Empower urban youth through environmental exploration and leadership in New Haven, CT!

Overview of Solar Youth, Inc.:

Solar Youth empowers youth from New Haven’s low income neighborhoods to achieve lifelong success. Through programs that connect youth to the environment, their communities and each other, youth build the skills and motivations necessary to be positive contributors to their community, have healthy relationships, be physically and mentally healthy, and become economically self-sufficient.

Are you looking for an exciting opportunity to lead the development of a program that helps young people succeed? That creates meaningful opportunities for youth to build the skills they need to succeed while also making an impact on their communities and environment?

Solar Youth's Green Jobs Youth Development program is in need of a strong, creative leader. This position recruits and leads teenage interns to create and initiate service projects to improve the environment in their public housing neighborhood. Projects may include gardening, landscaping, trail maintenance and others they envision as a team. Regular opportunities for outdoor leadership, hands-on environmental education, job skills, personal development and goal setting are included. This program provides inner-city youth with positive supports and challenging opportunities to understand, appreciate, and ultimately affect change in their local environment, all while building the skills and motivations to become confident, capable individuals prepared for the future. Over time we want to expand the program to serve more youth in more neighborhoods.

Solar Youth is seeking an individual with a passion for environmental education and outdoor work and a commitment to teen youth development. We are looking for someone interested in developing, establishing and cultivating a meaningful program for young people facing major life challenges; someone who sees a setback as a challenge, loves working with teenagers and is a creative problem solver. We are looking for someone interested in building connections to run this program with the aim of establishing a solid, sustainable, empowering curriculum for the long term. Is that you?

Start Date: Position starts January/February 2017

Pay: Dependent on experience

Hours: 40 hours per week

Longevity: Full time spring with a possibility of extending into summer

Responsibilities:

- Support youth in Community Service Action Projects design and implementation, which may include landscaping, carpentry, community clean-ups, trail maintenance and more

- Demonstrate and coach youth on important employability skills (such as professionalism, punctuality, time management, etc.)

- Serve as motivator, mentor and supervisor for youth

- Lead youth in outdoor recreational activities, team building initiatives and leadership development

- Plan, develop and lead engaging, educational and empowering curriculum/activities/projects

- Develop and maintain community partnerships, resources, funding, and opportunities for GJYD teens

- Collect, record and report program data

- Develop, review and maintain program content and curriculum

Qualifications

Commitment to Solar Youth’s 5 organizational values (interdependence, stewardship, kindness, excellence and fun)! See solaryouth.org/our-values.
Self-motivation, flexibility, teamwork and patience

Superb problem solving skills, and initiative
Openness to mindfulness practices and nonviolent communication, prior experience preferred
Commitment to continued personal and professional development
Experience working with inner city and low income youth
High energy and ability to motivate urban teenagers and serve as positive role model
Experience in professional landscaping, gardening, and/or urban forestry or farming
Candidates 25+ years of age and a clean driving record preferred

REQUIRED

Knowledge of and comfort with hiking, camping and other outdoor recreation activities
Passion for working with teenagers, outdoor recreation and service learning REQUIRED
Ability to work independently, with a spirit of reaching for excellence
Ability to be resilient in the face of challenging circumstances
Bachelor’s degree or higher in a related field preferred

PLEASE, NO phone calls or application status requests.