Nearly ten years ago The Nature Conservancy officially added "people" to our vision statement. It reflected years of good work in partnership with farmers, ranchers and fishermen, and formalized a recognition that people are – and always have been – an integral part of nature. The North America Cities Network is expanding that vision through a core philosophy that benefits for people in urban areas are no longer just a "co-benefit" of ecological goals. We seek to pursue projects that benefit both people and nature, and serve to improve public health, resilience and social cohesion of the neighborhoods where we work. The Community Engagement Program Specialist contributes to the analysis and development of urban conservation strategies in support of The Nature Conservancy’s North America Cities Network. The Community Engagement Program Specialist will report to the North America Cities Manager.
The Community Engagement Program Specialist will work towards meeting the strategic priorities of The Nature Conservancy’s North America Cities Network, which develops and implements natural solutions and conservation as essential components of healthy, just and climate-resilient cities. The Network is collectively demonstrating the role that nature plays in addressing the key challenges facing cities, leading science and policy initiatives, and working with new and nontraditional partners to make cities equitable, safer, more sustainable places to live. By supporting on-the-ground programs across 22 cities and elevating their efforts, we advance research and understanding of the human dimensions of this work, share best practices across the Conservancy and work collaboratively with partners, neighborhood groups and communities to identify innovative ways to protect the natural resources on which cities depend and enhance the well-being of city residents, particularly of underresourced and frontline communities.
The Community Engagement Program Specialist will apply key topical expertise to analyze and drive strategy development and implementation of community based urban conservation efforts across our 22 Network cities. They will track and/or assess current outreach and community engagement practices, bringing together guidance, resources and curricula to support the adoption of key strategies throughout North America Cities. They liaise with other TNC staff, notably city leads as well as external partners as applicable, to help drive the implementation of the Network’s community engagement strategy, and associated projects in our 22 Network cities, developing action kits, reports, and network-wide resources, as well as tailoring network resources for city-specific programs.
RESPONSIBILITIES AND SCOPE
- Manage projects on a large geographic scale, encompassing multiple programs and coordinating the work of other professionals inside and outside the organization.
- Leveraging the work to date, provide strategic analysis and support the development of community engagement strategies that serve to advance the field of urban conservation.
- Inventory existing tools, assets and efforts and identify metrics that can be used to enhance and evaluate planning.
- Develop and implement curriculum of online and in-person trainings to build accountability, skills and experience of Network members to carry out equitable, inclusive, effective and meaningful community engagement.
- Work in a matrixed environment across the Cities Network, collaborating with numerous chapters and inter-office teams including, policy and communications to determine appropriate outreach priorities and opportunities.
- Implement meetings, surveys, and other ways for communicating with, and receiving feedback from, city leads and community initiatives to understand and feed into development of overall Cities Network engagement strategy.
- Responsible for developing action kits and reports that collect and integrate lessons-learned from the Cities Network and highlights effective approaches to community engagement in cities.
- Create qualitative mechanisms that seek to measure the human dimensions alongside more traditional metrics of urban conservation engagement initiatives.
- Tracking and reporting of outreach success based on geography and constituencies.
- Participate in Network activities, strategic planning meetings, convenings and retreats.
- Coordinates faith-based partnerships and opportunities, training and information dissemination across the Cities Network
MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS
- 4 years related experience or equivalent combination of education and experience.
- Hands-on knowledge of best practices for community engagement.
- Experience working across differences such as race, culture, disabilities, socio-economic class and language groups.
- Familiarity and some application of current and evolving trends in urban conservation.
- Experience in organizing and facilitating meetings and/ or trainings.
- Participatory research and project management experience.
- Experience critically analyzing, and evaluating information from divergent sources and compiling it into cohesive reports and recommendations for strategy and action.
- Experience using Microsoft Office; Outlook, Word, Excel.
DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS
- Ensures a coordinated, equitable and strategic approach to community outreach and engagement.
- Equity-minded with a desire for continued learning about socio-historical context of historic underrepresentation, questioning assumptions, and making evidence-based decisions a regular practice.
- Experience working with clergy and faith leaders, and who has the broad skills and passion needed to meaningfully engage diverse faith communities.
- Experience supporting complex projects and strategic initiatives in an unstructured environment.
- Self-starter with ability to generate work plans with limited support.
- Experience contributing to major strategy assessments.
- Strong team player who can build relationships and work collaboratively across the organization and with program partners.
- Ability to build buy-in, influence, and rally partners toward outcomes.
- Outstanding oral and written communication skills.
- Level of comfort within, and appetite for, change management.
- Multi-lingual skills appreciated