****About Our Organization: Piedmont Wildlife Center is a Durham-based non-profit organization that encourages conservation and inspires people to build lifelong connections with nature through immersive outdoor education, citizen science, and wildlife stewardship. We pursue this mission through afterschool, homeschool, and year-round camp programming in the great outdoors. Piedmont also offers conservation-focused field trips and outreach programs with our Ambassador Animals.

Land Context: Our camps operate out of Leigh Farm Park in Durham County and Blackwood Farm Park in Orange County. Both parks are remnants of 19th-century plantations and are on land that was once part of the shared territory of Saponi, Tuscarora, Occaneechi, Cheraw, Eno, Shakori, Catawba, and Lumbee nations. The city and county parks departments have preserved multiple historic structures in our locations. In addition, we operate camps at Umstead State Park in Wake County, which was once a segregated park and indigenous territory. We must discuss this history with our staff and campers, amplify the stories of the Indigenous and enslaved peoples who cared for the land, and continue learning about and examining the parks’ legacy.

Purpose of Position:

The Homeschool & CIT Coordinator (HCC) is a full-time exempt position that is responsible for the development and implementation of two key parts of the Education team at Piedmont Wildlife Center - our year round offering of homeschool camps and our strategy centered on youth ages 13-17 in our Counselor In Training (CIT) programs.

The HCC is a part of the Piedmont Wildlife Center’s Education team that develops, executes, and evaluates our nature based camp offerings to children ages 5-12 and youth ages 13-17 throughout the year. While the HCC has autonomy in developing and running Homeschool camps, the position is built around collaboration with their team to assure first-class camps are being implemented for those families that choose Piedmont Wildlife Center as their camp family.

Position Roles and Responsibilities:

**Homeschool & Counselor-in-Training Implementation **

• The Homeschool and CIT Coordinator will work to develop and implement mission-aligned Homeschool programs, Teen Outdoor Leadership camps and manage the Counselor in Training (CIT) program throughout the year
• Spend three days a week at our main location (Leigh Farm Park in Durham) and travel to our other locations twice a week. Wednesday homeschool runs out of Umstead State Park in Wake County and Friday homeschool runs out of Blackwood Farm Park in Orange County. There is no homeschool on Mondays.
• Have a thorough understanding of and oversee program planning, staff training, supply inventory, and teaching as needed.
• Supervise camper safety, counselors, interns, and CITs, and enforce activity policies.
• Work with the Education Team to determine department staffing needs and pay rates, develop short and long-term goals, and report updates on operations, permits, and programming.
• Coordinate maintenance of grounds and areas used for programming conferring with the Education Team as needed.
• Manage weekly planning documents, which includes choosing camp themes, assigning campers, CITs, and Counselors to groups.
• Review/evaluate counselors with the Education Team to ensure the Piedmont Wildlife Center culture and camp quality is being upheld, and to help counselors improve.
• Facilitate daily camper check-in and check-out.
• Monitor camp supplies and restock as needed.
• Maintain pertinent paperwork, including check-in lists, camper liability waivers, and incident reports.
• Monitor Counselor-in-Training and Counselor Intern performance and ensure feedback is shared. Share information from those with staff as needed, and with CIT or Intern counselor or coordinator who is overseeing the program.

Communication (Internal & External)

• Maintain good communication with parents through various mediums (in person, email, phone, et al)
• Facilitate daily meetings, morning and afternoon with counselors when camps are in session.
• Help build and maintain community among staff, counselors, volunteers, CIT and interns.
• When not in camp, visit each group to check-in and offer support.
• Check-in with counselors individually to gather and share feedback.
• Provide via email camp updates to parents each Wednesday and Friday while camps are in session.
• Update Education Coordinators on any challenges, parent questions, and other relevant camp updates.
• Oversee management of photo pages for each week of camp working with the education team.

General Responsibilities:

• Abide by rules and directives laid out in PWC Employee and Counselor Handbooks, Brand Guidelines, and core values of Piedmont Wildlife Center as well as county Parks and Recreation guidelines and/or permits
• Treat everyone with respect and strive to make PWC a diverse, equitable and inclusive organization
• Attend the organizational staff meetings when able
• Assist in general office duties and other organizational tasks as needed.
• Assist with PWC organizational events when possible, some may be after normal business hours
• Maintain good communication and coordination with Conservation Team, to schedule animal visits and aiding in the Eastern Box Turtle research project’s data collection when finding box turtles on the Leigh Farm Park site.

Qualifications

• Undergraduate degree in Environmental Sciences, Education, or other adjacent fields of study; or two years of full time equivalent experience in working with nature based education camps
• Proficient in Google Suite (Sheets, Docs, Gmail, Calendar)
• Experience in budgeting for camp based experiences
• Strong planning and organizational skills
• Good crisis management and leadership skills
• Proficient written and oral communication skills, and interpersonal skills with families, campers, volunteers, counselors, the general public, and staff
• Enthusiasm and commitment to Piedmont Wildlife Center’s mission
• Preferred: Experience with higher needs children ( for example, but not limited to, on the Autism spectrum, limited speech, neurodiversity ,and seen and unseen disabilities)
• Preferred: Prior working knowledge of the Nature based camp programs (counselor experience with Piedmont or other organization prior)
• Preferred: Completion or working towards NCEE Certification, or environmental education experience with youth ages 5-17

Physical Requirements :

Position requires multiple hours per day working on a computer at a workstation in Durham office, and may have opportunities for work from home if needed. Comfortable standing and hiking for long periods during camp days, lifting up to 25 pounds, and squatting and standing to work with children.

Typical Work Schedule :

This position is primarily office based in our Durham office, with typical non-camp office hours being 9am-5pm. During camp seasons the schedule is flexible to meet the employee's need to be in different camp locations, while not exceeding a 40 hour work week.

Benefits :

After the first 90 days, employees may participate in the organization's 403b plan, enroll in an optional healthcare, dental, life insurance plans offered through our Professional Employment Organization (these are all at the discretion of the employee and Piedmont Wildlife Center currently does not provide matching or employee contributions). Additionally, all employees are entitled to a generous paid time off policy that is unlimited (given time off does not conflict with job responsibilities) after their first 90 days (this covers all sick and vacation time).

Deadline to Apply is January 3rd 2025, with applications being reviewed and accepted on a rolling basis. Target start date is January 21st, however can be sooner with the right candidate.