21 Oct We’re Hiring! Volunteer and Training Coordinator

(Full time: 60% volunteer coordination, 30% community outreach, 10% substitute teaching.)

Tiny Trees Preschool gives children a quality education and a joyful, nature rich childhood: one full of play, exploration and wonder. Using outdoor classrooms in public parks Tiny Trees eliminates the cost of a brick and mortar facility thus making preschool affordable and accessible to all families and allowing us to invest in what matters: empowering great teachers. Tiny Trees is an official partner of Seattle’s Parks and Recreation and a provider for the Seattle Preschool Program – Pathways, thus helping low-income families receive free tuition paid for by the City of Seattle.

In September of this year Tiny Trees opened at Camp Long (West Seattle), Carkeek Park (North Seattle), Jefferson Park (SE Seattle) & Rainier Valley (SE Seattle) with 160 children attending daily. You can learn more about our schools in this Seattle Times article or on this recent National Public Radio story.

With the help of a courageous board of directors, a capable CEO, and a gregarious director of education, we’ve built the organization needed to bring affordable, high quality, and culturally responsive preschool to scale at parks across Seattle and Puget Sound.  What we need now is a coordinator dedicated to recruiting and empowering volunteers and student interns to ensure every classroom has a minimum of one volunteer assistant every day. We need you!

As the Volunteer and Training Coordinator you will:

Work closely with our director of education, fellow coordinator, and team of teachers to support our 4 locations in Seattle and 6 locations to open in 2017.  This will include:

30% Coordinate Apprenticeship Programs.

• Build relationships with local colleges and universities.
• Place interns and apprentices.
• Design and implement orientation and training opportunities for volunteers.
• Create a system, or pathway, to identify and develop interns and apprentices for teaching jobs at Tiny Trees Preschool with a focus on empowering multi-lingual and educators of color.

30% Coordinate Family & Community Volunteers

• Recruit and place family of students and community members into volunteer positions.
• Train and empower.

30% Community Outreach

• Build relationships to ensure our volunteers reflect the diversity of our community.
• Build partnerships with elder care organizations and other strategic partners that can provide quality volunteers.
• Be an ambassador for Seattle Parks and Recreation when interacting with the public. This may include giving directions, explaining what outdoor preschool looks like, and highlighting resources or activities in the park.

10% Substitute Teacher

• Be on call, in the classroom a couple days per month.

You Are:

• Passionate about equal access to education, early learning, child-directed and play-based learning, and the outdoors. You love children, equity in education, and the environment.
• Engaging and easily able to communicate with students, families, and peers.
• Inter-culturally fluent and able to develop culturally responsive programs.
• Willing to work very flexible hours, including weekends and evenings as needed.
• Excited to get dirty and laugh a lot while teaching outside in all types of weather as needed.
• Able to thrive in a noisy, vibrant environment where all are expected to multi-task.
• In possession of excellent writing skills.
• Tolerant of uncertainty and change and understands that organizations continue to improve when the people who work there are adaptable, take chances, and learn from their mistakes.
• Bonus Points!
  • Multi-lingual: Spanish, Mandarin, Somali.
  • BA or higher in Child Development, Early Childhood Education, Elementary Education, P-3 endorsement, Environmental Education, or related.
  • Experience with volunteer recruitment, training, and placement.
  • Special talent (play an instrument, sing, puppetry, storytelling, knot tying, artistic, etc).

We are especially eager to hire individuals with backgrounds like those of the young people we serve. Multi-lingual and people of color encouraged to apply.

Job Title: Volunteer and Training Coordinator

• Reports to the Director of Education and Operations.
• Office location: this position is based out of the Impact HUB in Pioneer Square and includes travel to all corners of King County. Bike locker & showers on site. 5 min walk to light rail station.
• This position is Monday through Friday, full time, and paid hourly (40 hours a week).
• The position is slated to begin December 5, 2016.
• Tiny Trees Preschool is an equal opportunity employer. Candidates who add to our diverse community are encouraged to apply.

Salary and Benefits: This is a full time, 40 hours a week position with paid time off. Range is $17.79 to $18.75 an hour (equivalent to a salary of $37,000 – $39,000 a year). A health insurance stipend of $300/month is provided. Retirement benefits include a $1,200/year employer contribution after one year.  Paid trainings and technology stipend (total cash stipends for health, retirement, and technology = $5,000 a year).  Two weeks paid time off (PTO) plus 10 holidays (PTO) and some school closure days (total paid time off: 5 weeks). Discount of up to 50% on outdoor clothing.

Apply at: Please submit a cover letter and resume with contact info for three references at tinytrees.org/about/careers. Deadline for applications November 14. Optimal start date December 5. Please no paper, mailed, or hand-delivered applications (we’ll lose them).