We’re hiring! Curriculum Coordinator
Join Team WaterStrong as our Curriculum Coordinator!
▪ Part-time, short-term contract, 75% remote, 25% in-person in the Portland, Oregon area.
▪ 15 hours/week for the period December 2023 – September 2024. Hourly rate: $25/hour
▪ Please send a PDF cover letter, resume and 3-5 references to Dena Marshall at waterstrong2020@gmail.com by no later than 11:59pm on November 19, 2023. Selected candidates will be invited to interview between November 20 – December 1st. The anticipated start date is December 4th.
▪ Applicants representing communities that WaterStrong serves are urged to apply.
Description: The WaterStrong Curriculum Coordinator is a pivotal member of Team WaterStrong responsible for building out the WaterStrong (www.waterstrong.org) teaching materials for water safety and water stewardship. Goals include elevating current curriculum materials to the next level through review and synthesis of adjacent resources available and refining them to suit our context. This is a mix and match exercise with permissions from and credits to all original authors. You will be arranging existing material into new modules, tailored for WaterStrong programs. Our curriculum needs to be differentiated for age groups and should integrate universal aquatic ecosystem/water-cycle concepts while also including as many local, place-based learning examples or lessons as possible. The focus is on curating a collection of methodologies in water safety and water stewardship from both Oregon and around the world. These lessons are refined for “drop-in” education lessons that we conduct with youth through events that we sponsor with our partner organizations. A focus is on making the concepts fun, relatable, and engaging—some plans can be developed to deliver cumulative lessons over the course of a few days when we lead multi-day events. Ideally, 4–6 learning modules should be tailored for indoor and outdoor scenarios in poolside, river, lake, and ocean environments that reflect the target setting. When we lead workshops to educate people on swim safety in open water (eg. rivers, lakes), we are effectively looking to the Curriculum Coordinator to make the world into a classroom.
The WaterStrong curriculum is comprehensive and delivers an even balance of water safety and water stewardship/ environmental education. Additionally, some curricula materials extend beyond an environmental, water-based focus, and include more domestic, child-safety education curricula for families. These materials are developed for our partnership with Y.E.T.I. Foundation and the content should be multi-cultural and easily deliverable in a low resource environment.
You will be a key member of the team in the following:
▪ Research national and global water safety teaching methodologies and local water stewardship / environmental education modules. This is a straight-out-of-the-gate activity for the first 2-3 months (November/December 2023–January/February 2024)
▪ In coordination with WaterStrong water safety volunteer leads, draft a standardized WaterStrong water safety message and curate one curriculum for pool sites and one curriculum for open water sites (lakes, rivers). (February–June for first draft. Then implementation and refinement June–September)
▪ In coordination with WaterStrong environmental education volunteer leads, draft a standardized WaterStrong water stewardship message and identify 4-6 site specific water stewardship teaching modules to be used on-site in WaterStrong Eco-Swim events. (February–June for first draft. Then implementation and refinement June–September)
We are selecting candidates who can carry out these goals and who demonstrate a combination of the following qualities or experiences:
▪ Most comfortable working independently with limited oversight, in a virtual environment toward clearly defined objectives.
▪ Passionate about water, water safety, child safety, environmental education, health, and a people-person with a desire to uplift communities.
▪ A budding educator eager to get the word out, try new methodologies, and be part of the solution to save lives and heal the planet, destroying barriers along the way.
▪ Willing to gain new skills and professional certification in lifeguarding, child safety, environmental education, and/or swim instruction. As a starting point, you will receive training and certification in American Red Cross basic first aid/CPR/AED skills.
▪ Fluent or highly proficient in a language other than English.
▪ Well organized, able to plan ahead, and familiar with building campaigns.
▪ Excellent communication skills–both for working with teams and external entities.
▪ Willing to take initiative, follow through with project management, and consistent in reviewing progress and reporting to colleagues.
▪ Proficient in Google workspace, website building, social media channels, and email marketing (there will be some room to collaborate with the Partnership Coordinator)
▪ Invested in social causes. Mindful of environmental justice, DEI, and interested in removing barriers that underserved communities face.
The Curriculum Coordinator job is a short-term, part-time contract and may be extended, depending upon available funding. If you are interested in this position please send a PDF cover letter, resume and 3-5 references to Dena Marshall at waterstrong2020@gmail.com by no later than 11:59pm on November 19, 2023. Selected candidates will be invited to interview between November 20 – December 1. The anticipated start date is December 4, 2023. Applicants representing communities WaterStrong serves are urged to apply.
