Community Volunteer Ambassador – Capulin Volcano National Monument
Stewards Individual Placements provides individuals with service and career opportunities to strengthen communities and preserve our natural resources. The Community Volunteer Ambassador (CVA) Program combines the strength of a national leader in conservation service with the National Park Service to train a diverse group of emerging leaders to assist park units in building lasting connections to local communities.
The Capulin Volcano National Monument Community Volunteer Ambassador will help identify our volunteer opportunities and help identify pools for attracting volunteers. This position would also help organize, plan, and execute volunteer activities in the park. We would also like to begin building a framework for a Volunteer Handbook that can be used at CAVO as well as our partner parks in the High Plains Group.
Site Description:
Capulin Volcano is a very small monument at only 790 acres. It consists of a cinder cone volcano and parts of the surrounding lava flows.
We have volunteer opportunities in all divisions including Interpretation with leading hikes, programs, helping with visitor traffic flow, library organization, and general roving of the park. The Resources Division is always needing help in greenhouse operations, propagation, invasive species mitigation, and plant inventories. Facilities can use help in custodial, fence repair, trail maintenance, organization, inventories, and general light maintenance work. Administration can use help in organization, inventory, filing, and paperwork processing.
Position Responsibilities:
- Community engagement in the three local communities as well as Raton and possibly Clayton/Trinidad to find potential volunteers that could meet our needs in the park, increase our capacity and grow our program
- Assist with managing service day events/activities and provide support for park
- Assist with managing service groups that want to perform service work in the park, such as boy scout groups, 4-H or other youth groups, court-ordered community service people, Find these groups in the community (or groups passing through) that need to perform service work for different reasons.
- Engage new diverse audiences, (Spanish-speakers, Native American community, Ranching community) and find diverse volunteers from these groups that could assist the park.
- Develop a list of tasks in all the park operations that could be performed by
- Perform shared partnership work with the New Mexico Visitor Information Center in
- Work on volunteer safety, health and wellness programs
- Maintain sustainability of the volunteer program by developing good written policies for the program that will last well past the length of this assignment, such as updating the VIP handbook/policy, create volunteer PDs, etc.
- Discover new ways to support the volunteer program, new ideas on how to spend the budgeted volunteer program funds
- Work on digital technology, social media efforts within the volunteer program
- Organize all the volunteer 'stuff' into one central area, it's currently in more than one
- Create a volunteer cache that is separate from the NPS uniform cache
- Research if there are any shared volunteer opportunities that could benefit both BEOL and CAVO both in the present or future
- Participate in regional volunteer calls and meetings
CVA Minimum Requirements:
- Participate in the CVA National Early Service Training in fall/winter 2022/2023
- Be 18-30 years old upon start date (up to 35 years old for veterans)
- High School Diploma or GED
- Works well independently
- Outgoing and self starting
- Can live and work in isolated area (May be one of only 2 people living in the park for months)
- Submit proof of a Driver’s License and undergo a Federal Background Check, upon selection
- US Citizen, or Lawful Permanent Resident Alien of the United States
Preferred Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree or Degree in progress
- Local person with strong ties to NE New Mexico and the community
- Strong organizational skills
- Someone able to lead meetings with strong public speaking and affable manner
- Someone familiar with underserved communities and how to approach
Additional Information:
- Housing provided
- Personal vehicle required (Zero Public Transportation available and remote location with no services)
- Gov Vehicle available for official business
- Flexible schedule
- Opportunity to collaborate with other park sites (State and NPS) in Northern NM and Southern CO
Benefits:
- CVA will receive a weekly stipend of $500 (additional $65/week, if housing is not provided)
- Housing available
- Limited health care/childcare benefits
- The position is eligible for an AmeriCorps Education Award $6,345.00 (pre-tax) upon successful completion of the program
- Professional development funds
- Networking opportunities within the National Park Service and partnering organizations
- Public Land Corps Hiring Authority
How to Apply
- The CVA position will start on Monday, September 12th, 2022, and run for 50 weeks until Friday, August 25th 2023. Applicants will need to apply here: CVA Member Application 2022-2023 (September Cohort) (jotform.com)and attach a cover.
- Please ensure your cover letter addresses the specific requirements and position details for this park.
- You may submit one application for multiple positions by selecting all sites and attaching the necessary cover letters.
Applications Deadline
Please submit your application by Friday, July 15th to ensure full consideration.
For Application Questions:
Please contact Geoff Elliot, Program Director at gelliot@conservationlegacy.org
Stewards Individual Placements Program does not and will not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, gender expression, age, national origin, disability, marital status, sexual orientation, or military status, in any of its activities or operations. We are committed to providing an inclusive and welcoming environment for all.