Full-Time Manager of Education, Stewardship Team Support, and Measurement
Job Description
Reporting to the Associate Director (AD), the Manager of Education, Stewardship Team Support, and Measurement is a full time position that serves as a key leader of Boston Food Forest Coalition (BFFC) and is an active participant in making strategic decisions affecting the organization. This position is directly responsible for all food forest education programs, support of volunteer stewardship teams, and impact measurement. The successful candidate will design and implement educational programs for Boston neighbors to joyfully caretake their food forest parks and to run inclusive, effective volunteer stewardship teams. The Manager will carry out all aspects of education and stewardship team programming – from community engagement and design, to program management, to impact measurement, to strategy and systems development.
The Manager will have primary responsibility for establishing and implementing the infrastructure needed to continue and expand education programs, from financially sustainable budgeting, to ecologically-based learning programs.
BFFC is in an entrepreneurial stage of learning and growth in a cutting-edge field, with clear priorities centering diversity, equity, and inclusion. This requires all staff to think creatively, collaboratively, and with an action mindset.
Responsibilities
Run Education Programs for Food Forest Stewards & the General Public:
Prioritizing an equity-centered, inclusive, fun approach to learning and community engagement, the Manager role will run BFFC’s education programming, including:
- Education program design and implementation – with stakeholder voices/input at the center, the Manager role will design and implement education programs that support fun, hands-on knowledge and skill gain for stewardship teams to care for their food forests through the seasons. This will include designing (and sometimes delivering) educational workshops, creating food forest signage, managing and growing BFFC’s online resource library, advancing food forest assessment tools, and proactively testing other creative avenues for supporting stewardship team (and general public) learning and fun.
- Teacher network growth and support – engage with teachers, community members, and elders in the BFFC network to teach workshops for stewardship teams, support teachers’ learning and growth with tools and engagement opportunities, and grow and diversify the network of teachers that teach BFFC workshops.
- Annual city-wide summit and harvest festival – manage the planning and execution of a city-wide summit and harvest festival to support stewardship team learning, cross-Boston engagement and support, and help the coalition to “see itself” and develop a network of mutual aid.
- Education program measurement and learning – run measurement, learning, and improvement of education programs – survey/measurement tool building, data processing and learning, and proactively use data and learnings to make improvements weekly/monthly/yearly to program models and program delivery.
- Food forest health assessment – continue BFFC’s measurement of food forest and plant health tracking in partnership with stewardship teams. Tie insights and learning back to stewardship team care of food forests. Assess trends year-over-year of plant health and share insights with the food forest building team for adapting BFFC’s planting strategy as the climate changes.
- Systems building, administration – create systems and tools to manage the education program and budget effectively.
Manage Food Forest Stewardship Team Engagement & Support:
Taking a hands-on, in-community approach to stewardship team support, the Manager will:
- Engage proactively in community – attend regular stewardship team meetings and related community events to build deep relationships with food forest stewards. Stewardship team and community meetings typically happen in evenings and weekends after stewards are out of work, and must be attended by the Manager.
- Support stewardship team sustainability – support teams to build healthy team dynamics for inclusion and team sustainability. This can include informally by guiding / mentoring stewardship teams at their meetings, by joining them informally in the garden to help weed or plant, or by designing and delivering team-building training to stewardship teams, or other creative approaches.
- Build a culture of community resilience – help stewardship teams understand BFFC’s role as a community land trust, and stewards’ role as leaders with shared ownership of their food forests and the land trust as a whole. This can be through BFFC’s Memorandum of Special Stewardship, through new documents or trainings, and through the evergreen invitation to stewardship teams to adopt a collaborative orientation to their food forests, their neighbors, and stewardship teams in other neighborhoods.
- Support stewardship team engagement of neighbors and an ecological imagination – support teams in planning cultural events, workdays, etc to engage neighbors in the food forests and coalition. Invite stewards (and neighbors) to hold both a collaborative orientation with their neighbors to learn from and connect within neighborhoods as part of a “beloved community,” and to connect more deeply with nature in their food forests and beyond.
- Create a cross-Boston network of mutual aid – support stewardship teams in creating a network of mutual aid to proactively support each other across Boston, e.g., teams sharing plants, knowledge, and tools and resources. This can be woven through the Manager’s communication across stewardship teams, through a listserv, or other creative tools or methods.
- Systems building, administration – create systems and tools to manage the stewardship program and budget effectively.
Education & Stewardship Planning:
- Take the baton and drive a comprehensive education plan in partnership with the AD to achieve BFFC’s strategic objectives.
- Lead research of educational programming – e.g., climate change trends, advances in permaculture design/maintenance, etc – to position BFFC on the forefront of agroecology/permaculture and climate adaptability.
- Monitor and report regularly on the progress of education programs and stewardship team development; create and present analysis to board and senior members of the BFFC team.
- Proactively elicit and incorporate feedback from various stakeholders for learning, inclusion, and improvement
- Assist in proposal and grant writing for education program related grants.
*This is a new role for Boston Food Forest Coalition, so the right candidate must be willing to take on other responsibilities as this role and the organization evolve.
Qualifications
- Demonstrated commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
- At least 3 years of professional experience with demonstrated success in education program design and implementation (adult learning experience a plus!).
- Demonstrated knowledge in the field of permaculture / ecological agriculture / agroecology / food forest maintenance.
- Experience with nonprofit impact measurement practices, assessment tools (e.g., surveys), and making program improvements based on data.
- Ability to assess, package, and present program and impact data and learnings for organizational budgeting and decision-making.
- Action-oriented with a flexible and adaptable style.
- Excellent organizational skills and capacity to prioritize and manage time well, with strong attention to detail.
- Ability to work as a self-starter without oversight, and as a team player who productively engages with others within and outside the organization.
- Ability and desire to learn and grow in new situations and from mistakes; actively integrates feedback to improve.
- Ability to share a clear perspective, both oral and written.
- Experience proactively communicating goals and updates, and eliciting input from various stakeholders.
- Effective at cultivating external relationships and forging new partnerships.
- Familiar with using web browsers and Google suite tools (Gmail, Google Docs, Google Sheets), or similar with willingness to learn Google suite.
- Knowledge of Boston’s urban agriculture sector is a plus!
Benefits*
- Salary: $63,000
- Health Insurance
- 40 days Personal Time Off annually (includes: holidays, sick days, and vacation)
- Retirement match
- Professional development stipend
- Cell phone and laptop stipend
*BFFC is committed to internal equity for salary and benefits and therefore does not negotiate compensation.
Location
- This is a Boston, Massachusetts-based position that will require frequent travel between Boston neighborhoods.
- The position will include a mix of in-person and virtual/remote work, with significant time spent meeting with community members and supporting on-site food forest educational workshops, which will include frequent nights and weekends (e.g., attending a stewardship team meeting on Tuesday evenings, guiding a tree pruning workshop on a Saturday morning).
- BFFC is committed to sustainability and supports staff in taking time off to balance evening and weekend hours.
- We ask all staff to abide by COVID-19 guidance set by the City of Boston.
About Boston Food Forest Coalition
At the intersection of racial equity and climate resilience, the Boston Food Forest Coalition is a community of neighbors transforming vacant lots into public edible parks placed into permanent community control and ownership. Together, we are building resilience in Boston through more equitable access to healthy green space and greater connection to each other and the natural world. More information about BFFC is available on our website: https://bostonfoodforest.org/.
How to Apply
- Please submit a cover letter detailing your qualifications for this position, along with a resume to: hiring@bostonfoodforest.org.
- The email subject line must read: Your First & Last Name - Manager of Education, Stewardship Team Support, and Measurement.
- We will begin to review applications on April 11th, 2022 and will accept applications on a rolling basis until the position is filled.
- We will review all submissions, identify viable candidates, and contact only those individuals selected to continue in the search process.
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