We are looking for an enthusiastic person to support our cultural placemaking work. This role will be part of Ebbsfleet Development Corporation’s Placemaking Team within the Chief Executive’s Office. Placemaking is a collaborative process through which public spaces and buildings are designed or re-imagined around the needs, aspirations, identities, social and cultural values of the people who use those spaces. Genuine placemaking helps people feel connected to where they live and work, fosters a vibrant and inclusive community and helps promote health, happiness, and wellbeing amongst residents and visitors.

Cultural placemaking is about ensuring that arts, creativity, and culture are at the forefront of creating a great place and a thriving community. At Ebbsfleet our intention is to help people to pursue creative activities and jobs whether through an amateur group, at school, in the park or as professional creative business. We will support this by designing and delivering a suite of high quality community buildings, workspaces, performance, production, outdoor and meanwhile spaces, along with an annual programme of creative events, projects, skills and training opportunities.

The Organisation:

Ebbsfleet Development Corporation (EDC) is sponsored by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities to drive delivery of a 21st Century Garden City in Ebbsfleet, North Kent. The first new Garden City in a hundred years and the first New Town in 50 years, Ebbsfleet is building on the legacy of Ebenezer Howard’s original Garden Cities, and learning from the challenges of existing New Towns, to create a place founded on quality placemaking.

You can read more about the work of EDC and Ebbsfleet Garden City here: https://ebbsfleetdc.org.uk/

The Role

As the Cultural Development Assistant you will work with the EDC’s Cultural Development Manager on exciting projects, events and activities over the course of the year, together with local residents, artists, cultural organisations and local networks.

You will be working on projects such as our Community-led Cultural Programme through Creative Estuary and This Must Be the Place – a creative youth-led placemaking programme with Cement Fields.  You will also be an important part of our Creative Ideas Fund, seeking out potential recipients in the community and administering the fund. You will help plan and facilitate events and actively create and promote social media content about life in the Garden City.

During your time with EDC you will gain real world experience of working on a high profile development and will be supported and encouraged to pitch your own ideas and develop your skills.  You will be fully supported throughout your time with EDC, with access to careers advice, training opportunities and support from EDC’s Skills Coordinator who is leading on a skills and employability programme of upskilling, reskilling and employability skills.

This role is part-funded and supported by Re:Generation 2031, a Creative Estuary project. Creative Estuary has a vision to forge a new future founded on creative energy and innovation, along the length of the Thames Estuary. The Re:Generation 2031 team are here to help if you need support applying for this role such as CV writing or preparing for an interview. Please email regen2031@kent.ac.uk for assistance or guidance.

Key Responsibilities

The role will be varied and include undertaking the following duties:

• Communicating and actively engaging with residents, artists, local groups and young people to develop and support their ideas / projects  / events.
• Developing and organising creative community events.
• Promoting,  administering and monitoring the Creative Ideas Fund and supporting the Community Investment Fund.
• Capturing and producing short case studies of events and projects for EDC website, social media and Board papers.
• Regular social media communications about what’s going on.
• Shadowing / working on a new community-led cultural programme.
• Shadowing / working on a young person-led creative placemaking programme with Cement Fields.
• Attending Placemaking Team meetings, taking notes.
• Helping to start regular a meet up for people interested in cultural and creative events and projects.
• Helping to organise the next Garden City film.
• Creating and administrating a database of creative organisations in the local area.
• Other tasks as necessary.

Person Specification

The following person specification is a guide only. You do not need any formal qualifications or to meet every criteria to apply. We are looking for someone who is motivated, enthusiastic and committed, with an interest in arts and culture and your own community!

Skills

• Good time management
• Organised and good at planning
• Good social media skills
• Good IT skills
• Good attention to detail
• Experience of attending and/or helping organise community events

Attributes

• Passionate about working with and for people
• Motivated and enthusiastic
• Friendly
• Willing to listen
• Good communicator
• Committed
• An interest in the arts, culture and creative industries

Hours: 30  hours per week

Wage: £14,820 pa for 30 hours per week (based on £18,278 pa FTE for a 37-hour week)

Location: Ebbsfleet Garden City, North Kent (with some working from home and occasional travel)

Contract Type: Fixed-term from January 2022 until January 2023

Application Deadline: Monday 29th November at 12.00 noon

Interview Date: Friday 10th December

Eligibility

Due to the criteria of the funding of this position, to be eligible to apply for this role you must be:

• Aged between 18 and 25 at the time of appointment
• Currently residing in North Kent. We are particularly keen to offer the opportunity to someone who lives in Ebbsfleet Garden City or within the Dartford or Gravesham boroughs.
• Not currently in employment in a role within the creative industries.
• Not in full-time education or training at the point the work commences.

How to apply

• Prepare a CV (no more than 2 sides of A4)
• Prepare either a covering letter (no more than 2 sides of A4) or a video/audio recording (no more than 4 minutes) outlining what you would bring to this role and how you meet some or all of the skills and attributes outlined in the person specification above.
• Email these to: regen2031@kent.ac.uk with Cultural Development Assistant in the subject field of your email by Monday 29th November at 12.00 noon.
• It would also be appreciated if you could complete the EDC’s diversity monitoring form which is provided in a separate document.

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