This was the first piece of information I received about Community Navigators, while waiting for the FS response.
Team COCO is seeking to hire a Community Navigator Manager and a Grants and Account Coordinator. Please share these opportunities with qualified and passionate individuals. THE DEADLINES ARE FAST APPROACHING – PLEASE SHARE OR APPLY AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!
This gives you an idea..
The responsibilities of the Manager include, but are not limited to the following:
Personnel and Administration Support
● Engage in all aspects of personnel support including interviewing, hiring, and providing supervision to Community Navigator staff when CNI Director is absent.
○ Function as supervisor to Community Navigator Fellows
○ Provide coordination support to Community Navigator Advisory Council
○ Provide an additional touchpoint to Contract Navigator cohort and provide supervision when CNI Director is unavailable
○ Provide an additional touchpoint to CNI Partnership leads and provide communication when CNI Director is unavailable
● Community Navigator Fellow Recruitment and Supervision
○ Supports Fellow hiring, onboarding and work plan development & management
○ Develop fellowship training courses and other technical support
● Ensures administrative tasks – such as timesheets, reimbursement requests, invoicing, etc., are completed accurately and in a timely manner for self and supervisees
Strategic Partnerships
● Engage effectively with Community Navigator Initiative implementation partners – The Watershed Center, Hispanic Access Foundation, FACNet, First Nations Development Institute, Federation for Southern Cooperatives, and American Indian & Alaska Native Tourism Association – to ensure successful routing of clients, and impactful delivery of collaborative programming
● Supports the development of new and existing partnerships with frontline community-serving entities working towards increasing climate resilience
● Works to maintain partnership with USDA Forest Service
● Facilitates partnership meetings and is receptive and responsive to the needs of partners and team members
Program Delivery
● Manages complexity of program initiatives through effective time management and prioritization of tasks
● Provides Federal grant support to frontline communities
● Develops trainings and identifies training gaps for CNI community-based organizations pertaining to federal grant support and relevant subject matter expertise
● Administers the Community Navigator Initiative Community Catalyst Fund by tracking applications, developing rubrics, organizing review committee groups and facilitating review session
● Coordinates programs and projects directly with CNI Implementation partners ● Provides programmatic guidance pertaining to workforce development support
Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning
● Tracks outputs and outcomes in data management systems ensuring database(s) are current and program progress is well documented
● Support the development and delivery of monitoring and evaluation instruments with both qualitative and quantitative analysis to ensure continued effectiveness of the Community Navigator Initiative at both COCO and USDA Forest Service scales
● Works with research partners to ensure data tracking serves complex and dynamic, systems change analysis
● Contribute to USFS quarterly and annual reporting; contribute to COCO annual reporting, contribute to any additional reporting needs
Communications & Outreach
● Gather and share impact stories through inclusive and strengths-based messaging
************
So it sounds a bit like the communications and the accountability are located at the partner org level. It would be nice if the “outputs and outcomes” were posted on their website, maybe that’s what they are planning. Someone is apparently “developing and delivering monitoring and evaluation instruments with both qualitative and quantitative analysis”.
*************
What are they looking for in a candidate? It looks alike a college educated person with experience in “systems change” work.
Qualifications & Experience
● Bachelor’s Degree or additional 4 years relevant experience
● 4-6 years of experience building partnerships at local and national scales
● 4+ years of experience in natural resources, social science, or other related fields
● Experience working with frontline communities, engaging in systems change work
● Experience managing complex, multifaceted programming
● Demonstrated commitment to social and environmental justice
● Extensive experience in collaborating with Tribal communities, communities of color, and/or low-income rural communities.
● High level of emotional intelligence, interpersonal skills,
● Excellent verbal/written communications, including knowledge of inclusive messaging
● Must be able to pass a driving background check
**********
It seems as if with this program and the Keystone agreements, FS funding is going to fewer resource professionals and technicians working on the ground, and more to collaborating, talking, putting on workshops and fundraising. Possibly the net result is losing career feds with direct long-term experience of how to do fieldwork, civil service protections and pay, and replacing these experts with short-term natural resource contractors.
In case you want to access a Navigator yourself, here’s the link.
Does anyone know where this (apparently large) pot of money came from? NFS or S&PF? I never learned the new budget structure so any relevant info on that would help understanding.
When it comes to “regular” appropriations, the FS can only spend a set amount on salary and expenses (S&E) (things like travel, Overtime, training) under the new budget process. Permanent and Trust funds may also be used to cover S&E costs. When there are additional funds (like BIL and IRA), there may be restrictions in the legislation about use for salary. And if the funds have a limited lifespan, it may not be desirable to increase agency staffing too much since those funds may or may not be replaced/renewed when the legislation expires.
So it’s not always true that the funding going to these agreements could be used to pay FS employees working on the ground – we can’t swap funds for salary and non-salary expenses like we used to be able to do.