Supporting the local community
The Policy & Communications Team at Buckinghamshire Council have an exciting opportunity to join their service as a Community Board Manager to support the Denham, Gerrards Cross and Chalfonts Community Board.
Working with strongly established networks, collaboration with town and parish councils and a wide range of existing community and voluntary groups ensure there is a real sense of collaboration and community drive to address local issues. The Community Board Manager is at the centre of this. You will be joining a team of 16 Managers covering the Boards across Buckinghamshire. We spoke to Lizzie, Community Board Manager to find out more about her role…
Hello, I’m Lizzie, and I’m a Community Board Manager in the Partnerships, Policy, and Communications service at Buckinghamshire Council. I’ve worked for the Council for three and a half years, having started in the Policy team, where I was involved in work around Equalities and Armed Forces, as well as many other projects.
When lockdown started, I was asked to help with contacting charities and voluntary groups to understand what support was being provided in the community, and what additional help was needed. This quickly developed into a full-time position in the newly formed Covid-19 Community Support team, and involved allocating funds to various local activities, and being the point of contact for non-profit organisations in three of the community board areas. I felt that delivering this temporary role had made a real difference to the lives of groups and individuals during such a challenging time, so when the Community Board Coordinator opportunity came up, I immediately applied!
In my current role, I manage the Amersham & Villages Community Board, which involves developing strong relationships with local partners. These include Buckinghamshire Council and its’ Councillors, Town and Parish Councils, internal services, and local partners including charities, community & voluntary groups, residents and local businesses. These relationships help the board to identify local priorities, and work as a community to develop new initiatives that will make a real difference to residents in the area.
Other responsibilities include listening and responding to the views of people in the local area, communicating important updates, making connections between various groups and initiatives, monitoring board-funded projects, arranging board meetings, planning, and organising events, managing the project budget, and so much more!
My role is varied, I love building good working relationships with the people I connect with, and being able to support some of the fantastic community groups and voluntary organisations that deliver projects in our local area. It’s amazing to witness my work making a significant difference to people’s lives.
I’m proud to work for the Council and feel well supported by my team. Everyone is so supportive, and because we have a real mix of talent & skills between us, you can almost guarantee that no matter what question you have, someone has experienced a similar issue or query before and will be more than happy to help. The work that we do can be challenging, but very rewarding. There are so many opportunities within the Council to learn and progress.
Now is certainly an exciting time to join our team — It’s now two years since Community Boards launched, and as a service we have settled into a good rhythm. We’ve got a really strong team with a wide range of skills and knowledge. No-two-days are the same — it’s great to have such a varied workload. Every element is fulfilling in a different way, and you can get more involved in areas that interest you the most.
Interested? Learn more and apply today: https://jobs.buckinghamshire.gov.uk/job_detail/251983/
Applications close 25th May 2022.
