Senior Project Associate with Environmental NonProfit

Senior Project Associate with Environmental NonProfit  

The Center for Creative Land Recycling

Full- time position/ non-exempt/virtual with California residency required.

About the Organization
The Center for Creative Land Recycling’s mission is simple: drive responsible, equitable, and sustainable development on land that’s already been used. By cleaning up and building on underutilized and potentially contaminated land (sometimes known as “brownfields”), communities preserve open space, remove environmental contaminants, and create the kinds of vibrant neighborhoods where people want to  live and work.  CCLR is a national organization with its headquarters in California. New state and federal funding is driving land reuse across the country, and CCLR is going through an exciting stage of growth. We currently have nearly two dozen staff and consultants who support our work.  We have successfully assisted in bringing hundreds of millions of dollars into communities for property assessment and clean up and trained over 10,000 land reuse practitioners on webinars and in person meetings. To learn more about CCLR, visit www.cclr.org.

Position Overview
Reporting to senior staff,  the Senior Project Associate (Sr PA) will work independently and demonstrate leadership in assisting CCLR’s communications and delivery of  educational services. CCLR works  under contracts with CA Department of Toxic Substance Control (DTSC) and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).  In this capacity, the Sr PA will be responsible for communications and outreach efforts to draw in applicants for grant funding in disadvantaged communities. The ideal candidate will have a track record in organizing in-person events and webinars, have excellent organization, time management, and communication skills and have experience in project management.  The Sr PA will work with the whole team, but primarily with the Program Manager to guide both DTSC’s ECRG (Equitable Community Revitalization Grant) and Technical Assistance Grant (TAG) programs under DTSC’s Clean Up in Vulnerable Communities Initiative.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities include the following:

The Equitable Community Revitalization Grant (ECRG) is a $270 million grant program that supports assessments and cleanup of contaminated properties in high environmental justice communities. In support of this program, the Sr PA will conduct these activities:

Outreach/Education: Work with CCLR’s Communications Manager to promote events including drafting event description, session blurbs, event graphics, and developing the e-blasts in Mailchimp. Candidate will help organize promotional and outreach campaigns and engage in timely distribution of ECRG/TAG grant program information through all media channels – email, website, social media, and promotional online and in-person events.
Material development and dissemination: Candidate will assist program and technical staff to develop collateral material around specific topics related to equitable brownfield development and ECRG/TAG awardee success stories.
Manage Logistics: Steward all logistics surrounding the organization and delivery of online and in-person events for DTSC’s ECRG and TAG programs, including:
– Set up and oversee online registration
– Add webinars to CCLR’s website (wordpress)
– Identify and prep the appropriate online platform for virtual events
 – Support grant applicant technical assistance sessions
Prepping Speakers and Staff: Ensure speakers and event staff are prepared and understand their roles, responsibilities, and deliverables. This includes scheduling and leading dry-runs, drafting event playbooks, and sending reminder emails.
Community Engagement: Work on expanding our outreach list and conduct phone or in-person meetings with community partners.
Event Development: For in-person events, oversee and direct all on-the-ground activities. For online events, manage the back-end of the chosen virtual platform (Zoom, GoToWebinar, etc.)
Tracking and Evaluation: Work with the Program Manager to track the number and type of events CCLR organizes and evaluate event success using online and printed surveys.
Program Reporting: Create a monthly dashboard of metrics for DTSC from CCLR’s Salesforce. Use Clickup or project management software to insert tasks/deliverables by date.
For The Technical Assistance Grant (TAG) program development:

This program provides small grants to support communities with environmental justice concerns to hire a qualified technical advisor and engage in citizen science and/or community involvement to address brownfield properties. The PA will support TAG in much the same way as with the ECRG including organizing webinars and conducting outreach, but will be more active in application development and scoring and providing grant support assistance in consultation with technical staff.  Community-facing engagement is a critical component of this position.

The ideal candidate will have the following experience and qualifications: 

– B.A. or B.S. in Communications,  Urban Planning,  Social or Environmental Sciences, or other related studies that have contributed to knowledge of the land reuse field.
– A minimum of  four to six years of proven project management and/or program design/development experience.
– Lived experience in communities experiencing environmental justice and community-forward engagement
 – Experience with a range of communications, meeting, project management, and graphic design software such as Clickup,  Salesforce, Calendly, Mailchimp, SurveyMonkey, Zoom, and Canva.
– Ability to prioritize multiple tasks, meet firm deadlines and work independently.
– Personal and professional experience with and commitment to social and environmental justice.
– Demonstrated knowledge and experience in grassroots organizing and/or educational, community-oriented events around land reuse and social/environmental justice.
– Superior oral communication, writing, editing, and proofreading skills.
 – Self-starter with strong experience working independently.
– Bi-lingual preferred.

Position: This position will be virtual but residence in California is required. Candidates must have regular access to wifi needed to execute the role.

Compensation and Benefits

Applications will be reviewed until the position is filled. This is a full-time, non-exempt staff position. The salary range will be between $27 – $35 an hour (or $56,160 – $72,800 a year), commensurate with experience and qualifications.  There is an opportunity for a performance bonus. Benefits include health care reimbursement, two week paid vacation and two week sick leave to start, and IRA retirement savings account with employer match.

CCLR values an organizational culture that is respectful and collaborative, and strives to help each staff member to grow and develop professionally. We are an equal opportunity employer that highly values diversity. We seek talented and qualified individuals regardless of age, ancestry, color, creed, ethnicity, gender identity, marital status, military obligations, national origins, physical abilities, race, religion, socio-economic status, sexual orientation and veteran status.

TO APPLY: please send your cover letter and resume to careers@cclr.org with your name and SrProject Associate in the subject line. Your application will not be considered without a cover letter.