Jobs @ Everdale

 

SUMMER STUDENT JOBS

EVERDALE ORGANIC FARM is hiring summer students for our part time harvest crew members.  Involves lots physical outdoor work.  You’ll called on to help with the harvest about once a week from June until November.  Must have own transportation. 

Pay:  $9/hour plus potential bonuses

Hours per week: 0-15 depending on the week

Start date: June

Potential duration: June - November

To apply please email a letter to jobs@everdale.org outlining when you are available to work, how you will get to and from work, and what kind of work experiences you have had in the past.

 

FARMLAND ENTRY PROJECT COORDINATOR

– A LOCAL FOOD INITITIATIVE

EVERDALE is hiring a Farmland Entry project coordinator.  Part time: 15-27 hours per week.  For more info on applicant eligibility and detailed job descriptions go to http://www.everdale.org/node/112 or email jobs@everdale.org.

The Farmland Entry project coordinator position involves working from home as well as regular visits to Everdale.  So, we’re looking for a local person to fill this position.  Everdale is located just west of the village of Hillsburgh.  For a map of Everdale’s location go to http://www.everdale.org/node/113.

Pay:  $15/hr

Hours per week: 15+ (up to 27 hrs per week depending on your availability)

Start date: Immediate

Potential duration: 3 years or longer

 

To apply:

Send the following to jobs@everdale.org: a letter outlining what you hope to get out of the job experience; contact information for three references; your resume.

Unfortunately, we will only be able to contact those applicants who have been selected for an interview.

Everdale is a very hands-on grass roots non-profit organization.  Our goal is to provide hands-on education in sustainable living.  Have a look at our website for more info – www.everdale.org.   Everdale is a 50-acre learning centre with a working organic farm and learning centre.  All the staff at Everdale do a mixture of outdoor and office work.  The advertised job is a very dynamic position with lots of different tasks that range from the repetitive to the highly creative.   This is a great opportunity for someone who believes in sharing, working with others, and producing concrete results.

Brief description of Farmland Entry project coordinator’s tasks:

a) Contact landholders in Erin Township and hold a public meeting to discuss our initiative with them. We will utilize a digital map of the township to identify properties and landowners of interest, and develop links to each relevant property, with information detailing specific features and the landholder’s contact information. From the other side, new farmers looking for land will be able to post their needs and contact information. This web-based inventory will be developed throughout the project as a freely accessible repository of relevant information, enriched as we go. It will be local in scope, but freely replicable elsewhere (open source), and tied into a province-wide FarmLink website.

b) Approach retiring farmers and other landholders looking for young farmers to take over their operations, or to work fields from which they wish to withdraw.

c) Clarify terms of entry and tenure under conditions amenable to the elderly farmer and viable and affordable for new farmers. (We recognize that external funding support may be necessary to make this work. As mentioned, we are pursuing a number of options for generating support from governments, credit unions, and other institutions.)

d) Assess the suitability of the land and facilities for various kinds of sustainable farming. If necessary, we shall call upon outside expertise to clarify issues in this assessment. 

e) If indicators from c and d are positive, preparatory work may be needed before fields can be used for commercial food-growing: soil preparation, weed control, and work for organic certification.

f) Identify prospective candidates from among CRAFT Ontario graduates, and from elsewhere. (The Erin Township map, described above, will permit a broader range of applicants to come forward.)

g) Introduce new farmers to retiring farmers and other landholders keen to welcome new entrants. Step back and let them explore the full conditions of multi-year tenure. While we may advise the parties in this process, or recruit advisors to facilitate the negotiation, we recognize that, in the end, the two parties must arrive at an agreement that works for both and live up to its conditions over time.

h) Monitor the transition and facilitate mutual accommodation required to build trust and deepen cooperation between the generations in the farm’s operation year after year. Follow-up work is crucial to the success of this project.

i) Forge a cluster of cooperating farms, refining arrangements of co-operation among new farmers on the basis of their needs and plans in a constant process of improvement, structured around annual reviews in November of the past year and planning for the next. (Target: Proximity and kinds of farming will determine what forms of cooperation are possible. By second year, have a cooperating cluster (10 farmers on 6-8 sites) that meet regularly, communicate frequently, pool and share resources, and benefit from cooperation in making their farm businesses work.

Six “JCP” job positions available:

 

EVERDALE is hiring the following six positions.  Internet-based Eco-Education coordinator, Eco-Videographer, Everdale’s 100-Mile program coordinator, On-Farm Education program coordinator, Local Food program coordinator, Farmers in the Schools coordinator.  All 6 positions are full time for a 30-week period.  They are being funded through a grant from the provincial Job Creation Partnership program therefore all successful applicants must meet specific Employment Insurance-related criteria. 

ALL successful applicants must be:

•        Unemployed Individuals:

•        Who have established a claim for Employment Insurance benefits, or

•        Whose Employment Insurance benefit period ended within the last three (3) years, or

•        Who established and was paid a claim for Employment Insurance maternity or parental benefits within the past five (5) years and are re-entering the labour force after having left it to care for newborn or newly adopted children.

If you do not meet the above criteria then you can not be selected for this job position.

Also, all six positions involve working from home as well as regular visits to Everdale.  So, we’re looking for local people to fill these positions.  Everdale is located just west of the village of Hillsburgh.  For a map of Everdale’s location go to http://www.everdale.org/node/113.

 

Pay:  The salary for these positions is paid at the EI rate of $423 per week.

Hours per week: 40 hours

Start date: Immediate

Duration: 30 weeks

 

To apply:

If you meet the EI requirements above then you can apply by sending the following to jobs@everdale.org: a letter outlining what you hope to get out of the job experience; contact information for three references; your resume.

Unfortunately, we will only be able to contact those applicants who have been selected for an interview.

If you have any questions please email jobs@everdale.org

 

Employer Description:

Everdale is a very hands-on grass roots non-profit organization.  Our goal is to provide hands-on education in sustainable living.  Have a look at our website for more info – www.everdale.org.   Everdale is a 50-acre learning centre with a working organic farm and learning centre.  All the staff at Everdale do a mixture of outdoor and office work.  The advertised job is a very dynamic position with lots of different tasks that range from the repetitive to the highly creative.   This is a great opportunity for someone who believes in sharing, working with others, and producing concrete results.

 

Descriptions of all six JCP Job Positions:

1. Internet-based Eco-Education coordinator

One of the six JCP recipients will develop website based educational programming.  Over the past 10 years Everdale has become a national leader in the field of hands-on environmental education.  The Internet-based Eco-Education coordinator JCP recipient will spearhead the development of new online educational programming and resources that will compliment the hands-on education that currently exists at Everdale.  Target areas include: an Ontario school curriculum-based learning tools so that school kids coming to Everdale for field trips can visit the website before and after their visit to enrich their experience and further their knowledge of curriculum-related topics; installing an online course for training new organic farmers; a virtual tour of Everdale Environmental Learning Centre’s 50-acre property; and, an interactive 100-Mile Diet game designed to encourage people to reduce their carbon footprint.  The JCP recipient will be supervised and assisted by the entire Everdale staff with Gavin Dandy taking the lead supervisory role.

2. Eco-Videographer

One of the six JCP recipients will create a documentary featuring the hands-on ecological programs at Everdale.  The JCP recipient will be responsible for all aspects of planning, shooting, editing and showing the documentary.  He or she will track dozens of educational program participants (school kids, workshop attendees, event participants, farm interns, tour visitors) as they are transformed and empowered by the hands-on learning process.  The finished product will be submitted to eco film festivals throughout the world.  The JCP recipient will be supervised by Jay Mowat, former producer of CBC television’s Country Canada and by Wally Seccombe, chair of Everdale’s board of directors. 

3. Everdale’s 100-Mile program coordinator

One of the six JCP recipients will coordinate a 100-Mile outreach and education program.  (Background information on the 100-Mile concept: In the spring of 2005 Alisa Smith and James MacKinnon, a couple from British Columbia, decided to eat only ingredients that were grown within 100 miles of their home. That simple experiment has turned in to a global revolution as more and more people are recognizing the ecological and social benefits of eating locally. http://100milediet.org/category/about/.)  Everdale’s 100-Mile program will: focus on educating people about the 100-Mile diet; create signage and other teaching tools that will be mounted through Everdale’s 50-acre site; focus on making the 100-Mile concept central to Everdale’s farm store; organize a network of local farmers so that they can benefit economically from the 100-Mile idea; and, teach other farmers and food organizations how to get similar programs launched in their region of Canada.  The 100-Mile program coordinator will develop and implement all of the above aspects of the program.  Several of Everdale’s staff and board members will be involved in training and giving feedback to the JVCP recipient.  Karen Campbell, one Everdale’s founders, will act as the primary supervisor.

4. On-Farm Education program coordinator

One of the six JCP recipients will create a new program of eco-education activities for weekend visitors to Everdale and for coop students from the local high school.  Everdale’s expertise in hands-on eco-education will provide the JCP recipient with a rich learning and training environment.  Hands-on education is a proven way to engage children and adults and to give the confidence and skills to make positive environmental changes in their lives.  The JCP recipient will coordinate the conceptual and implementation phases of the new program.  The JCP recipient will be supervised by Karen Campbell, Everdale’s school program coordinator (overseeing the high school coop part of the project) and Lynn Bishop, public events and tours coordinator (overseeing the weekend visitor related programming).

5. Coordinator for Homegrown Harvest’s Local Food at the Erin Fall Fair

One of the six JCP recipients will take a lead role in coordinating Homegrown Harvest’s Local Food theme at this year’s Erin Fall Fair.  The JCP recipient’s work will be at the focal point of a community collaboration that includes Everdale and Homegrown Harvest (an Erin Township based group of local farms). The theme of the 2008 Erin Fall Fair is Local Food.  The JCP recipient will work to coordinate all aspects of promoting, planning and implementing the increased use of and exposure for local food at the fair.  This position will be supervised by Gavin Dandy, Everdale’s farm manager.

6. Farmers in the Schools coordinator

One of the six JCP recipients will develop a new education program called Farmers in the Schools.  The JCP recipient will create the template for a province-wide education program that will bring Ontario farmers into public school classrooms (Kindergarten – Grade 12) to teach kids about food and farming issues.  If actualized, this program will involve farmers teaching curriculum-linked units on food and farming in the classrooms of local schools.  The JCP recipient will develop the business plan and the farmer-training methods for Farmers in Schools.  The template created by the JCP recipient will determine: 1. if it is feasible to launch the program,  and 2. if it is feasible then what steps are necessary for success.  The JCP recipient will assume a lead role in developing the Farmers in the School concept.  His/her work will include curriculum design, development of educational materials and training manuals, and creating a business plan.  The JCP recipient will be supervised by Karen Campbell, Everdale’s school program coordinator.