Community Reporter Development and Support Worker
An exciting opportunity to support the local community.
The West Leeds Dispatch has been a popular on-line and print newspaper in the district for more than nine years. What started out as an online source of news run entirely by a volunteer editor, with a few volunteers reporting on their communities, has become a popular and nationally recognised publication, with the National Lottery providing funding for three years in 2021, following it up with three years more funding from January 1 2025.
Key to our success is our team of community reporters. So far more than 80 local people have completed the free six-week training course, with many keen to do and learn more, which we have found difficult to do because we didn’t have the resources.
Thanks to the Lottery we are now in a position to provide the extra help and support they need. The Lottery has recognised the benefit of these reporters both to the community and the individuals, so is funding a role which will support existing community reporters and help others to take on the role.
We are looking for a unique individual with a passion for community development to take forward our community reporter programme. The role is a freelance contract, eight days a month.
As well as having a passion for people and helping them with their community reporter roles, however much or little they wish so do, (as they are all volunteers). You will need to be flexible, as you’ll spend much of your time seeing individuals and groups. You will also need to be a self-starter, able to work on your own initiative, while reporting to the editor.
Ideally you should be familiar with the West Leeds Dispatch and live in or know the area. It would help if you had an insight into local journalism, though we are not looking specifically for a journalist to fill this role.
As well as people skills, you will need to be a good administrator and organiser as you’ll be involved in training courses and events run by the editor. There is a desk for you at our community newsroom in Bramley should you need it.
About West Leeds Dispatch:
West Leeds Dispatch is a community led media project which publishes local news and views daily online and quarterly in print. Our aim is to better connect our readers to what’s going on in West Leeds and to encourage them to be more active and informed citizens by connecting them to local community groups, activities and events. We also celebrate people’s achievements, but also perform a vital democratic function by shining a light on local authority decision-making and featuring local campaigns.
At the heart of our organisation is a growing (80+) cohort of volunteer community reporters, who are local people who we have trained to help tell the story of our community.
We train our volunteer reporters in the basics of journalism – writing, interviewing, photography, legals, ethics etc. Our project is funded by the National Lottery for the next three years to continue to deliver the training, offer refreshers and advanced courses and support our volunteers moving forward.
About the job:
Reporting to the Editor, the Community Reporter Development and Support Worker will closely work with and help develop the skills of community reporters, to ensure better engagement and liaison with volunteers.
You will play a key role in ensuring we keep volunteers following their training.
Responsibilities include:
- Drafting the community reporter recruitment and engagement strategy with the editor
- Suppor tingthe Editor to nurture and increase the productivity of our team of community reporters.
- Assist the Editor to run courses and offer a greater level of support for participants at all refresher/advanced courses.
- Instigate and manage occasional community reporter engagement events.
- Increase interaction and communication with community reporters’ team on Facebook, face to face and other platforms.
- Work with individual community reporters to help increase skills and levels of responsibilities at West Leeds Dispatch and draft individual support plans for each community reporter.
- Ensure better retention of community reporters following the completion of their course (part of the strategy).
- Act as a link between community reporters and the Editor.
Contract:
The role is freelance. Eight days a month. Hours can be worked flexibly, and around the availability of community reporters. The role is funded by the National Lottery initially for the next three years.
Remuneration: £11,000 per annum. You will be expected to provide your own laptop and phone. Reasonable expenses will be paid
Skills:
Essential
- A passion for people
- A demonstrable ability to work with people from different backgrounds and cultures.
- A supportive and positive ‘can do’ attitude.
- Experience in journalism or community reporting.
- Strong organisational skills and the ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
- Ability to work flexibly
- A self-starter
- Ability to forge supportive and professional relationships with volunteers of all abilities.
- Ability to work both independently and collaboratively.
Desirable
- A good knowledge of West Leeds and its communities.
- Good command of the English language, including grammar, spelling and punctuation.
- Strong understanding of editorial workflows and publishing processes.
- A good understanding of what makes a good story.
- Working knowledge of journalism law, such as copyright and defamation.
Further information:
For further information or for an informal chat, email Editor John Baron on news@westleedsdispatch.com.
To apply:
Email a covering letter explaining, in no more than 250 words, why you should be considered for this role to Editor John Baron at news@westleedsdispatch.com by 11.59pm on Monday, 18 November 2024. Please also include your CV.
Interviews will be held on Friday, 29 November 2024.