. 
• Capture learning, evidence and insight. Develop this into a findings report and share locally, nationally and internationally.

Relationship building

• To identify new partners for the social circus programme as a whole and to develop these relationships into mutually beneficial partnerships that bring income into BCCS and improved outcomes for the participants/organisations. 
• Work with new and existing partners to ensure high quality monitoring and evaluation, that meets the funders’ needs as well as BCCS’s needs.

Income generation and budget and project management

• Work with other members of the team to identify sources of income to support the development/delivery of the existing social circus programme and new areas of work.  
• Work with others to make applications for funding, respond to tenders and/or develop packages that generate income for BCCS. 
• Work with the YCD, Chief Executive (CEO) and other team members to develop, execute and review an income strategy for BCCS’s social circus work. 
• Work with others to monitor and manage the finances/budget/income and expenditure related to all social circus programmes.

Safeguarding and welfare

• In conjunction with the YCD, provide support to young people involved in BCCS’s social circus programmes to ensure their welfare and personal progression needs are met.
• Act as Designated Safeguarding Officer for BCCS as a whole and a specialist for the social circus programmes.  
• Ensure tutors working on the social circus programmes comply fully with all BCCS systems, policies and procedures and processing annual PECs checks etc.

Systems, processes, monitoring and evaluation

• Support the process of monitoring and evaluating current programmes on behalf of BCCS and its funders – with a focus on capturing accurate data, ‘personal stories’ and wider outcomes and impact reporting. 
• Ensure population of a comprehensive database for funded and planned social circus programmes and identify areas for improving the information kept on the database.  
• Ensure a robust approach to learning from our work is apparent in all that we do. 
• Ensure integrated approach across all social circus programmes, ensuring a solid connection between social circus and other BCCS activities and initiatives. 

Other

• Work with other team members to ensure vehicles are well-maintained and other transport solutions identified, when needed.
• Represent BCCS at internal and external meetings, events and conferences.
• Any other duties as required. 

Person specification

The successful candidate will be someone with considerable experience of building strong and deep relationships with individuals and organisations and working with young people from a variety of communities and backgrounds, including those with additional needs and disabilities.

You will be a highly motivated person who thinks logically and clearly. Focused on outcomes and impact, you will understand the importance of meeting young people and partners where they are and starting your planning with where you want to end up and working back from there.

Below summarises some of the primary skills, experience and knowledge we are looking for the post holder to have.

Essential skills and strengths

• Exceptional ability to work independently and as part of a team.
• Brilliant at building strong, deep and effective relationships quickly.
• Excellent negotiation and communication skills, both written and oral.
• Persistent and supportive and able to take and give feedback/criticism and direction.
• Brilliant attention to detail, incredible administrator and motivated by deadlines.
• Infectious energy and drive.
• Diplomatic and a great judge of character.
• Proficient in using IT packages such as Microsoft word, excel, office, one-note etc.  

Essential knowledge/experience

• Demonstrable understanding of the impact of arts on personal and community development.
• Direct experience of leading projects during times of change.
• Skilled at taking an idea and turning it into a clear action plan that’s then delivered and evaluated against the original plan.
• 5 years’ experience of working on community projects involving children and young people, including work with vulnerable and excluded young people.
• 2 years’ experience of fundraising / generating income for projects / organisational growth and development. 
• At least 2 years’ experience of managing freelancers, individuals and/or team members.
• 2 years’ experience of developing new strategic partnerships and building on existing partnerships with organisations from the public, private and charitable sectors. 
• 3 years’ experience of both quantitative and qualitative evaluation and impact reporting. 

Essential education/qualifications

• A degree or three years’ experience in youth work, community work or the arts.
• GCSE English and Maths at grade C or above or equivalent. 

Other

• Must possess a current and clean driving license or have access to a mode of transport for the purposes of the post.

Desirable

• Experience of using Theory of Change and Logic Models for project development and planning.