Location: Based in Visalia, CA. All candidates for this position must be able to report in-person at least two days per week for office or community engagement work. Staff are expected to report in-person more than two days a week if needed based on job responsibilities. This position will require travel to communities throughout the Central Coast and San Joaquin Valley as needed.
Organization Description
The Community Water Center (CWC) acts as a catalyst for community-driven water solutions through organizing, education, and advocacy in California. CWC has offices in Visalia, Watsonville and Sacramento, CA. The Center employs four primary strategies in order to accomplish our goals:
- Educate, organize, and build the capacity of low-income communities and communities of color to address local drinking water challenges.
- Support low-income communities and communities of color in the development of drinking water solutions through technical assistance projects.
- Advocate for systemic change to address the root causes of unsafe drinking water in California.
- Serve as a resource for information and center of expertise on community water challenges.
CWC’s team is passionate, dynamic, and believes in the cause of water justice and making real change that is driven directly by impacted communities themselves. Our organizing and advocacy work, community collaborations, and organizational culture all reflect a concern for equity, mutual respect, appreciation for diversity, and environmental and social justice.
Position Description
The Community Solutions Coordinator is a full-time exempt position that will be primarily responsible for developing drinking water projects in underserved communities where residents do not have reliable access to safe and affordable drinking water.
This position will work directly with other CWC teams focused on advocacy, organizing, communications and policy; and will coordinate regularly with community residents, government agencies, contracted consultants, technical advisors, and affiliate organizations. This position is responsible for ensuring that information about drinking water problems and potential solutions is communicated effectively to impacted residents and for providing opportunities for residents to shape processes and policies affecting their access to safe and affordable drinking water.
This position will report to the Community Solutions Manager in the Visalia office. All employees at CWC are “at will.”
Ideal Candidate
The ideal candidate will have a passion for applying technical and project management skills to advance drinking water projects serving low-income communities of color, and advocating for public policy changes. Candidates will excel at this position if they are excited to work collaboratively alongside other CWC staff, impacted community residents, and government and NGO partners to remove barriers to safe and affordable drinking water. Candidates must also excel at communicating technical ideas to diverse and non-technical audiences and be comfortable advocating for public policy and systems change.
Major Responsibilities
- Support the development of drinking water projects that ensure long-term access to safe and affordable drinking water such as consolidation with a nearby water system, treatment, and local drinking water infrastructure improvement projects.
- Assessing Need
- Use the best available data and discussions with local residents and collaborators to identify at-risk communities to target drinking water project development.
- Project Implementation
- Coordinate with community residents; local, regional and state governmental agencies; and other collaborators to develop and advance drinking water projects.
- Vet, contract, and manage vendors and consultants.
- Oversee the development of scopes of work, deliverables, timelines, and specific tasks for vendors and consultants.
- Provide oversight to ensure contracted work is in the best interest of community residents and CWC, is of high quality, and is completed on time.
- Identify and address barriers to project completion.
- Facilitate meetings with the CWC project team and with external project partners.
- Proactively strategize and coordinate to move the project forward.
- Assessing Need
- Project Funding Management
- Complete and submit funding applications and scopes of work to funding agencies, develop and track project budgets, and provide regular progress reports.
- Support the development, tracking, and reporting of project outcomes and performance metrics.
- Develop technical analysis, informational materials, and other resources that are accessible to a non-technical audience on topics including:
- Drinking water quality and potential health risks
- Tradeoffs of potential drinking water solutions
- Project status updates
- Engineering reports
- Assist communities in understanding their drinking water quality and connect them to drinking water quality testing and short-term drinking water resources such as bottled water and hauled water.
- Support CWC’s organizing and advocacy efforts by coordinating with staff and community partners to garner project support and overcome political or bureaucratic barriers.
- Support CWC’s policy advocacy efforts by identifying areas where policy changes are necessary to address project barriers.
- Providing technical support such as review of local groundwater management plans or other plans relevant to protecting community drinking water supplies.
General Duties
- Foster an environment that promotes trust and cooperation amongst staff, management, community members, and affiliate organizations.
- Attend and actively participate in staff, management, planning, and program meetings; reporting processes; and staff retreats.
- Actively participate in CWC activities such as donor drives and fundraising events.
- Other duties as assigned by the Executive Director and other Directors.
Note: Nothing in this position description restricts CWC’s right to assign or reassign duties and responsibilities at any time.
Required Qualifications
- Strong passion for and commitment to social and environmental justice.
- Experience reviewing technical analyses and information preferably related to drinking water, wastewater, the environment, health, and/or social justice; and synthesizing technical information for non-technical audiences.
- Strong verbal and written communication and presentation skills, with sensitivity to appropriate delivery depending on target audience.
- Fluency in English and Spanish.
- Experience working with low-income communities and/or communities of color.
- Awareness of how differences in class, race, privilege and lived experience shape how individuals and institutions think and act.
- Outstanding organizational skills, including the ability to work in a collaborative, fast-paced environment and make progress on multiple projects concurrently.
- Ability to accept and provide critical feedback – the ideal candidate would value accountability across the organization.
- Ability to work effectively and collaboratively with diverse organizations, groups, and individuals.
- Ability to be detail-oriented and think analytically, creatively, and critically.
- Valid CA drivers license and the ability to drive on highways.
- Ability to travel within California and work some evenings and weekends.
- Skilled using a computer for data analysis and other office tasks, and able to learn new software as needed.
- Bachelor’s Degree.
Preferred Qualifications
- Engineering, environmental science, or related degree (strongly preferred).
- Three or more years relevant professional experience.
- Project management experience, including oversight of project contractors (e.g. consultants working on specific technical aspects of a larger environmental project), and scope, budget and schedule development and tracking.
- Experience working in the San Joaquin Valley or familiarity with key environmental justice issues facing these regions
- Experience or familiarity with drinking water quality and treatment, piped drinking water systems, drinking water wells, wastewater collection and treatment, and groundwater quality and management.
- Experience working on drinking water projects, wastewater projects and/or public policy.
- Experience managing and analyzing data, including geospatial data (GIS).
To apply, email resume and cover letter to careers@communitywatercenter.org
