Do you have a passion for creative writing and helping children and young people to realise their creativity?
Do you have facilitation skills and experience in project management? Are you looking to combine these skills to help children and young people to write great stories?
Would you like to come and work at Graffiti?
We are looking for a dynamic, motivated team player to run our Fighting Words programme for the coming year on a part time basis, three days a week.
GRAFFITI: FIGHTING WORDS CORK COORDINATOR
Location: Blackpool, Cork, at Graffiti Theatre Company
Term: 3 days per week, fixed term for one year. Extension may apply, subject to additional funding
What is Fighting Words?
Fighting Words offers a wide range of workshops, all of which are designed to promote creativity and writing as a fun and powerful means of self-expression.
The Fighting Words programme was developed by Roddy Doyle and Seán Love in 2009 in Dublin, to provide a space and encourage creative writing among children and young adults. At Graffiti, we run Fighting Words Cork, delivering free, weekly creative writing workshops at our Studio and in schools. We offer engagements like Write Club, a writing space for teenage writers to explore their interest in creative writing with mentorships from our coordinator and guest authors. as well as bespoke workshop series around creative expression which can extend beyond the realms of traditional writing, such playwriting, screenwriting, graphic novels, podcasting etc.
Volunteers in our community play an essential role as mentors who support the programme by working closely with our coordinator in the room to support the children who participate in Fighting Words.
The Fighting Words Programme Co-ordinator Role
The key role of the Fighting Words Programme Co-ordinator is to ensure the smooth running of workshops on a regular basis through the year out of Graffiti Theatre, Cork. Thanks to funding from Creative Ireland, the Amazon Literary Partnership and the RDS, we have robust plans to deliver our programme for the coming year and we seek an enthusiastic and committed coordinator to run our programme, as well as facilitate our weekly workshops.
This role include the coordination of three main activities through the year:
Our weekly creative writing workshop, our regular Write Club sessions, and a ten-week engagement series for two groups as part of a project with Fighting Words in Dublin and Fighting Words Northern Ireland in Belfast.
The duties include:
- Leading at least one weekly primary school creative writing workshop at Graffiti or in a school setting throughout the school year
- Programme Management including: communication with schools to arrange booking and scheduling workshops
- Recruiting and coordinating volunteers who may help to deliver workshops at Graffiti and in other settings as needed, with support from the Fighting Words team in Dublin.
- Developing, leading and coordinating a regular ‘Write Club’ at Graffiti for young people aged 13 to 18 (Write Club is a community of teen writers)
- Managing the creation of a publication at the end of year to celebrate the work
- Coordinating two 10-week creative writing programmes with two groups of young people (TBC) and liaising with our partners in Fighting Words and Fighting Words Northern Ireland as part of an all-island project
- Management of the artist facilitators for those particular sets of 10-week programmes, as well as some artistic programming input with those artists.
- Liaising and maintaining clear communication with Fighting Words/Fighting Words Northern Ireland in the delivery of and reporting on shared projects.
- General Project Administration, including updating the Fighting Words contacts, calendars, booking information, social media and feedback
- Liaison and reporting on programme to Fighting Words HQ in Dublin on shared aspects of our Cork programme
- Attending/input to national coordination meeting and other programme reporting
- Project Budgeting as directed and in conjunction with Artistic Director & General Manager
- Working with Graffiti’s booking officer to ensure that all creative writing facilitators and volunteers are Garda Vetted
- Logistics to organise and complete Fighting Words training with Dublin HQ
- Input into the strategic and ongoing development of the programme, for example supporting fundraising opportunities or applications to extend our programme into 2026
- To read and follow all Health and Safety statements issued by Graffiti Theatre Company
- At the direction of the Artistic Director, any other duties in addition to or in lieu of the above, relevant to this post
Person specification
You should have:
- A love of creative writing and a passion for empowering children and young people
- Some flexibility regarding travel with the Fighting Words programme and to other Fighting Words centres
- Experience in working with programme coordination, project management or transferable skills in this field
- Workshop facilitation experience (within or outside of creative writing)
Start Date: Late September 2024
Salary: €21, 060 gross for 3 days per week
Role hours:
- Fixed term contract from September 2024 at 3 days a week with flexibility regarding specific days to accommodate extension programmes/after- school & occasional weekend events
- Flexibility regarding Summer (outside of school term) hours to be agreed with the successful candidate
- Weekly workshop sessions anchored to Mondays
How to apply
If you are interested in applying for this role, please send your CV (no more than 2 pages, please) and a cover letter outlining your suitability and passion for this role, and send it to ideas@graffiti.ie with Fighting Words in the Subject line.
Deadline for application is Friday 30th August. Interviews will take place in early September 2024.
