We are currently recruiting for two part-time Community Engagement Officers for the ‘LIFE Raft project - Rathlin Acting for Tomorrow: Removing invasive non-native ferrets and rats from the Rathlin Island SPA, Northern Ireland.

About Rathlin Island

Rathlin Island is 4km off the County Antrim coast and is Northern Ireland’s only inhabited offshore island, with a permanent community of around 160 people. At a national and international level, Rathlin’s seabird populations are important but invasive non-native ferrets and rats threaten their status.

The LIFE Raft project’s aim is to safeguard the island’s wildlife by eradicating both the ferret and rat populations from the island, whilst embedding sound biosecurity measures to prevent their return. The project will strengthen existing local pride in, and stewardship of, the island’s natural heritage and create significant socioeconomic opportunities for a sustainable future. Success will require a multi-disciplinary approach covering technical operations, community engagement and collaborative working across the project partnership and with key external stakeholders

The project has been made possible with funding from EU LIFE; National Lottery Heritage Fund; and the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA), (with contributions from RSPB NI, Rathlin Development and Community Association (RDCA) and support from the Causeway Coast and Glens Heritage Trust (CCGHT)).

About the role:

We are looking for two experienced, and motivated, people to liaise with Rathlin’s community to ensure ferret and rat eradication is achieved. The successful candidate (s) will be managed by the LIFE Raft Eradication Manager and will be a key link between the project team and the local community. Candidates should have experience working, and living, on islands and should be able to demonstrate an ability to build trust with such communities. Integrity, honesty, and mutual respect will guide your approach to engaging with the Rathlin Island community. Candidates will have experience of community engagements.

Key Result Areas:

• To further develop the community engagement strategy and plan, liaising with the Rathlin Island community and a wide range of stakeholders, ensuring they are kept fully involved and informed.
• To support the Eradication Delivery Manager, support the development of eradication operational plans, and to build community support for biosecurity.

What we need the community engagement (CE) role (s) to do:

Develop a community engagement plan. 

Identify who the stakeholders are (e.g. school, interest groups, wider public), how we will communicate the project to them, how we will gain feedback from them and how we will integrate that feedback into what we do. 

This plan will be linked to the delivery of the programme plan and may fall into different phases e.g. ferret eradication, rat eradication, etc. It will likely have the key elements with feedback between the community and LIFE Raft project team via the CE roles:

1.    Identification of stakeholders (feedback of info)
2.    Development of communication approaches and plan 
3.    Communication of projects overall plan objectives
4.    Communication of plans regarding each phase of the project
5.    Getting community eradication ready for each phase of the project

Deliver community engagement plan

We need the CE roles to:

•    develop activities that can be delivered to share the plans to the project. 
•    monitor outcomes of these activities
•    provide feedback to the wider LIFE Raft team to allow modification of project or approach.
•    communicate the project outcomes as it develops. 
•    communicate about the project, the importance of islands for birds, eradication projects, etc to the wider world. 

Who will they need to work with?

The LIFE Raft project team 
The Rathlin community 
The Project steering group – RSPB/CCGHT/RDCA
Project stakeholders including members of the public that visit Rathlin.

What we need from you:

You’ll be a passionate advocate for Rathlin Island and the recovery and conservation of breeding seabirds in this fragile island ecosystem. You will have empathy for people and a commitment to affording a small community the opportunity to contribute to species recovery. You will have substantial experience engaging with island or rural communities to tackle environmental challenges. Specific experience working with island communities during similar mammal eradication projects would be beneficial. You will have substantial experience in planning and managing fieldwork and have substantial experience in both leading teams and working within teams.

You need to be able to communicate a vision and facilitate effective partnerships to ensure the complete eradication of invasive non-native species. You’ll need a good working knowledge of how to achieve the eradication of invasive non-native species from islands.

Essentials:

• Standard written and spoken English;
• Substantial experience of Rathlin island and its community;
• Excellent communication skills;
• Experience of delivering engagement activities;
• Experience of working as part of a team to deliver agreed on outcomes;
• An ability to produce written communications and reports;
• An ability to maintain positive working relationships;
• Ability to respond positively to colleagues' and stakeholder’s needs and feedback;
• Competent IT user.

Additional Information

For an informal discussion about this post, please email David Tosh on david.tosh@rspb.org.uk 

Please note that you will be required to upload a CV and complete an online application form where you will have the opportunity to tell us how you meet the criteria set above.

Before applying to this role please take time to read through the candidate guidance notes attached to the top of our advert on our careers page.