English PEN : Vacancies

Vacancies

READERS & WRITERS PROGRAMME MANAGER

£23-25,000, full time, 9-month contract, central London

English PEN is the founding centre of an international writers' association, working to promote literature and freedom of speech. Our Readers & Writers programme takes this mission into communities across England where the power of literature can help to transform lives. Readers & Writers works in schools, prisons and community groups to introduce beneficiaries to great contemporary writers of all backgrounds; to build their confidence as readers; and to develop their skills as creative writers. Thanks to a major new grant, we are expanding our work with refugee and migrant groups. We are seeking an exceptional literature education specialist to lead this new project, whilst continuing to serve our existing beneficiaries in schools and prisons. The successful candidate will join a small, hardworking team, based at the new Free Word Centre in London's Clerkenwell, and will appoint and manage a number of freelance creative writing tutors.


Position

The Readers & Writers Programme Manager will lead on English PEN's educational work in schools, prisons and community groups. He or she will report directly to the Director of English PEN, and will be supported by the Readers & Writers Committee.

Responsibilities
The Readers & Writers Programme Manager will have the following responsibilities:

• Developing and implementing an outstanding programme of creative writing workshops with refugee and migrant groups in London, launching in autumn 2009.
• Overseeing and developing a continuing programme of creative writing workshops in prisons and young offenders' centres.
• Collecting and collating monitoring and evaluation data in a format agreed with funders.
• Appointing and managing freelance creative writing tutors.
• Recruiting professional writers to participate in creative writing workshops.
• Liaising with site coordinators and authors to set up workshops well in advance.
• Ordering all books for the programme from the publishers and ensuring their safe arrival at the sites.
• Attending and reporting on various site visits, in London and across England - on rare occasions an overnight stay might be involved.
• Ensuring that sites and partners give feedback on the event as required and synthesising this feedback into overall evaluation documents.
• Planning and implementing celebratory events featuring readings of new work by participants in creative writing workshops.
• Overseeing the publication of 'chapbooks' of beneficiaries' work.
• Performing other administrative tasks such as organising and preparing minutes for meetings of the Readers & Writers Committee; ensuring that invoices are paid and recorded; keeping the programme files in order.
• Supporting the fundraising work of the Director towards the development of the Readers & Writers programme, including supplying information for funding applications, meeting funders, and including funders in workshops where appropriate.
• Promoting and communicating the aims and activities of the programme to potential new sites, writers, donors and other partners.
• Developing Readers & Writers activities and policy in consultation with the Director and the Chair of the Readers & Writers Committee.
• Ensuring that the Director and Board are well informed as to the work of the Readers & Writers programme.
• Producing regular reports for internal and external communications.

Experience and skills
The successful candidate will ideally have relevant experience in literature development or other arts education work in the voluntary or public sector. They will be:

• Passionate about literature;
• Passionate about working with disadvantaged groups;
• Interested in other cultures;
• Eager to develop new writing from unheard voices;
• Enthusiastic about promoting new writing;
• A great communicator, both in writing and verbally;
• An experienced educator, in a formal or informal setting;
• Calm and professional under pressure;
• Able to capture, process and evaluate data relating to the programme;
• Able to work as part of a team and with a range of partners;
• Flexible and extremely well organised;
• Keenly interested in English PEN's wider work for literature and free speech.

To apply:
Please send a cover letter (with ref: Readers & Writers in the subject line) and your CV to Amy Oliver: amy@englishpen.org, by 5pm on Wednesday 29th July 2009. Interviews will be held in central London in early August. Successful applicants should be available to start work in early September.

We offer:
• A fulfilling job, working on a range of challenging issues with a diverse team based in an exciting new centre for literature, literacy and free speech.
• Flexible working.
• 25 days Annual Leave per annum plus all public holidays.

Salary: £23-25,000 pro rata, depending on experience, full-time, 9-month contract

Please note:
Only those candidates selected for interview will be contacted.

English PEN welcomes applicants regardless of race or colour, nationality or national or ethnic origin, religion or religious belief, sex or marital status, sexual orientation, disability or age.






There are currently no other full-time vacancies with English PEN. However, we are always looking for volunteers to help out with our regular programme of Writers in Public events so do fill out one of our online volunteer forms if you are interested in finding out more.

source : http://www.englishpen.org/aboutenglishpen/vacancies/