David Coughlin Email and Phone Number

• Coordinating the Green Academies Project at Morden Hall Park, which empowers young people to take ownership of local green spaces.• Communicating with a wide range of internal and external partners and stakeholders to ensure work is relevant to the local community and meets their needs.• Leading gardening and environmental conservation workshops for diverse groups including unaccompanied minors, students with learning difficulties and children living in areas of deprivation.• Understanding the benefits of working outdoors and leading a team to ensure young people feel these benefits, either through improved wellbeing or employability.• Planning and coordinating the establishment of a large community garden that will serve as an educational resource and a community space.• Safeguarding young people in our care, ensuring relevant capabilities and procedures are in place to maintain their wellbeing, both physically and emotionally.• Identifying with partners green spaces for potential improvement, as well as relevant, meaningful environmental interventions.

• Managing projects for disabled young adults and teenagers ensuring they meet strategic objectives.• Responsible for a total annual budget of approximately £250,000 across three projects.• Initiating, building and maintaining collaborative relationships with external partners including schools, social workers, local authorities, venues, activity providers and other charities.• Working across all levels of the organization, communicating and building relationships with a wide variety of stakeholders, from disabled young people and their families to trustees and senior management.• Line management of three leadership teams, providing supervision, appraisal and practical support.• In turn responsible for the management and development of staff teams in order to improve outcomes on the ground.• Impeccable attention to detail with a high importance on record keeping and data protection.• Designing and providing training for youth workers and scheme leaders.

• Researching, writing and presenting a report on the provision of safeguarding materials for deaf children.• Independently carried a complete research project, from conception to completion.• Designed, distributed and collected surveys for professionals, families and deaf children.• Carried out desk-based research identifying and analysing relevant resources and literature.• Carried out field-based research including interviews.• Collected and analysed statistics from surveys and reporting these to the charity’s Safeguarding Reference Group.• Produced a persuasive report with concrete and applicable recommendations to implement real change in the lives of deaf children.

• Managed the delivery of three youth schemes for disabled teenagers and young adults. I was directly responsible for both the performance and wellbeing, in a challenging and often stressful environment, of the leaders and staff teams. • Responsible for the budget and programming for each scheme, ensuring key targets and objectives were met.

• Leading a youth scheme, supervising staff to provide a high quality play and leisure service.• Role modelling professional behaviour in an often informal environment.• Maintained an open leadership style to establish strong relationships with staff, enabling them to act independently or seek support where necessary.• Producing behaviour management plans, manual handling plans and other risk assessments for young people at our scheme.• Often called upon to weigh up risk and make decisions in potentially high-risk situations.

• Worked on the organisation of and publicity for the Royal African Society’s annual literature festival.• Managed the festival’s social media presence.• Researched, produced and scheduled two months-worth of blog and twitter content to promote the festival.• Assisted in the production of text and images for the festival programme.• Developed informative and engaging written communication to attract online interest in the festival.• Provided support to the Africa APPG Coordinator at RAS, summarising policy reports, attending group meetings and ensuring I was up-to-date with political developments relating to the group’s interests.

• Provided introductory Swahili workshops and classes.• Taught school children Swahili during a workshop on music and language at SOAS.• Taught Swahili to undergraduate students at UCL as part of a global citizenship summer school.• Planned sessions and tailored them for the objectives of each class.• Ensured classes were age appropriate, entertaining the students in order to maintain engagement.• Maintained an essential level of clear and precise communication.• Developed a highly adaptable approach, structuring classes whilst remaining open to change at short notice in order to suit the needs of the students.