Community Outreach Specialist, Full Time- Non Exempt

Job title:

Community Outreach Specialist

Location:

Salary:

Benefits:

Clayton County, Georgia

$51,667 annually, non-exempt

Comprehensive medical, dental, vision and 401k

Generous vacation, PTO, and self-care    

Terms:

Full Time; Some weekend community events are required.

About us:

The Hand, Heart, and Soul Project (HHSP) promotes healthy habits for our earliest learners in Clayton County. We provide children and families access to nutrient-dense foods and we develop holistic programs focused on health, wellness, education, and nutrition. Our mission is to nurture, celebrate, and advance the needs of the people we serve by creating equitable access to quality educational, nutritional, and community resources. 

Hand, Heart, and Soul Project's work is highly interdisciplinary. It sits at the intersection of education, health, wellness, and advocacy while ensuring those most affected by the policy are in decision-making spaces. Our model is one of collective impact that focuses on cross-collaboration which aligns community members, leaders, organizations, and institutions to go beyond sustainable solutions, but thriving and meaningful solutions.

About the role:

Are you passionate about health and wellness? Do you want to support people in communities to achieve a better quality of life? We are seeking an enthusiastic individual to join our dynamic team as a nutrition and wellness educator with our wellness programming, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education (SNAP-Ed) Program and Farm to School programming. The successful candidate will gain professional development and training opportunities. They will participate in wellness activities throughout the community, taste tests, work with children and adults on food preparation, food safety, nutrition, and food resource management and physical activity. As required, they will recruit clients from eligible audiences and complete necessary client records as required. Job requires local travel with a personal vehicle. This position requires a creative self-starter with basic computer skills and strong communication skills. Knowledge of database entry and maintenance and the ability to file and organize large amounts of information. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Nutrition Education (SNAP-Ed) is a nationwide nutrition education and obesity prevention program funded by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service (FNS). SNAP-Ed provides evidenced-based nutrition education classes that are aligned with policy, systems and environmental change strategies to create long lasting community change. The Hand, Heart, and Soul Project is an Implementing Agency and an integral partner of the Georgia Department of Human Services in this statewide effort.

To thrive in this role requires a dependable creative self-starter with basic computer skills: strong communication skills to engage participants; knowledge of database entry and maintenance; ability to file and organize large amounts of information; a growth mindset free of bias; experience working with a diverse population and practicing empathy, active listening and patience.

The Specialist also oversees weekly cooking classes throughout the community and must be fluent in delivering pre-formatted curriculum through scope and sequence, regularly schedule garden education classes for the children in early childcare education programs, elementary and middle schools. 

This position also participates in outreach activities, including professional development, extracurricular and family/community events. The position works collaboratively with the other HHSP staff members to create and implement various programs and works with the staff of early childcare centers to ensure that the program is fully integrated within the school community including family engagement programming and rich community, placed based programming. These include literacy and language activities for young children, family workshops and more. These activities comprise about 8 hours of the work week. 

Responsibilities:

• Teach regular garden and cooking classes with an emphasis on culturally responsive curriculum, hands-on instruction, social-emotional learning, and student-centered education, including art, drama, literacy and yoga.

• For garden classes, lead a group of students in exploratory academic activities or garden jobs, such as planting, soil cultivation, compost work, weeding, watering, and other garden maintenance tasks.

• For cooking classes, lead a group of students in the completion of the day’s recipe and related educational activities, with an emphasis on culinary skills such as knife skills, cooking methods, produce identification, and recipe literacy.

• Schedule and deliver SNAP-Ed on-site direct education services (garden and cooking classes, taste testings and nutrition education) to assigned sites.

• Conduct cooking classes for identified sites and collect relevant evaluation data.

• Support School Transition activities

• Support all garden activities and events and ensure the garden is properly prepped for classes.

• Provide outstanding service and escalate any issues of dissatisfaction at a site.

• Provide technical assistance and support for the development of policy/system/environment (PSE) action plans based on site needs assessment results.

• Document work with site to demonstrate progress toward accomplishment of action plan and PSE change (Year 2 ECE sites).

• Ensure proper display of “And Justice for All” poster (version 475B) at all program locations.

• Ensure provision of all site services as outlined in the proposal.

• Ensure program implementation is consistent with Hand Heart and Soul Project’s quality standards and evidence-based practices.

• Collect qualitative information from sites for creating success stories.

• Check site based gardens and report needs

• Collaboration with early care sites, schools, and community

• Teach and participate in garden education programming, including family workshops, after-school classes, and professional development trainings for early care educators in collaboration with the Assistant Director of Community Organizing and Operations 

• Support year-round propagation, soil fertility, composting, crop rotation, garden planning, pruning, irrigation, and pest and disease management.

• Support all garden events and activities, including Farm Stands and food distribution.

• Maintain effective communication with HHSP staff, school staff, and the extended community of parents, neighbors and school garden educators.

• Participate in HHSP staff meetings, staff development days, program development meetings, HHSP events and community outreach efforts.

• Accurately track programming information and collect evaluation data as required, including but not limited to, student numbers at all lessons, taste testing data, demographics, pre/post surveys, attendance during series-based cooking classes, success stories.

• Stay informed of school events and activities. Be an active presence in the school community and attend school meetings and events as appropriate.

• Other duties as assigned.

Qualifications 

• Strong commitment to a teaching philosophy that values students, is adaptive to different learning styles, and empowers students to become active participants in their schools and communities.

• Effective verbal and interpersonal skills to facilitate effective communication with community members and community groups.

• A demonstrated commitment to an organizational culture that supports diversity, equity, and inclusion.

• Collaborative and committed to working in a small team environment.

• Demonstrated ability to work independently with some direction.

• Organized, energetic, and flexible

• Technology savvy - Microsoft office, apps, database entry, Google Workspace 

Education and Work Experience

Physical Demands

• Prior teaching experience is required.

• Prior gardening or cooking experience is preferred.

• Experience working in an urban school setting is preferred.

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is continuously required to sit and talk or hear. The employee is occasionally required to stand; walk; use hands to handle, or feel objects, tools, or controls; reach with hands and arms; and stoop, kneel, crouch or crawl. The employee must regularly lift and/or move up to 20 pounds and occasionally lift/or move up to 30 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, peripheral vision, depth perception and the ability to adjust focus.