6-month fixed term contract – £5000 (approx. 10 hours per week)

Subject to Funding – Start date January 2024

Chichester Community Development Trust are looking for a Community Organiser to establish our new bike project in the heart of Chichester.  This pilot project will establish a bike-recycling scheme and repair workshop. Based at new purpose-built premises, the facility will receive disused and discarded bikes and restore them for sale or to be earned by volunteers and project participants. The venue will also offer bike servicing and provide maintenance and repair classes for young people and jobseekers, providing new skills and work experience.

To achieve the vision and mission the project aims to:  

• Renovate, repair, and sell bicycles.  
• Provide cycle maintenance and repair classes, including ‘earn a bike’. 
• Encourage fitness in all ages.  
• Seek out and recycle donated bikes / parts.  
• Create the capacity for a city-wide bike rental facility, empowering visitors to see more of the city and its surrounding area.  

The project will then be in a position to:  

• Provide voluntary and paid employment opportunities.
• Provide a range of volunteering opportunities in an inclusive, non-judgemental, and supportive environment.  
• Involve volunteers in setting-up a new business and inspire the creation of other similar initiatives.  
• Offer access to learning and skills in the local community though partnership with local FE providers.  
• Offer our service users the chance to gain accredited qualifications in Cycle Mechanics, creating opportunities to develop new skills to enhance employability.  
• Offer the young, un-employed and low-income participants as well as the wider community, access to free use of donated bicycles as a means of sustainable transport.  
• Encourage a hands-on approach to cycle ownership by giving basic maintenance know-how to participants, as they would be expected to fix their own bikes or prepare a donated one for themselves or others with the guidance of volunteer skilled mechanics.  
• Provide participants with a fully equipped cycle workshop to enable all levels of repair.  
• Encourage skill-sharing and independence, where new skills are learned in a way that is empowering for all.  
• Economically repair donated bikes and offer them for sale to the community at reasonable prices to fund the project and wherever possible, provide recycled parts from donated bikes to participants in order to divert bicycles and their parts from landfill.  
• Encourage cycling as a lifestyle activity and a sustainable means of transport in the community and surrounding area encouraging healthy lifestyles.  
• Empower people within our community by providing access to affordable and sustainable transportation and promote access to cycling as an affordable and sustainable transport option.  

What we would like:

• You will help us develop solutions by leading on technical input into projects, from initial engagement through to project design and delivery.
• You will be excellent at building relationships, collaborating, and engaging with partners, volunteers, and other stakeholders. 
• You will hold or be working towards a relevant cycle maintenance qualification.
• You will bring these skills to the role to plan and deliver engagement activities with stakeholder and communities relating to our project objectives.
• You will undertake a DBS check.

What you will do:

• Day to day coordination of the pilot project  
• Marketing to and liaising with workplaces to promote the project.
• Talking to potential users
• Organising workshops and training
• Managing the maintenance of the bikes
• Helping users to purchase bikes.
• Shaping the future of the scheme, grant applications, potentially converting it to a self-supporting commercial enterprise

Outcomes:

The following outcomes are required as part of this pilot funded project.

• Recruit 20 volunteers
• Deliver 4 x 6-week after school workshops (36 total young people)
• Deliver 6 x 3hour school holiday or weekend workshops (36 total young people)
• Deliver 4 x 6-week earn a bike workshop for refugee community.
• Deliver 4 x 6-week earn a bike workshop for marginalised groups. 
• Enable 3 people per week to have their bikes fixed within the project workshop or during courses above for the period of 25 weeks.

Next steps

If this sounds like you to find out more or to apply, please contact Nina – nina@chichestercdt.org.uk or 01243 537526. The closing date for application is 15^th November 2023 and the project will start in January 2024.