Position Title: Program Facilitator
Number of Positions: 1-2
Organization: Nature’s Backpack Land-Based Learning Centre
Location: St. Stephen
Position Type: 6 month contract – full time (opportunity to extend contract)
Start Date: October 1, 2023
Hours: 7:30am – 5:30pm
Compensation: $18-$20
Do you love nature, working with children/youth and creating new experiences? Are you a life-loncg learner? Are you seeking something different and willing to grow with an amazing company?
If you answered yes, then you may be interested in joining our team.
About Nature’s Backpack
Nature’s Backpack is New Brunswick’s leading nature awareness organization that provides year round hands-on interactive, experiential nature programs to members in St. Stephen, Saint Andrews and surrounding communities in Charlotte County. These include an outdoor school, enrichment programs, and the highly sought-after wilderness summer camps. Our programs empower individuals to become confident communicators and ingenious problem solvers. By encouraging play, creative expression, and mindfulness, participants effectively discover their belonging as a member of the natural world. Nature awareness mentorship provides the safety for fun exploration and observation, the freedom to shake off the stress of contemporary life and gives permission to individuals to be truly themselves.
Our programs enhance engagement, provides transformative experiences, and illustrates how unexpected life events can be overcome with out-of-the-box and collaborative thinking. Inevitably, disconnecting from the grid, participants develop meaningful connections to themselves, each other, community, and to the wood-wild-web. These connections foster the growth of internal and external wisdom. Naturally, participants enhance their physical, cognitive, and emotional wellbeing, which in turn sow the seeds for reciprocal and interdependent relationships into adulthood and throughout life. This process empowers individuals to discover the greatest teachers: the ones who reside within the interconnected nature of being.
Check our website https://naturesbackpack.ca for more info.
Key Position Responsibilities
- assist developing and designing an experiential, culture-based educational programs with a team of educators and community members
- co-lead/lead programs with skills and knowledge so students learn authentic life skills and ancestral teachings
- development and facilitate programs and prep/debrief meetings
- participate in staff training week
- practice positive behaviour guidance for all students
- willing to learn naturalist knowledge of local ecosystems, authentic life skills, natural heritage, and outdoor skills
- experience working with children and youth
- familiarize and abide by all policy and procedures, emergency plans, Health and Safety and handbooks
- be prepared and willing to work outdoors in all weather all year round
- other duties as required
Person we are looking for
- be enthusiastic, outgoing, punctual, and flexible
- ability to design, develop, and implement (with a team) nature-based and land-based educational programs
- ability to teach and share cultural knowledge, and practice with students of all ages and ability
- good communication skills
- identify with our mission, vision, and values
- desire to learn new skills and knowledge, mentoring techniques through professional development opportunities
Requirements
- Up to date Police Vulnerable Sectors Check prior to employment
- Up to date Standard First Aid and CPR-C or higher (or willing to obtain one before employment)
Nice Haves
- Early Childhood Education, Forest School Practitioner, or enrolled in program
- outdoor education training and/or naturalist skills
- survival/wilderness skills
- we encourage applications with a range of lived experiences and identities to apply
Application Procedure
Please submit cover letter and resume to info@naturesbackpack.ca
Your cover letter should be one page in length and include:
- where you saw this job posting
- why you are interested in Nature’s Backpack and the Program Facilitator position
- brief description of your relevant skills, experience and aptitudes
Applicants who do not meet all the required qualifications but have transferable skills, experience, aptitudes are encouraged to apply and explain their relevance to the role in the cover letter.
Nature’s Backpack is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to promoting equity and diversity within our workplace and community. We encourage all qualified applicants with an entrust in advancing our mission, vision, and values to apply.