Volunteer Greenkeeper - Green Skills Centre

Location: Cyrenians Green Skills Centre, 12 Humbie Holdings, Kirknewton, EH27 8DS. 

Time: You can join us on Tuesday, Wednesday and / or Thursday from 10am – 4pm. You can join for a whole day or part of the day.

We are flexible on which day(s) you join and how often every month. Just let us know your availability and preferences.

We welcome taster sessions, if you would like to see and get a feel for the place and people first. Just get in touch with us first to arrange this. 

What is our Green Skills Centre?

Our Green Skills Centre is a community farm, where we grow food, skills and community. We want to address the challenges relating to sustainability, inclusion, learning and wellbeing in our community.

We do this in our organic market garden, where we grow food using regenerative principals. This includes our local organic vegetable-bag enterprise. Providing a hot meal for everyone, using the produce we grow, is also an important part of our community work.

We also deliver outdoor learning programmes for young people under 18 years old. These are designed to develop confidence and skills for those at risk of experiencing unemployment and homelessness. We want to provide a space for cultivating relationships – with the land, ourselves and each other. We empower young people by equipping them with new skills that can be used in every part of their lives.

What will you do as a volunteer?

Our 8-acre farm has a lot of green space, surrounding our buildings, paths and growing areas as well as in our organic orchard and field areas.

As a volunteer, you will do greenkeeping activities and tasks with fellow colleagues, volunteers and young people visiting our farm.

You will also take part in supporting the skills development of young people, by teaching them new skills on greenery, practical tasks at the farm and alike, when possible.

You will therefore be involved in different tasks, which include:

• maintaining the green areas around our centre
• cutting grass using different tools
• help us organise how we look after our green areas using maps
• help with maintenance of equipment
• teaching young people (under 18) new skills in greenkeeping
• instructing or supervising 1-2 young people attending a project, who might help you with your tasks.

We will provide support and training needed for you to engage with the tasks and young people in a safe manner.

Appropriate outdoor clothing and safety gear is required. We can provide steel toe cap footwear and other personal protective equipment, if you don’t have them. We have the needed tools available at the centre.

You can find more details about this volunteering opportunity in the decription below.