Community Outreach Associate- Region

Community Outreach Associate
- Region 8/10

Join to apply for the Community Outreach Associate
- Region 8/10 role at Environmental Protection Network

Priority Final date to receive applications: Wednesday, September 10th

Background:
The Environmental Protection Network (EPN) is a 501c3 non-profit organization with over a $5 million annual budget. EPN has a small staff across the country, a number of contractors, and more than 700 EPA alumni volunteers focused on building and defending the capacity of environmental agencies and the communities they serve to address the most urgent health and environmental crises.

EPN works to:

• Ensure that EPA advances policies, budgets, and institutional changes to address climate and environmental injustices, as well as other pressing public health needs
• Provide pro bono capacity-building technical assistance and training to environmental justice communities, NGOs, and under-resourced state/local/tribal government agencies
• Educate Congress and serve as a critical resource for facts, objective analysis, and scientific rigor for reporters and NGOs

Over 4 years ago, EPN launched its pro bono capacity-building technical assistance program to fight climate change and environmental injustices across the country. Since then, EPN has connected over 200 experts from within its volunteer network—scientists, lawyers, economists, and others—to over 2,500 requests from disadvantaged communities; non-profit organizations; and under-resourced state, local, and tribal government agencies. EPN provides pro bono assistance on community-identified needs, including reviewing permits, teaching protocols for gathering water and ambient air samples, advising on critical next steps to achieve proper contamination remediation at Superfund sites, and more.

EPN has helped communities receive over $700 million in federal grant awards.

This position requires the person to live in their currently assigned EPA region/s. Day-to-day work is remote, as EPN does not have an office. In addition, there are some in-person meetings and travel. We are looking for this position to start immediately.

About The Position:

Reporting to the Senior Director of Technical Assistance, the Community Outreach Associate-Region 8 & 10 will partner across the 10-person Technical Assistance Community Outreach Team
. They will leverage their strong organizational skills and relationship-building skills, combined with environmental justice and/or social justice expertise, to meet the evolving needs of a growing environmental justice nonprofit.

The person who takes on this position must be located within one of the following states: AK, CO, , MT, ND, OR, SD, UT, WA, or WY. Day-to-day work is remote, as EPN does not have an office. In addition, there are some in-person meetings and travel. We are looking for this position to start immediately.

Responsibilities:

• Collaborating and coordinating with the partners in their assigned region/s.
• Assisting entities in identifying and applying to grant opportunities where relevant
• Recruiting and activating volunteers across their assigned region/s and our EPN network
• Tracking work in EPN’s database and various Google spreadsheets
• Tracking next steps for EPN staff, volunteers, and key partner organizations
• Connecting additional frontline communities, non-profits, and under-resourced government agencies (including tribes) with our volunteers for community-driven projects, including problem-solving meetings, research, reporting, and comprehensive actionable emails
• Connecting communities with additional technical, grant, legal, and scientific resources such as decision-makers within government, advocacy, and academia; federal and foundation grants; and pro bono legal support
• Scheduling meetings for communities, potential experts, and organizations
• Forming truly collaborative partnerships between community leaders and government agencies to ensure that communities’ voices are represented in infrastructure investments
• Growing individual and local partnerships to provide more holistic community support
• Producing webinars, trainings, templates (including grant templates), and other capacity-building tools so…