Position Location: Millside Centre, Coquitlam, BC

Application Deadline: Application Review will start January 22nd; group interview February 8.

The Position 

Do you love working with kids and youth outside, sharing knowledge of plants, and helping build deep connections with place? Do you thrive in complexity and work well in a small team? Are you excited to learn and grow, and share what you’ve learned with others? You could be our new Millside Centre Youth Program Coordinator!

Under the supervision of the Director of Experiential Learning Programs, the Millside Centre (MC) Youth Program Coordinator will work closely with the MC Farm Coordinator to coordinate and facilitate programs for K-12 youth to build connections with the Millside site and Fresh Roots’ work growing and sharing food and medicine plants, and to maintain our food and medicine garden, orchard, and forest as engaging learning spaces.

In spring and fall, you will lead fun, hands-on educational programs for K-12 students from MC and field trips from other area schools. You’ll be teaching about sustainable farming/gardening, traditional Indigenous plant foods and medicines, food systems, and ecology. You’ll also support Vancouver field trips, especially April-mid May and October.

In the summer, you’ll be site coordinator for our summer programs, especially the SOYL (Sustainable Opportunities in Youth Leadership) program for youth in grades 9-12. You’ll work closely with the SOYL staff to plan and coordinate the SOYL program at Millside, and act as support staff for the SOYL team during the program. You’ll also run 10 weekly on-site markets with the MC Farm Coordinator and supervise SOYL youth at market in July and early August.

We are looking for a skilled facilitator with experience working in outdoor or garden-based education and with/in Indigenous communities, however we will train less experienced applicants who are motivated to learn.

Essential Responsibilities

• Building relationships with people from diverse backgrounds and in a wide variety of roles, including kids, youth, school staff, Indigenous knowledge keepers, and community partners
• Facilitating youth programs using existing lesson plans and developing and documenting new lesson plans to meet learning goals
• Program administration, including teacher communication
• Becoming a “Millside Centre Expert” to support seasonal staff
• Making good decisions with the needs of Fresh Roots, our participants, the school district, other important communities, and the land in mind.
• Setting a positive tone and contributing to a supportive, collaborative culture
• Following and enforcing all policies and procedures to ensure participant and staff health and safety

Qualifications

We recognize that applicants from oppressed groups, including folks who are Black, Indigenous, & People of Color (BIPOC), and Women may be hesitant to apply for positions where they don’t perfectly meet the listed qualifications. If you are excited about the job description, believe you could learn to perform the essential responsibilities and can meet the essential qualifications, we encourage you to apply!

Essential Qualifications

• Experience/training in education, Indigenous land-based learning, group facilitation, land and food systems, museums, agriculture, ecology, or other related fields
  • Experience includes formal or informal work or volunteer experience. Training includes formal education or informal learning.
• Excited to facilitate hands-on learning for groups of up to 30 in a fully outdoor setting
• Able to teach in English and communicate clearly verbally and in writing
• Comfortable using web-based technology and willing to learn new systems
• Able to prioritize and balance many different tasks
• Physically able to work outdoors in all conditions for up to 8 hours a day and lift and carry up to 25 lbs.
• Able to pass a criminal record check for working with vulnerable populations
• Current First Aid with CPR-C or better required before programs start
• This position is funded in large part through federal youth employment grants; in order to qualify for this funding the applicant must be less than 30 years old, and a Canadian citizen or permanent resident or have refugee status

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience living in or working closely with Indigenous and BPOC communities, especially Kwikwetlem First Nation
• Knowledge of Indigenous plants and ecologies common in the Lower Mainland
• Experience with gardening/farming, cooking, food preservation, medicine making, or other ways of using plants
• Experience working with youth from diverse backgrounds and with exceptionalities
• Able to teach in French
• Able to speak additional languages is a plus. Languages spoken in our communities include Hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓, Cantonese, Mandarin, Korean, Iranian, Persian, Spanish, Tagalog, Russian, Punjabi, and Arabic.

Key Details 

• Location: Millside Centre in Coquitlam with occasional work in Vancouver.
• Dates: Mid-March to end of October. 
• Hours: Full-time (37.5 hrs/week on average). Expect more hours July-August and less in spring and fall.  
• Schedule: Monday - Friday. Hours typically fall between 8am-5:30 pm. Must be available to work until 7pm on Thursdays mid-June through August.
• Pay Rate: $21-24/hour, DOE.
• Benefits: Benefits include supplemental medical, dental, and vision coverage (after 3 months), generous paid vacation and sick time, and ongoing professional development opportunities.
• Funding Note: Position is funding dependent. Start and end dates may change depending on funding.

How to Apply 

Fresh Roots is committed to employment equity and encourages applications from underrepresented groups. 

Apply directly through our site with a resume/description of past experience and your choice of: a short cover letter (500 words max) uploaded as a document, OR an introduction video (3 minutes max) linked in the “website, blog, or portfolio” line.

Your cover letter or video should introduce yourself and share why you are a good fit for this position. Please let your passion and personality shine! 

Please note that we are not judging videos based on your video editing skills, and neither videos nor cover letters are preferred. Choose the option that is best for you.

Qualified candidates for this and other seasonal positions will be invited to a group interview at Millside Centre on February 8; Zoom interviews will be available for candidates who cannot make the group interview.

We regret that due to the high volume of applicants only those selected for interviews will be contacted.