Field Staff and Program Co-Director

The Nature Connection Field Instructor/Co-director will serve as a primary, full-time, year-round field staff for Ravenwood as well as a member of the field and administrative team managing programs. This hire will work in a team with the other Nature Connection Leadership team staff to co-manage and co-lead field programs throughout the year. Through their work designing and implementing nature-based programs, this hire will help participants develop social-emotional learning and life skills such as self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making while connecting participants to the natural world. Administrative supporting duties include meeting and planning with the staff and admin team, communicating with parents, maintenance of gear and supplies, managing program logistics, writing and managing program grants, and other administrative duties as assigned. This hire will help support a regenerative work culture sustaining Ravenwood’s ability to create positive change into the future.

About Ravenwood

Ravenwood’s mission is to cultivate health, passion for learning, and stewardship of ecological and human communities through nature-based mentoring of youth, families, and community members. We stand up for equity and diversity in everything we do. Through quality mentoring, our mission connects us deeply to the land and to each other, creating cross-generational relationships filled with meaning, hope, and resilience. There are many distractions and obstacles in our fast-paced society, and an increasing number of negative trends—climate change, racism, sexism, homophobia, attention disorders, health issues, substance abuse, and more—all of which need our attention and action as a community. Ravenwood is here to help, a place for kids and adults to learn and grow into their highest potential, through natural and social connection.

Ravenwood strives to be respectful of Indigenous cultures, BIPOC people, and other under-represented groups in everything we do. Therefore, we have a policy to address the potential for cultural appropriation in our work: https://ravenwoodolc.org/policy-on-cultural-appropriation/

Compensation and Benefits

• $35,600-$38,000/year before taxes, DOE, as a regular monthly salary, at-will employment. 
• Paid vacation: 30 days available during particular times of year as dictated by school and program calendars.
• Staff Development: 5 days paid staff development time at primitive skills gatherings.
• Paid sick days
• Flexibility to trade field days with a co-worker in order to take additional personal days off
• Eligibility for employee benefits such as employer/employee-contributed simple IRA and HSA, dental/vision and other supplemental insurance and disability assistance.
• Educational training, materials, and expenses, subject to approval
• Work with highly creative people to cultivate a powerful learning culture for youth and adults alike
• Strong community support and opportunities to build meaningful relationships with local leaders, parents, elders, and children

Employment Period and Hours

• Position begins at the end of May, 2022. 
• Year-round, full-time career-level position
• The average hours per week over the whole year will be 40 but the actual field work week will fluctuate depending on the season and the frequency of scheduled program days, with increased field work during the warmer months and decreased field work during colder months.

Job qualifications, required:

• Strong group management, mentoring, and leadership skills for children and youth, including prior youth mentoring or education experience, which may constitute any of the following:
• Field experience, such as outdoor education, wilderness therapy, summer camps, after-school classes, or teaching in a classroom
• College-level coursework in relevant topics such as education, child development, outdoor recreation, or teaching certification
• Other experience leading children and youth, please explain
• Ability to work on your own with guidance, but minimal supervision, including a mature approach to communications, timeliness, and follow through, solution-based thinking and flexible, community-oriented mindset
• Ability to work within a consensus decision making model with an emphasis on personal responsibility, interdependence, and caretaking
• Ability to regularly commute to a variety of locations all over Flathead County, MT, primarily near Whitefish, Columbia Falls, Kalispell, and Bigfork
• Physical requirements: Play actively with children, lift and carry up to 50lbs for short periods of time, walk for extended periods over uneven, unpaved outdoor terrain while carrying a day pack, hear verbal communication and speak clear instructions, see well enough to keep track of children in varied natural environments
• Familiarity with the Google suite of apps including Docs, Sheets, Meet and Forms
• Strong communication skills in both verbal and written media
• Current certification in first aid and CPR required (online certification OK)

Job qualifications, preferred:

• Familiarity with at least one of the following outdoor education areas:
• Naturalist skills such as nature interpretation, botanizing, birding, animal tracking, foraging and/or sharing Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK)
• Wilderness living or survival skills such as making fire with few resources, orienting without map and compass, or making survival shelters
• Nature-based arts and crafts, ancestral arts, or primitive skills, such as hide tanning, basketry, flint knapping, ceramics, fiber arts, etc
• Nature-based mindfulness such as forest therapy or shinrin-yoku
• 8 Shields nature connection mentoring
• Wilderness First Aid/Responder or Wilderness EMT certification
• Some experience in nonprofit administration or small business management such as:
• Grant writing and management
• Social media and other outreach
• Fundraising
• Customer and donor relations management

Responsibilities

• Lead activities that connect youth with nature using universal nature-connection skills, crafts or cultural elements, such as nature-based games, fire by friction, ancestral arts and crafts, tracking, wildcrafting, stories, or songs
• Mentor youth and provide social-emotional and other learning supports, including inspiring youth to find their unique gifts and guide self-development through their connection with nature
• Plan, prepare supplies, and maintain tools and equipment as needed to be prepared for program activities
• Administrative and fundraising support, such as communicating with parents, maintenance of gear and supplies, managing program logistics, writing and managing grants, data entry, and other duties as assigned
• Work as a team with the other Nature Connection Lead staff to meet the above objectives, including meeting with during scheduled hours for planning and debriefing

How to apply:

Submit a letter of interest via email with resume and three professional references to Jay Bresee, Jay@ravenwoodolc.org. Selected candidates will be asked to schedule a personal interview (Zoom, telephone, or similar connection options are possible) at a mutually agreeable time.