Manager of Education and Food Forest Care

Reporting to the Associate Director (AD), the Manager of Education & Food Forest Care is a full time position that serves as a key leader of Boston Food Forest Coalition (BFFC), directly responsible for all food forest education programs, support of volunteer stewardship teams, and impact measurement. The Manager will design and implement educational programs for Boston neighbors to joyfully caretake their food forest parks and to run inclusive, effective volunteer stewardship teams. This role will carry out all aspects of education and stewardship team programming – from community engagement and design, to program management, to impact measurement, to strategy and systems development.

The Manager also will have primary responsibility for establishing and implementing the infrastructure needed to continue and expand education programs, from financially sustainable budgeting, to ecologically-based learning programs. 

BFFC is in an entrepreneurial stage of learning and growth in a cutting-edge field, with clear priorities centering diversity, equity, and inclusion. This requires all staff to think creatively, collaboratively, and with an action mindset.

IMPORTANT NOTE: This is an exciting in-the-field based role that requires the majority of time to be spent at food forests and supporting stewardship teams, balanced with planning, operations, and other computer work. The role consists of organizing meetings with community members, supporting maintenance of food forests (e.g., physical work weeding, harvesting food), building stewardship teams (e.g., door knocking), and leading on-site food forest educational workshops. The role requires weekly nights and weekends (e.g., attending stewardship team meetings on weekday evenings, guiding a tree pruning workshop on a Saturday morning).

*This is a new role for Boston Food Forest Coalition, so the right candidate must be willing to take on other responsibilities as this role and the organization evolve.

Responsibilities

Develop & Run Education Programs for Food Forest Stewards & the General Public: 

Prioritizing an equity-centered, inclusive, fun approach to learning and community engagement, the Manager role will run BFFC’s education programming, including:

• Design and implement education programs that support fun, hands-on knowledge and skill gain for stewardship teams to care for their food forests, including designing and implementing a new food forest certificate program for stewards, similar to a Permaculture Design Course. 
• Manage BFFC’s educational workshops, cooking demos, and technical assistance to stewardship teams to care for their food forests effectively. 
• Manage and grow BFFC’s supplementary educational programs – food forest educational signage, BFFC’s stewardship guidebook, food forest assessment tools, and proactively test other creative avenues for supporting stewardship teams to care for their food forests. 
• Manage all operational logistics and systems for a transparent, well-organized, detail-oriented educational program (e.g., tracking workshops, attendees, online registration, workshop teachers, curriculum and online resources, etc). 
• Engage with teachers, community members, and elders in the BFFC network to teach workshops for stewardship teams and grow and diversify the network of teachers that teach BFFC workshops.
• In partnership with the Manager of Community Engagement, manage the planning and execution of BFFC’s annual city-wide summit, Stewarding Change, and other cross-coalition events that support stewardship team care of food forests and stronger community resilience within and across Boston neighborhoods.
• Administer and improve BFFC’s two pilot funds that support stewardship teams with maintenance of food forests & equitable participation in stewardship teams.
• Run measurement, learning, and improvement of education programs – proactively analyze data to present to staff and board, and make improvements to the program model and delivery.
• In partnership with the Food Forest Builder, lead BFFC’s measurement of food forest and plant health tracking; support stewardship teams to integrate learnings in their care of food forests, and share insights with the food forest construction team.
• Work with the Associate Director to build out a team who supports stewards in food forest maintenance and technical assistance, and manage members of that team using inclusive and goal-oriented management practices. (Fundraising dependent.)
• Create systems and tools to manage the education and stewardship programs and budget effectively. 
• Lead research of educational programming – e.g., climate change trends, advances in permaculture design/maintenance, etc – to position BFFC on the forefront of agroecology/permaculture, climate resilience, and community resilience.
• Assist in proposal and grant writing for education program related grants.

 

Manage Food Forest Stewardship Team Engagement & Support:

Taking a hands-on, in-community approach to stewardship team support, the Manager will:

• Attend regular stewardship team meetings and related community events to build deep relationships with food forest stewards. Stewardship team and community meetings typically happen in evenings and weekends after stewards are out of work, and must be attended by the Manager.
• Provide weekly technical assistance to stewardship teams to care for their food forests and engage their community, e.g., pruning, harvesting, planting, maintenance, cooking, door knocking, events, etc. 
• Support stewardship teams to build healthy team dynamics for inclusion and team sustainability, and a culture of community resilience.
• Support stewardship teams in planning cultural events, workdays, etc to engage neighbors in the food forests and coalition to connect more deeply with nature, food, and each other.
• Support stewardship teams in creating a network of mutual aid to proactively support each other across Boston, e.g., teams sharing plants, knowledge, and tools and resources. 

Qualifications

• Demonstrated commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
• At least 5 years of professional experience with demonstrated success in education program design and implementation (adult learning experience a plus!).
• Demonstrated knowledge in the field of permaculture, ecological agriculture,  agroecology, and/or food forest maintenance.
• Entrepreneurial with strong community organizing experience and an ability to share a vision and support volunteer leadership bring the vision to life.
• Experience with nonprofit impact measurement practices, assessment tools (e.g., surveys), and making program improvements based on data.
• Ability to assess, package, and present program and impact data and learnings for organizational budgeting and decision-making.
• Action-oriented with strong creativity and problem-solving skills to navigate complex community dynamics in Boston.
• Excellent organizational skills and capacity to prioritize and manage time well, with strong attention to detail.
• Ability to work as a self-starter without oversight, and as a team player who productively engages with others within and outside the organization.
• Ability and desire to learn and grow in new situations and from mistakes; actively integrates feedback to improve.
• Ability to share a clear perspective, both oral and written.
• Experience proactively communicating goals and progress on workstreams.
• Effective at cultivating external relationships and forging new partnerships.
• Familiar with using web browsers and Google suite tools (Gmail, Google Docs, Google Sheets), or similar with willingness to learn Google suite.
• Knowledge of Boston’s urban agriculture sector is a plus!

Benefits

• Salary: $67,410*
• Health Insurance
• 40 days Personal Time Off annually (includes: holidays, sick days, and vacation)
• Retirement match
• Professional development stipend
• Cell phone and laptop stipend 
• Travel stipend
  *BFFC is committed to internal equity for salary and benefits and therefore does not negotiate compensation. 

Location

• This is a Boston, Massachusetts-based position that requires frequent travel between Boston neighborhoods.
• The position requires a mix of in-person and remote work. BFFC is committed to sustainability and supports staff in taking time off to balance evening and weekend hours.
• We ask all staff to abide by COVID-19 guidance set by the City of Boston.

Apply

• Please submit an application in this form.

• We will accept applications on a rolling basis until the position is filled.
• We will review all submissions, identify viable candidates, and contact only those individuals selected to continue in the search process.

Boston Food Forest Coalition is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We actively seek a diverse pool of candidates for this position.

About Boston Food Forest Coalition

At the intersection of racial equity and climate resilience, the Boston Food Forest Coalition is a community of neighbors transforming vacant lots into public edible parks placed into permanent community control and ownership. Together, we are building resilience in Boston through more equitable access to healthy green space and greater connection to each other and the natural world. More information about BFFC is available on our website: https://bostonfoodforest.org/.