earthday365
*Applicants must apply via the VISTA portal
Position Description
earthday365 is a nonprofit whose mission is to inspire and mobilize a collaborative movement towards an equitable and environmentally sustainable St. Louis region – every day. We have a major focus on centering equity within the environmental movement, and for that reason we have worked to incorporate environmental justice into each of our programs. This position would be focusing on our Green Dining Alliance and Environmental Justice Days of Action programs to collaborate in solidarity with under-resourced communities by connecting them with resources focused on illegal dumping, food insecurity, and plastic pollution within watersheds.
The Green Dining Alliance, or GDA, is a sustainability certification program with a network of 84 restaurants in the St. Louis region who are audited annually using a 700 point sustainability audit. The GDA Program Manager has been working with a cohort of community leaders who care about vacancy and plastic litter, and have been identifying businesses and restaurants to reach out to and offer education, plastic-free alternatives, and grants to help switch to single-use plastic alternatives.
The Environmental Justice Days of Action program has held 38 clean-ups and garden days in neighborhoods experiencing illegal dumping and food apartheid, which have collected over 57,928 lbs of illegally dumped trash to date. These Days of Action partner with community groups already focused on illegal dumping, and bring resources such as volunteer outreach, promotion, safety training, food, restrooms, dumpsters, tools, bags, and gloves.
This VISTA assignment is part of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 7 Green VISTA Corps Program which seeks to help historically underserved communities support environmental stewardship and anti-poverty efforts. The program is focused on creating new partnerships with local organizations to support capacity-building projects that will support poverty alleviation and advance efforts to protect human health and the environment.
This is an AmeriCorps Green VISTA Corps position and pay is structured through the AmeriCorps stipend of $877.66 bi-weekly for a year long placement salary of $22,819 with additional benefits offered through AmeriCorps and earthday365 including:
- Choice of education award or end of service stipend upon successful completion of service.
- Health benefits
- Student loan forbearance
- Child care (if eligible)
- Federal jobs non-competitive eligibility for 1 year after service
- Professional Development
- Relocation Allowance (if eligible)
- Transportation Assistance and mileage reimbursement.
- The organization is also piloting a 4 day workweek (32 hrs/wk).
Specific duties may include but are not limited to the following:
- Organize, support, and attend Environmental Justice Days of Action (EJDA)
- Develop partnerships with additional schools and faith communities
- Contribute to outreach and promotion of events to gain volunteers
- Facilitate and gather input and feedback from community forums
- Develop and test educational programming when requested by community organizations
- Recruit businesses to join the Green Dining Alliance (GDA) and assist with GDA outreach such as determining composting subsidies and identifying single-use plastic alternatives.
Supervision & Collaboration:
The EJ Outreach VISTA position reports to the Director of Operations and the Executive Director and works closely with the GDA Program Manager and Outreach Manager.
Application candidate attributes and skills should include:
Required
- Proficiency in basic office software (Google Drive, Excel, Word and Powerpoint) and a talent for spreadsheets
- Demonstrated excellence in public speaking, writing, and creative problem-solving
- Demonstrated competency in completing internet research
- Detail-oriented; able to handle multiple tasks and to work independently
- Strong interest in/understanding of environmental issues
- Excellent time management skills
- Ability to work weekends and evenings periodically
Desired
- Experience in sustainability-related field
- Previous community outreach experience
- Experience with Google Documents and various social networking tools
BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ candidates are encouraged to apply.
*Applicants must apply via the VISTA portal
