Create Sheffield is looking for a Freelancer - Creative Youth Work Project
Do you have good connections with people and organisations who work in Sheffield’s Youth Work sector? Would you like to help them make better connections with creative practitioners and cultural organisations in the city? If so, we have an opportunity for you.
Closing date for applications is 10am Tuesday 19 May 2026. Read on for the full brief, or download it here.
The Role
We are looking for a well‑connected freelancer for a short‑term role focused on mapping the creative and cultural activity taking place within youth work settings across Sheffield. The work will involve making contact with youth workers and creative practitioners who are not part of our current network, finding out about what they do and then sharing that information with the Create Sheffield team.
The activity is about making initial connections that will inform a larger, longer-term project aimed at strengthening the links between arts, culture and youth work in the city. The insights and contacts generated will directly inform the next stages of the work, including an event scheduled for autumn 2026 in partnership with Sheffield Youth Alliance, and our planned Youth Proofing Sheffield Culture project (see below).
This role will be supported and managed by Laura Travis, Create Sheffield Manager, and the work needs to happen between June and September 2026.
Your responsibilities:
Represent the Create Sheffield network
Contact and connect with youth work settings across Sheffield via Sheffield Youth Alliance and other channels
Make contact and connections with individual creative practitioners, youth workers and people who work with young people but may not see themselves as a youth worker
Create and maintain a spreadsheet of the different creative and cultural activities on offer in Sheffield
Share contacts and leads with the Create Sheffield team
Visit youth work settings, talk to young people and see the creative and cultural work they are doing
What you’ll bring:
Exceptional people skills and ability to form effective relationships
Existing contacts in youth work settings across Sheffield
A proactive and open approach to making new contacts
A generous nature in terms of sharing contacts and leads
Good organisational skills to track and record contacts
A positive view of the arts, creativity and cultural activities, and how these can be beneficial to young people
Creativity and enthusiasm for the role
A focussed approach and an ability to deliver results
The ability to work independently and on own initiative as well as working with others
The time and capacity to work flexibly, including evenings and weekends, to visit youth work settings and attend activities
Fee
This role is offered on a freelance basis and there is a fee of £1000 to cover the work. The number of days worked will depend on your daily rate - please include this in your application.
There will be a separate budget for travel. This role will be based in Sheffield and will require a fair amount of travel across the city. Mileage (or public transport costs) will be paid for travel within the city, but you will be expected to be based either in the city or be able to easily travel to the city.
Terms and Conditions
Freelancers are required to obtain and maintain personal Public Liability Insurance and an up-to-date DBS check. You will be responsible for your own tax deductions and National Insurance contributions.
For more information
If you have any questions or for an informal chat about the role, please contact laura@createsheffield.co.uk.For more information on Create Sheffield, visit our website.
How to apply
Please submit your CV with a one page covering letter which outlines how you meet the requirements as well as the details of two references. Please include your daily rate and a rough timeframe of how you plan to use your time with your application.
Applications should be sent to laura@createsheffield.co.uk
Closing date for applications is 10am Tuesday 19 May 2026. Interviews will take place in person on Thursday 21 May at Learn Sheffield’s office in Albion House, Sheffield.
Please let us know with your application if you are unable to attend an interview in person in Sheffield on the above date.
We want this opportunity to be as accessible as possible and warmly welcome applications from people who are underrepresented in the creative and cultural sector. If you need this information in another format, or would like to talk through any access requirements or adjustments, please get in touch. You can read more in our EDI and Access Statement here.
Context
About Create Sheffield
Create Sheffield holds a unique position in connecting the city’s education, cultural, arts and youth sectors. Our core aim is to increase, improve and equalise cultural opportunities for children and young people, and our network is made up of partner organisations and individuals who share this mission. Our partners come from a wide range of settings and backgrounds, but all have an enthusiasm for how culture and creativity can enhance learning and lives.
By running events, facilitating projects, sharing knowledge, brokering introductions and providing support, we facilitate a trusted network that includes arts and cultural organisations, freelance artists, teachers and schools, community and strategic partners. We are a small organisation with a big reach: by bringing people together through our network, we allow them to do more together.
Growing and strengthening the Network
Sheffield's arts, cultural and youth sectors have much to offer each other - and often share similar aims in nurturing creativity in young people across Sheffield - but connections between them are not always strong. We have secured funding from Sheffield City Council to help address this. The funds will go towards identifying, engaging and consolidating connections between the youth work sector and our culture/creative partners, something we know there is demand for.
We know there is lots of great creative youth work happening across Sheffield — in community settings, faith settings and uniformed groups — but we think there is more we don't yet know about. Some youth work has a central creative focus, like the programmes run by TRACKS, Site Gallery and RivelinCo. In other settings, creative activity may be just one strand of a wider programme. We want to find out as much as we can about what’s happening – and that’s where you come in!
Youth Proofing Sheffield Culture
We are currently fundraising to establish a city-wide voice for young people to directly influence the future of culture. Drawing on research and best practice, ‘Youth Proofing’ will train young peer researchers to work with underrepresented voices and collaborate with creative practitioners and youth workers to strengthen provision. It will also challenge the sector to ensure they’re ready to listen and act. Now is the right time for this work as new cultural, national and local youth strategies provide collective momentum. Growing and strengthening our network to include more organisations and initiatives from Sheffield’s youth sector is key preparation for this work of ‘Youth Proofing’.
This role is supported by generous funding from Sheffield City Council, via the Cultural Networks Fund.
