About the Network

Bringing historic buildings and spaces back to life brings joy to so many people. It restores local pride and identity and creates jobs, workplaces, visitor attractions, educational facilities, arts venues and more. There are thousands of people undertaking this amazing work, either professionally or as volunteers, in all parts of the UK.

Heritage Trust Network is the membership body for independent community organisations, charities and social enterprises that are saving, restoring and managing historic buildings, parks, gardens, canals and railways. Our membership includes both organisations specifically set up to save heritage sites and community organisations that deliver other types of services and have chosen to operate from historic buildings and spaces. We also welcome individuals, businesses and local authorities that support local heritage action. Together we organise conferences, site visits, meetings and online resources where we can network and learn from each other and meet experts and funders.

We…

• Encourage people to get involved in saving local heritage buildings and places by forming new community organisations or working through existing ones.
• Support these organisations to restore and reuse local heritage by providing information, advice, training, networking and peer-to-peer learning.
• Champion the work and raise the visibility of community heritage organisations and highlight the range of public benefits they provide.
• Advocate for a legislative, policy and funding environment that facilitates grassroots action for heritage.The Network is growing and currently has over 570 members. We recently revised our membership structure including, for the first time, creating a free class of membership for community organisations that do not yet have the funds to become full members.We currently have a staff of five who work from home: David Tittle, Chief ExecutiveVicki Cox, Membership Officer
  Beverley Gormley, Programme Manager
  Sarah Pearce, Development Officer for Scotland
  Claire-Rose Canavan, Development Officer for Northern Ireland

  The Network is governed by a board of directors which currently consists of eleven people, plus two trainee trustees, drawn from our members and other professionals working in the field.

  About Digital Heroes

  The Digital Heroes project will launch a new stream of volunteering by linking young people with small and medium-sized heritage organisations in need of hands-on support with digital. The project will enable an intensive year of work to kick-start this volunteer peer- support before it becomes an integrated part of the Network’s work and a transferable method of engaging young volunteers for the whole sector.

  Our partners Beatfreeks will engage a small group of young people to co-design the recruitment campaign using social media and will lead the recruitment of a first group of volunteers from member organisations, student members and young people around the UK. We aim to recruit 50 volunteers in two tranches with a diverse mix of ethnicities, genders and social and educational backgrounds. From this group, our young trustees and our membership we will convene a project steering group.

  Our partners the Audience Agency, with input from Beatfreeks and the Steering Group, will co-design a training and support programme for volunteers. Training will be peer-learning with participants researching resources (such as from Heritage Digital and other projects) and discussing and agreeing shared solutions.

  The project will promote the opportunity to our members and undertake a selection process. We already have around 50 member organisations who have expressed an interest in hosting a digital hero. The project will match organisations to volunteers and deliver needs assessments and volunteering placements to raise digital skills and uptake and promote wider engagement.

  The project will provide monitoring and support to host organisations and volunteers on a one-to-one basis and through an online community and meetings.

  We will take opportunities throughout the project to highlight the successes of the volunteers and their hosts, identify sources of volunteer or subsidised support (such as kick- start placements, apprenticeships) and make guidance available to support smaller heritage organisations to take on volunteers and trainees.

  The project will directly support 50 non-profit small or medium sized community organisations tackling historic sites to address key challenges to effectiveness and survival. It will enable them to adopt digital or use it more effectively. It will support them to improve content to attract a wider range of people to their organisations and historic sites. This will make them more attractive to funders and other partners, efficient and effective in their communications and operations, relevant to their communities, diversify their funding and improve their volunteer and governance succession plans.

  50 young people will be involved as volunteers in the project. The training they will receive will give them new skills around digital implementation, organisation diagnostics, supporting and mentoring people, content creation, promoting diversity and inclusion, and problem solving. The volunteering placements will provide valuable experiences working in the heritage sector, providing insights into the real world of community heritage. The project will give them a stimulating experience, a sense of achievement and improved self- worth from having their skills and knowledge valued.

  Diversity and inclusivity will be woven into the project starting with the volunteer training on how organisations present themselves on digital platforms. Volunteers will work with our members to ensure content is attractive to young and diverse audiences and help them to actively pursue digital collaborations (for example with ethnic minority-led organisations).

  Our members have told us that this project is important to them. It could be a game- changer for those that lack the capacity to undertake a digital transformation or who have struggled engage a wider range of people, particularly younger people. During the pandemic the better resourced organisations have turned to digital as a way of making their sites and stories accessible to existing and new audiences, they have produced videos, photo- galleries, podcasts and online talks. But many of our members lacked the skills and resources to do this, meaning that they stagnated during this period. For a small number this has put them in existential danger.

  Our March 2021 poll showed many members do not have a basic web presence. A majority do not use online bookkeeping, have no digital system for managing contacts/memberships or online fundraising. 69% do not use online video, 62% have not used podcasts, 31% have not used online ticketing systems. Our September 2021 poll reported social media, fundraising, creating content for wider engagement, website and organising data were our members biggest digital needs. In response to that poll 50 members immediately indicated that they wanted to receive support from this project.

  Each one of our members represents a community of volunteers and staff, users, tenants and visitors and the neighbourhoods, towns and villages they are situated in. The sites our members rescue and care for are important to their communities and their capacity to use digital platforms effectively will be key to their success in with their projects and their ability to engage with everyone in their communities.

  Job description

  Digital Heroes Project Manager

  Role description:

  This is a time-limited appointment to manage and deliver an innovative project matching young volunteers with small and medium-sized non-profit heritage organisations throughout the UK. The post-holder will be responsible for all aspects of project management and most of the project delivery activities working with staff in our partner organisations Beatfreeks and the Audience Agency.

  Key responsibilities

  1. To deliver the project to timetable and budget, ensuring the objectives and outcomes of the project are secured.
  2. Organising and managing all project activities apart from those agreed to be managed and/or delivered by partners
  3. Act as the single point of contact for the project for potential and selected volunteers, potential and selected host organisations, project partners, funders and other enquiries
  4. Undertaking the recruitment and selection of host organisations from the HTN membership and supporting the project partners with the recruitment of volunteers
  5. Working with Beatfreeks, support the recruitment and selection of volunteers for the project
  6. Working with project partners support the development of the training programme for volunteers
  7. Working with the Audience Agency support the delivery of the training programme
  8. Convening partner meetings, liaising with partners and ensuring they are delivering the activities they are responsible for
  9. Managing the project budget
  10. Keeping project records using the Network’s customer relationship management system and ensuring that partners do likewise
  11. Drafting and issuing project communications and liaising with colleagues to ensure that project messages and achievements are incorporated in our general communications
  12. Providing support to volunteers and hosts on a structured basis, including pastoral support to volunteers, and providing additional flexible support if needed
  13. Following Network financial procedures, securing sign off for larger items of expenditure and variations from project plan or budget
  14. Convening the project steering group, keeping records of its meetings, keeping its members informed and ensuring it has a meaningful role in the project (for example in the selection process for volunteers and host organisations)
  15. Liaising with the evaluation consultants and taking their advice to ensure integration of evaluation into the project
  16. Organising evaluation activities and producing interim and final reports in a timely manner, ensuring feedback from the consultants.

       

       

      Person Specification

      Training, experience and qualifications
      Essential Qualification to degree level (or equivalent) with a strong interest in regeneration, heritage and sustainability in the built environment At least 2 years’ experience delivering volunteer programmes or projects Substantial experience of partnership working Experience of managing volunteers Experience of working with community groups Experience of evaluation and impact measurement Experience of representing an organisation in a public arena Experience of managing a project budget Experience of reporting to funders	Desirable Full UK driving licence. Vehicle not provided but a mileage allowance is payable. Experience of publicly funded projects Experience in project management systems Experience of managing digital engagement programmes or projects Experience of managing a mentoring or coaching project Experience of engaging and working with young people
      Knowledge and skills
      Good interpersonal skills with the ability to work with a diverse range of people from professionals and funders to volunteers and community stakeholders Excellent IT and social media skills Excellent verbal and written communication skills and ability to adapt communication styles to a variety of circumstances Sound leadership skills Ability to act as a persuasive representative of Heritage Trust Network at all levels Event management skills	Research skills Facilitation skills Understanding and appreciation of the following:- community engagement with places – the benefits of the historic environment for communities – the restoration/regeneration process