Join to apply for the Head of Reading Communities role at Scottish Book Trust

The Scottish Book Trust Reading Communities team run a variety of programmes to promote a love of reading across Scotland. Book Week Scotland is a major annual celebration that features a wide range of events in libraries, schools, and communities, encouraging people of all ages to engage with books and stories. As part of this, the Scotland's Stories project invites people to submit true stories from their lives to be shared on our website with a selection being published in a free book.

The Reading is Caring programme focuses on using shared reading to support individuals living with dementia and their caregivers, providing training on how to use reading to help maintain relationships and spark memories. The Your Voice, Your Story initiative helps people share their personal lived experiences through creating short, narrated videos with accompanying images. This programme provides a safe and empowering space for participants to reflect, connect with others, and develop new skills.

About Scottish Book Trust

Scottish Book Trust believes that reading and writing for pleasure has the power to transform lives, from supporting mental health and wellbeing to breaking the poverty cycle, improving employability and inspiring creativity.

As Scotland’s only nationwide reading charity, our mission is to ensure people living in Scotland have equal access to books and, every year, we deliver our world-class programmes and annual awards to well over two million people.

We deliver our programmes in every local authority area in Scotland, and we work with partners ranging from small community groups to the Scottish Government. We introduce books and storytelling to pre-school children through our book gifting programmes to inspiring and empowering adult readers and writers, we believe it's never too early – or too late – to begin a magical journey with words.

Our book-gifting programmes Bookbug and Read Write Count with the First Minister reach over 310,000 children across Scotland every year. We continue the journey with schools in our communities participating in an accreditation programme to help them build and sustain a reading culture.

Our Writing Programmes encourage people to share their themed true stories through Scotland’s stories, annual New Writers Award supporting emerging writers and supporting publishers to publish and promote work written in Scots. Whilst our Reading Programmes delivers Book Week Scotland each autumn, helps fund and support author events in schools and community venues, and supports people with digital storytelling to tell their personal stories through audio and images.

You'll find us in schools, and libraries and at community events, across Scotland in towns, cities and in isolated, rural communities. We bring books to life and share the joy of reading with children in care, families living in challenging circumstances, and people in prison. In short, you’ll find us wherever we’re needed most.

Key responsibilities

• Lead the Reading Communities (RC) team, to ensure effective and timely delivery of the programme milestones and outcomes in line with the organisation’s business plan
• Work closely with the Senior Management Team on the strategic development of the RC programme to meet organisation objectives
• Works with the Senior Management Team to influence policy development in the relevant areas of SBT’s work
• Leads the RC team to engage effectively achieving cross organisational collaboration
• Develop and establish stakeholder relationships to deliver key outcomes for SBT’s work and cultivate future programme opportunities
• Works closely with the Research and Evaluation Team to set outcomes for the Reading Communities Programme, measure and evaluate impact to feed into programme development and the organisation’s wider work
• Maintain an up to date understanding of research, initiatives and policies within the sector, relevant to the Reading Communities Programmes
• Promote and support collaborative working with the Digital and Marketing Teams to communicate effectively with established and new audiences
• Work with the Fundraising Manager and Director of Programme to develop and establish funder relationships enabling generation of funding for new and existing programmes
• Line manages the Reading is Caring team and three programme Managers, coaching and empowering them to achieve high standards of performance and delivery of objectives, as well as supporting their learning and development
• Responsibility for the setting, management, and reporting of all RC Team budgets both internally and to external partners
• Be the lead authority within the RC team for generating (initiating) and supporting the development of innovative fundraising and commercial opportunities, with collective responsibility for supporting the promotion of SBT’s commercial offerings including paid learning, the SBT shop and other paid for events.
• Represent and promote Scottish Book Trust at external meetings, conferences and events

Find out more

Explore more about this exciting and unique role via our recruitment pack, available here: https://www.scottishbooktrust.com/about/vacancies/head-of-reading-communities

Seniority level

• Executive

Employment type

• Full-time

Job function

• Management

Industries

• Non-profit Organizations