Jobs

Land Stewardship Coordinator

Hours: 20-30 hrs/week, averaging 25 hrs/week, including evenings or weekends 1 – 3 times per month; up to 20 additional hrs/week to conduct major or routine landscaping work based on seasonality and demand

Compensation: $30 /hour starting, with a raise after six months. We strive to keep up with the cost of living.

Benefits: Paid time off and four hours of holiday pay for each UC Davis observed holiday.  

The Land Stewardship Coordinator (LSC) leads the organization in the democratic, collective stewardship of the land that SCHA occupies, guiding each community toward our goals to cultivate gardens for member-owners of our low-income housing cooperatives that:

  • Provide beautiful, abundant, therapeutic and safe places to call home
  • Create opportunities for residents to become active stewards and develop meaningful relationships with the land 
  • Improve the accessibility and visitability of outdoor spaces
  • Engage residents in growing food and medicine
  • Minimize landscape maintenance labor
  • Engage people in land-based experiential learning
  • Encourage community and relationship-building
  • Adapt to changing climate patterns and revitalize our local ecosystem

 

About SCHA

The Solar Community Housing Association (SCHA) is a Davis-based 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that provides low-income cooperative housing that works to confront and critique systems of oppression through ecological awareness, inclusive self-governance and alternative economic models. SCHA houses 90 co-op residents between seven housing co-ops – the Tri Co-ops, the Domes, Corner Co-op, J Street Co-op and Sunwise Co-op. The co-ops’ gardens include a total of five acres of land. The gardens are unique and variable from co-op to co-op, including small fruit tree orchards, food-growing gardens, native plantings, bioswales, chicken coops, bee boxes, greenhouses, and community gathering areas. 

SCHA is governed by residents, who serve as representatives of their co-ops on the Board of Directors and on committees. SCHA is governed through consensus-based decision making and SCHA staff are empowered by members to carry out their job responsibilities. Most decisions are made by members with staff attending member, board, and committee meetings largely in an advisory capacity. The LSC is an employee of the resident-led Board of Directors and works directly with members of the Land Stewardship Committee, Food Justice interns and CollegeCorps Land Stewardship Fellows. The LSC will also work closely with the Member Services Manager, Maintenance Coordinator, and Bookkeeper as peers. You will be expected to develop your capacity to operate effectively in a collaborative and non-hierarchical collective. At times this may look like taking direction from other staff, the Board of Directors or committees, holding yourself accountable for responsibilities, stepping into leadership roles, or sharing leadership with other cooperative members.

 

Commitments

  • Commitment to member-led, democratic self-governance
  • Commitment to community organizing and mutual aid
  • Commitment to housing justice, food justice, land justice and/or the cooperative movement
  • Commitment to working in a staff collective and collective decision-making
  • Commitment to anti-racism and anti-oppressive movement building

 

Job Responsibilities

Provide leadership development, training and project management support to SCHA’s lead land stewards

  • Support members, students, interns and volunteers to take leadership on land-based projects
  • Attend and support the coordination of biweekly Land Stewardship Committee meetings in collaboration with the committee chair
  • Conduct bimonthly landscape walkthroughs with each co-op and facilitate strategic prioritization of land stewardship tasks
  • Support coordination of and participate in monthly work parties at each co-op
  • Provide educational resources and conduct resident trainings on land stewardship skills 
  • Facilitate processes to support member engagement in land stewardship and equitable distribution of land stewardship labor
  • Facilitate tool lending across co-ops
  • Coordinate ordering of materials, tools, equipment servicing and equipment rentals for projects and work parties

Support lead land stewards with long-term visioning, strategic planning and budgeting 

  • Facilitate the development of long-term strategic plans for land stewardship at each co-op
  • Advise the Land Stewardship Committee on an annual landscaping budget, in collaboration with the Bookkeeper and Finance Committee
  • Facilitate annual updates to Land Stewardship Plans 

Coordinate, advise and supervise academic programs

  • Coordinate the CollegeCorps Land Stewardship Fellowship program, in collaboration with Sustainable Living and Learning Communities (SLLC) staff
  • Coordinate the Food Justice Internship program, in collaboration with the Food Justice Initiative Action Team
  • Coordinate land-based grant projects
  • Advise land-based academic group projects in collaboration with UC Davis faculty

Participate in the core staff team

  • Attend weekly staff meetings as needed, rotating meeting responsibilities such as facilitating, leading agenda items, notetaking and timekeeping
  • Engage in non-hierarchical collective decision-making processes on the staff team
  • Meet with staff to collaborate on special projects, as needed

Develop and maintain community partnerships

  • Serve as point-of-contact for external organizations  and the public
  • Maintain relationships and coordinate fulfillment of landscaping requirements issued by UC Davis, Village Homeowners Association, the City of Davis, and the Old East Davis Neighborhood Association
  • Attend monthly meetings and grounds walkthroughs with UC Davis  Real Estate Services and Fire Department
  • Work with the Member Services Manager to identify and build new partnerships with community groups, campus organizations, SCHA alumni and donors to expand SCHA’s land stewardship capacity
  • Coordinate land-based community partnership projects

Lead the design and installation of new landscaping projects

  • Create landscape designs with input from members, staff and consultants
  • Lead work parties to install new landscaping
  • Create stewardship plans for new installations

Coordinate hired labor

  • Perform seasonal landscaping tasks as needed
  • Hire and oversee contractor work
  • Hire and supervise temporary employees, as needed

Maintain records

  • Submit monthly staff report to the Board of Directors
  • Work with SCHA’s Bookkeeper to process payments and reimbursements for employees, independent contractors, interns, volunteers and residents
  • Maintain records of email correspondence
  • Review quarterly land stewardship expense reports with the Land Stewardship Committee
  • Maintain equipment maintenance records
  • Document land stewardship activities and develop instructional material to support the institutional memory of SCHA’s land stewardship programs

Recruit and manage volunteers

  • Update and maintain events RSVP form
  • Manage volunteer list and track volunteer engagement at work parties
  • Send work party fliers and information to volunteers
  • Ensure co-ops are ready to receive and support volunteers

 

Qualifications 

We encourage you to apply even if you do not have the desired qualifications listed below. There are opportunities to learn on the job with the support of other staff! 

 

Required Qualifications

Cooperation

  • At least 3 years of experience living in, working with/for, or otherwise participating in cooperatives, nonprofits, or democratically run organizations
  • Commitment to professional communication, shared decision-making, conflict resolution and an ongoing willingness to learn
  • Ability to self-direct, take initiative and work independently 

Land Stewardship

  • At least 5 years of experience growing food, farming, landscaping, gardening, ecological restoration and/or land management
  • Familiarity with and commitment to outdoor health, safety and accessibility

Academic Coordination & Leadership Development 

  • At least 3 years of experience coordinating educational programming, working with students or classes, mentoring, resource development, etc

Team & Project Management

  • Ability to manage several projects simultaneously across multiple teams
  • Experience delegating tasks, providing feedback and accountability support to a large team
  • Skills in long-term strategic planning and creative problem solving
  • Experience supervising or managing small groups
  • Skilled at time management with the ability to juggle both short and long-term deadlines and the ability to respond to organizational needs as they arise
  • Excellent organizational and communication skills
  • Ability to maintain records and track budgets
  • Adept at learning digital tools such as word processing, surveys, spreadsheets

Mobility

  • Drivers license
  • Ability to lift up to 50 pounds
  • Ability to navigate over uneven terrain
  • Ability to perform manual labor in variable weather conditions

Desired Qualifications

  • Experience recruiting, supervising and/or managing volunteers
  • Experience applying for grants and/or managing grant-funded projects
  • Experience hiring and working with contractors
  • Skills in landscape design
  • Experience with general handiwork, basic construction and/or plumbing
  • Land stewardship skills, including pruning, weed abatement, pest management, fruit tree management, food cultivation, path maintenance, chicken care and/or California-native plants
  • Skilled at drafting agendas, taking notes and facilitating engaging meetings
  • Experience organizing events
  • Familiarity with Google Suites
  • Familiarity with ArcGIS

 

How To Apply

Thanks for your interest in this position! Please submit a cover letter explaining why you’re interested and qualified for the position as well as a resume to hiring@schadavis.org by June 15th to meet the priority deadline. Applications will continue to be accepted on a rolling basis until the position has been filled. After we receive your application, the Hiring Action Team will review your cover letter and resume and notify you if you have been selected for an interview. Candidates will take a tour of the co-ops and attend a meeting with the SCHA Board of Directors before a final hiring decision is made. We look forward to meeting you!

SCHA is an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran or disability status. BIPOC, queer and trans, women and gender non-conforming applicants are strongly encouraged to apply.