Project Manager

The Role

We are seeking a talented and dynamic person to join our team as a Project Manager for the “Building Community Capacity for Forest and Wetlands Preservation” Initiative. Our vision is to continue building out the program in ways that are responsive to stakeholders’ interests. This role will include staying up to date with the work of WPA members, elevating their voices through social media and other channels, and building their voices by providing hands-on communications support, community engagement, training sessions, and assisting with writing and media outreach.

The Project Manager will also pitch in on a variety of communications efforts, ranging from local campaigns to creative projects. This includes supporting WPA partners and collaborating with partner organizations, such as the Essex County Department of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs, and networks working on coastal resiliency, stormwater mitigation, watershed, and climate justice.

This new hire will be part of a highly collaborative three-person team. The Project Manager shares responsibilities with the Project Assistant for network-building efforts like our Blog, social media presence, outreach, meetings, events and targeted community engagement. The Project Manager will report directly to the Weequahic Park Association’s Executive Director to expand our capacity to engage community members and other stakeholders.

This is a temporary, two-year staff position with further employment depending on additional funding. The ideal candidate will share a passion for environmental justice, relationship-building, storytelling and community engagement. Strong connections with Weequahic Park, environmental justice and issues faced by underserved communities already is a plus, though we invite people from other issue areas who bring valuable perspectives. We believe in leaning into people’s strengths to co-create our work plans, and there are ample opportunities for community involvement and technical assistance.

Responsibilities

Building Capacity Initiative support (70%)
Support relationship-building with and among Building Capacity partners and community members through individual outreach and by organizing informal meetings, roundtables and convenings
Support Weequahic Park Association members by drafting media pitches, op-eds, fact-sheets and more
Keep the Weequahic Park Association website up to date by tracking and publishing updates and media articles, and develop new website sections
Implement the Weequahic Park Association engagement strategy, which includes organizing informal meetings, producing monthly member spotlights for social media, celebrating members’ achievements, recruiting new members, and producing email updates and blogs
Facilitate connections between Weequahic Park Association Partners, including the Essex County Departments of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs, experts and academics, bloggers, podcasters, decision-makers and more
Work with the Executive Director to evaluate the impact of the Building Capacity initiative by tracking website visits and social media mentions and other indicators
Take leadership in operationalizing the Weequahic Park Association’s website workflow management and expanding engagement into new platforms like Linkedin Groups and others
Collaborate with the team to identify key media moments, consider issue framing, spokesperson pitching
Work with the Executive Director on the strategic growth of the Building Capacity initiative through partnership building

Weequahic Park Association priorities (30%)
Devise a tool to strengthen and maintain the systems that facilitate relationships with the Weequahic Park Association, such as a contact database
Work with the Project Assistant and Executive Director to develop content for education, social sharing, including memes, social posts, short videos, etc.
Collaborate on creative campaigns to generate interest and increase community engagement
Assist with designing other materials such as fact sheets, surveys, reports and one-pagers for community engagement

Compensation:

This position is funded by a two-year grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation offering a salary of $65,000 per year. The role includes vacation, personal and sick days, but does not offer additional benefits such as medical or dental insurance.