Volunteer

We are seeking volunteers to join our Board of Trustees

Cartwheel Arts is one of the leading participatory arts companies in the Northwest. The charity has an impressive track record in devising and delivering vivid, highly acclaimed, and successful projects which bring communities together, break down barriers, and build capacity, promoting a sense of ownership and pride.

We call this Art for a Reason

Whether you’re an experienced Trustee or wanting to take your first step at Board level, we want to hear from you! We welcome applications from people who have never served as a Trustee before, as we can offer additional support, mentoring and training. We encourage applications from applications from all backgrounds, ages, lived experience, knowledge and skills, who are able to support our work in reaching and developing work and partnerships with communities in Rochdale, Greater Manchester and across the North West.

Four people sitting on chairs at a table 2 females and one male with large paper and coloured pens in front of them

We are seeking Trustees who:

Believe in the power of art and creativity to change people’s lives.
Can help us to reach the diverse communities of Rochdale and Greater Manchester.
Have a commitment to equality, anti-discrimination, and Cartwheel’s core values.
Can support and guide us to deliver our aims – promoting wellbeing and social cohesion through high quality creative activity.
Understand the interests, skills and needs of the diverse communities we serve. This includes:
- Children, young people and adults who experience mental ill-health.
- Communities with experience of forced migration, including the refugee and asylum-seeking process.
- Communities at risk of experiencing racial inequalities.
- Children, young people and families experiencing poverty.
Are prepared to give the necessary time and effort over a minimum commitment of 3 years.

We would also welcome applications from Trustees with these additional skills:

Environmental Responsibility
Human Resources (HR)
Legal Expertise

If you do not currently feel that you have all the required skills and experience but are committed and willing to learn – we welcome your application, providing you have the time to learn these skills and responsibilities within your first 6 months of Trusteeship.

Cartwheel Arts is committed to inclusive working practices, so during the application process we commit to:

Paying for care and childcare if required whilst you are at Cartwheel Arts interviews.
Paying for any reasonable travel costs for interviews held in person.
Making any reasonable adjustments – for example having close captions available at zoom meetings and exploring sign language interpretation if required.
Providing this document in a Word document format readily available to download.

If there is anything else you are concerned about or think we could provide, please let us know.

As a Trustee, you will have:

Induction, training, and reimbursable expenses.
Access to additional mentoring, signposting and support if required.
Opportunities to make strategic decisions and develop new skills.
Opportunities to network with a wide range of professionals
Influence to shape innovative projects
The chance to improve health and wellbeing of people and communities.

Cartwheel Arts Trustees’ duties

To ensure that Cartwheel Arts complies with its governing documents, charity law and any other relevant legislation and regulations.
To ensure that Cartwheel Arts pursues its charitable objects as defined in its governing documents.
To ensure that Cartwheel Arts applies its resources exclusively to fulfilling its objects, no matter how worthwhile other activities may be.
To contribute actively to the Board in giving clear strategic direction to Cartwheel Arts, setting overall policy, defining goals, setting targets, and evaluating performance against those targets.
To safeguard the good name and values of Cartwheel Arts.
To ensure Cartwheel Arts’ effective and efficient administration.
To ensure Cartwheel Arts’ financial stability.
To ensure the proper investment of Cartwheel Arts’ funds.
To support Cartwheel Arts’ employees and volunteers.

The expected commitment of a Trustee:

The expected time commitment is five Trustee meetings per year. Board Meetings currently take place on Wednesday evenings, 6pm – 7.30pm either online or in Rochdale Borough, and one in-person AGM & Away Day taking place on a Saturday in November.

We encourage all Trustees to also attend a sub-committee group that focuses on a particular area of the company, for example, Engagement & Communications or Human Resources. Subcommittees meet for around 1 hour up to 4 times per year. Board meetings always require some reading and scrutinizing of documents in preparation. We will work to support you with any access needs you have.

Important information:

Trustee interviews will take place via Zoom, during the week commencing 25^th September.

Successful Trustees will be invited to attend our AGM & Away Day on Saturday 4^th November, 9am – 4pm in Rochdale. This will be an opportunity to meet the rest of the Board and the staff team.

The current staff team and board membership is here: http://www.cartwheelarts.org.uk/people/

For further information about what it means to be a Charity Trustee, please see our additional ‘About Charity Trustees’ document.

Application Form (Word Document)

A note from our current Trustees (PDF)

Deadline for applications: Monday 18^th September, 5pm

If you have any questions, would like an informal, confidential chat about the role, or for an application pack please contact: becky@cartwheelarts.org.uk

Cartwheel Arts a place where we can all be ourselves

#CartwheelArts @cartwheelarts

This is a poster which has 3 people on it and the poster is about looking for trustees to join the board