Community Engagement Manager, Working Theory Farm
Full time beginning Mid-February 2022. The farm schedule works out to roughly 10 months full time employment over the course of the year, with two flexible/off months taken mostly during the winter.
Starting salary $30,300 for 10 months FTE, with produce included and subsidized on-farm rent optional. Please see below for a more detailed description of the compensation package.
Applications will be reviewed starting on November 29th, 2021 and we hope to communicate our decision by Jan 1, 2022. However, review of applications will continue until the position is filled.
Located at 5744 SE Davis Rd, Hillsboro OR
Working Theory Farm is currently composed of two full time employees managing farm operations and youth programming, a committed Executive Director, and a supportive Board of Directors. We’re looking for a third full time employee to join our small team who will manage fundraising, grant writing, communications, and budgeting/accounting, all while getting their hands dirty on the farm and collaboratively building out the collective vision of this growing organization.
Our ideal candidate will:
resonate deeply with our mission and vision.
possess exceptional written and verbal communication skills.
be proficient or bilingual - English and Spanish.
have experience representing an organization to funders, community members, and the wider public.
be excited to become an integral part of a small team actively building an organization from the ground up. (pun intended!)
bring their own unique ideas, perspectives, identities, creativity, and expertise to the work we do.
Currently, the youth we work with are justice-impacted and/or housing insecure, with the majority identifying as BIPOC and/or Latinx. Community members who receive our produce are largely BIPOC, Latinx, food insecure, immigrants, refugees, undocumented, elders, and/or migrant workers. It is important to us that as we build our team, our staff represent the communities we serve. We encourage Black, Indigenous and people of color, women, LGBTQ+ people, religious minorities, recent immigrants, DACA recipients, those with lived experience of the impacts of the justice system, food, and/or housing insecurity, differently abled persons and applicants from different generational, economic, and educational backgrounds to apply.
Description of the day-to-day work :
At the end of the day, we’re looking for a passionate connector and storyteller who is interested in co-creating this role with us. If you’re excited about most, but not all, of the responsibilities listed below, we’d still encourage you to apply.
Primary Responsibilities :
appx 20-30hrs/week, depending on the time of year.
Fundraising -- The Community Engagement Manager’s primary responsibility will be to share the story of what we’re doing with a broad audience of community members and organizations in order to connect with partners who want to support our work.
CSA member management -- In order to increase the percentage of our budget coming from earned income, we’re pivoting in the 2022 season to offer a small seasonal CSA. The Community Engagement Manager, with support from the Farm Manager, will be responsible for CSA member recruitment and communication.
Communications -- including making website updates, posting to the farm’s Instagram, writing a farm newsletter, and fielding email and in-person inquiries from our neighbors, partners, and larger community.
Grant writing -- In the 2021 season, roughly half of our operating expenses were covered by grants, and we expect to continue to rely on grants to support a significant portion of our work in the coming seasons. The Community Engagement Manager, with support from the Program Manager, will be responsible for actively seeking out and applying for grant opportunities, as well as post award communication, impact assessments, and feedback.
Budgeting and Accounting -- The Community Engagement Manager will be the primary person bottom-lining all things financial, including tracking/reporting income and expenses, and using that information to inform collaborative conversations to build yearly and seasonal budgets.
On-farm Responsibilities:
appx 10-20hrs/week, depending on the time of year.
The on-farm portion of the work will require the ability to lift and carry 50lbs over short distances, walk over rough ground, bend at the waist, and squat repeatedly throughout the course of a workday, as well as the willingness and ability to work in all weather conditions.
Youth and volunteer facilitation -- As a community resource and educational space, we host many groups and individuals during the course of a season, from Latinx elders to corporate volunteer groups to youth in the juvenile justice system. Candidates should be comfortable relating to diverse groups of people, while cultivating a positive, collaborative, inclusive environment. A collective responsibility of all WTF staff is co-facilitation of farm work while connecting with young people and creating spaces for vulnerability, growth, and real talk.
Supporting all aspects of vegetable and fruit production -- seeding flats and direct seeding, transplanting, pruning, irrigating, weeding, harvest, trellising, wash/pack, distribution, and use of solarization tarps.
Supporting all aspects of animal care -- fencing set up and take down, feeding and watering the animals, egg collection, moving chicken coops to fresh pasture daily.
Small to medium scale machinery use -- push and riding lawn mowers, string trimmer, flail mower, and walk-behind tractor, as well as assisting with occasional building projects -- comfort on ladders is appreciated.
On-farm housing and compensation package:
We are a young organization doing our best to make a positive impact on our community, including our staff, by leveraging the skills we possess and the resources available to us. Two of those resources are the ability to offer subsidized on-farm housing and copious amounts of organic produce to our staff. The available housing for the incoming Community Engagement Manager will be one room in a spacious three bedroom / two bathroom house, to be shared with the Program Manager, Henney, at a cost of $400 per month plus utilities. Living on-farm is preferred. However, if you have strong preference not to and are excited by the rest of what you see, we encourage you to reach out.
We practice a horizontal model of leadership and work together to make decisions around compensation on a yearly basis. It’s important to us that we staff are able to comfortably meet our own needs, do this work sustainably year over year, and feel fulfilled by the work that we do. We plan to revisit farm finances and compensation in November of 2022 at which point there will be the possibility of increasing salaries as we work collaboratively to establish a sustainable operating model.
In summary...
If you’re interested in joining our small team, building this organization with us, and figuring it all out as we go, please send a resumé and cover letter that describes your experience and helps us understand who you are and why you want to be doing this work with us to capers@workingtheoryfarm.com .