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- PLEASE NOTE: A cover letter is required when applying for this job. In your letter, please describe, as specifically as you can, how your experience, interests, and values are a good fit for this position and with EarthCorps. In addition, please share how your lived and/or professional experiences inform your understanding of what it means to be anti-racist.
ABOUT EARTHCORPS
EarthCorps is a Seattle-based non-profit that cultivates leaders and community partnerships to advance environmental justice. We believe in the power of people – acting through their collective responsibility to one another and our planet – to tackle the most pressing challenges facing our world. We envision an equitable world where all people and nature thrive together. EarthCorps is committed to becoming a more liberated and anti-racist organization. Through a lens of diversity, equity, and inclusion, EarthCorps is building a network of leaders who have the cultural competency and skills to build a new future, while restoring vital lands and waters and connecting people to nature. This work is ongoing and the organization is committed to being transparent with program participants about our work, as well as including their input to drive the direction of the organization towards a healthier, equitable, and sustainable community for us all. To cultivate this important work, we train young leaders in ecological restoration. We bring together young adults – who we call corps members - from the US and across the globe for an environmental leadership development and green-jobs training program where we care for the lands and waters of Puget Sound. Corps members gain hands-on leadership experience, cross-cultural skills, and learn technical environmental restoration while building a close-knit community as they care for our natural world. These emerging environmental leaders “think globally and act locally” in leading community volunteers to complete restoration projects such as native tree planting, invasive plant removal, salmon stream restoration, wetland and shoreline restoration, and trail construction. Under new leadership EarthCorps is embarking on our next chapter: we are in the early stages of implementing a new Strategic Plan, a bold guide that is leading us as we transform our organization to meet the environmental justice and racial equity needs of today. Come be a part of the transformation of this organization!
COMMITMENT TO RACIAL EQUITY
EarthCorps strongly believes in the values of racial equity, diversity, and inclusion. EarthCorps works to ensure that everyone feels engaged and supported in all areas of the organization's operations as we work to become a fully inclusive, multi-cultural, and anti-racist organization.
CREW MEMBER PROGRAM:
The EarthCorps program is an opportunity to gain hands on experience in environmental restoration. Crew Members will serve on crews of 5-7 members led by an EarthCorps crew leader. Crew members will make a difference on the land through on-the-ground restoration projects throughout Western Washington. Colonization, resource extraction, development, urbanization and agriculture activities have degraded air, water and soil quality, and destroyed natural habitats. Ecological restoration is one tool to address these impacts and care for our land. Crews at EarthCorps have an opportunity to directly improve the resiliency of our land by restoring habitat, improving water and air quality, reducing erosion, sequestering carbon and engaging the broader community to become stewards of our shared resource. In addition to impactful service, corps members have the opportunity to grow professionally and personally through training, engaging with environmental agencies, collaborating with staff, providing feedback, and practicing structured reflection. Corps members learn valuable team building skills as they work on their communication skills, conflict resolution management, and leadership capacity. This position is managed by an EarthCorps program manager and supervised by EarthCorps project managers and is offered through the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS). As such, all applicants must meet the requirements to become an AmeriCorps member and abide by AmeriCorps policies.
PROGRAM OPPORTUNITIES, RESPONSIBILITIES & INTENDED OUTCOMES:
FIELD SERVICE (80% of program) Crews complete restoration projects in partnership with various land management agencies, throughout the Puget Sound region (in urban, suburban, and rural settings). Crews are introduced to a broad range of project sites, different techniques and approaches to ecological restoration. This broad exposure will provide participants with skills to implement best management practices in restoration, an appreciation of the challenges of restoration and an understanding of the field of environmental restoration work. To better understand the types of projects crews work on please review some project overviews: linked here.
Project Implementation: Crew Members are responsible for the efficiency of accomplishing projects and the quality of the final product under supervision from project staff. All corps Members and staff are responsible for the safety of themselves, their fellow workers, and members of the public who may be involved with projects.
What type of service will Crew Members perform?
Field Service Projects (and estimates of their typical percentage of the program):
- Initial invasive plant removal (manual/ mechanical) 25%
- Invasive plant control (herbicide) 20%
- Native plant installation (planting) 15%
- Stewardship/ Site maintenance 20%
- Trail construction/maintenance 20%
Multiple camping trips. Camping trips provide corps members a chance to learn or practice camping skills as well as deepen team development. Most organized camping trips are done in a front country (non-wilderness) setting. Typical duration of these trips is 3-4 nights, with the potential for a 10day trip as well. Annually, the number of nights camped ranges from 25-40 nights, roughly equivalent to 1-2 weeks of camping per month.
TRAINING AND WORKSHOPS (20% of the program) EarthCorps is a service-learning program. This means in addition to learning from fieldwork, corps members will attend trainings that develop skills and context for restoration activities. Facilitators will use a combination of lectures, discussions, reflections, site tours and hands-on assignments. The following range of topics introduces corps members to the field of restoration and develops interpersonal skills:
Habitat Restoration:
- Ecology, Land Management, Restoration Theory and Skills
- Pacific Northwest natural history and plant identification
- Exposure to the restoration industry and local environmental network
Community building:
- Environmental justice and anti-racism
- Exposure to local community organizations and land acknowledgement workshops
- Progressing diversity, equity, and inclusion goals within the corps and organization
Leadership:
- Understanding of leadership theory and personal leadership style
- Collaboration in a small team and community building across teams at EarthCorps
Successful applicants will demonstrate the following:
- Ability and desire to work hard, outdoors and in all weather conditions
- Commitment to cooperation and teamwork
- Commitment to integrating social, racial, and economic justice lenses to our work
- Eligibility for AmeriCorps and ability to complete term of service
- Commitment to following EarthCorps’ COVID-19 policies
- Ability to lift up to 50 pounds (22.5 kg); Hike up to 8 miles (13 km) in steep terrain while carrying 40 pounds (18kg) of weight
- Experience in the outdoors or physical labor
- Commitment to community service and previous experience in volunteer service
- Enthusiasm for environmental conservation, science, recreation, or other related fields
- Capacity to learn and grow in a service-based training position
Environmental restoration is a physically, mentally, and emotionally demanding service that takes place outdoors in all weather conditions. Service regularly involves:
- Long days of repetitively swinging heavy tools, shoveling, digging, and pulling.
- Heavy lifting up to 50 lbs. and bending
- Physically demanding activities, eating, and camping outdoors in all weather conditions such as rain, heat, smoke, wind, and snow.
- Safely handling herbicides with proper training.
- Interacting and collaborating with others daily online and in-person
Please consider the nature of the work prior to applying and contact us if you have any specific questions or concerns.
Corps Members will be expected to follow additional procedures relating to public health and the mitigation of the spread of COVID-19, while in the field and out. This may include the wearing of face coverings and necessary distancing between crew members in the field, among other crew protocol. All Corps Members must be fully vaccinated by an authorized COVID-19 vaccine before beginning their service.
CORPS MEMBER TERMS OF SERVICE:
- PERIOD OF SERVICE: January 22, 2024 – November 22, 2024
- RATE OF PAY: Living stipend of $2,979/mo (before taxes). Monthly housing stipend of $340.
- TYPICAL HOURS OF SERVICE: 7:30 a.m. - 5 p.m. Monday – Friday, alternating Mondays off, occasional Saturdays required.
- STATUS: Temporary - Enrolled in AmeriCorps through the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS). AmeriCorps members must abide by policies set by CNCS and complete 1,700 hours of service, including mandatory trainings
Criminal history checks and 2 references will be reviewed to fulfill AmeriCorps requirements
BENEFITS:
- AmeriCorps education award up to $6,495 upon completion of 1,700 hours
- Days off, Holidays and sick time permissible as designated by EarthCorps
- Medical, Vision, and Dental Insurance
- Subsidized ORCA Pass for bus transportation
- Education & Training
- Boots, pants, t-shirt, rain gear and safety equipment provided
We encourage applicants from all racial, ethnic, religious and socioeconomic backgrounds, sexual orientations, and gender identities to apply, especially those from historically marginalized communities.