[FILLED] Community Partnership for Our Climate Future: Program Evaluation & Improvement
Host: City of Fort Collins
Region: Colorado
Openings: 1
Project Focus: Climate Adaptation,Climate Mitigation,Public Health,Community leadership
Skills Needed: Facilitation,Relationship Management, Environmental Justice,Stakeholder Engagement, Detail-Oriented,Self-Motivated
Service Needs & Plans
The City of Fort Collins addresses climate change through an equity-centered, systems approach called Our Climate Future (OCF), which articulates quantitative goals for greenhouse gas reduction, renewable energy, and materials management, as well as commitments to fully embed equity and climate resilience.
This project will focus on building and sustaining community partnerships with community organizations and individual community members to achieve goals and ensure a just transition for all parts of the community, particularly historically excluded groups. OCF recognizes that racial and environmental injustice are barriers to comprehensive climate action that benefits everyone; by ensuring that community voices are elevated and centered, these barriers can begin to be addressed and the community’s resilience to climate change can be strengthened.
The project will also build on the work of the previous CivicSpark Fellowship to evaluate and recommend/implement improvements for the second year of a two-year City Council-funded pilot program.
Project Description
The community partnerships program is the vehicle for implementation of Big Move 1 from the Our Climate Future (OCF) plan – Shared Leadership and Community Partnership. This Big Move is the acknowledgment that the City of Fort Collins is one of many actors working towards the goals in OCF for emissions, waste, and energy. We need every part of the Fort Collins community to be able to participate and take on leadership roles to meaningfully address our community priorities and achieve our ambitious community environmental goals. The program’s intention is to include community members in City-led projects, recognize and celebrate community-led projects, and pursue areas for greater collaboration and partnership between the City and community organizations.
OCF is jointly led by the City’s Environmental Services and Energy Services teams. The Fellow would work closely with both these teams and would coordinate OCF’s community leadership programs. The Fellow will expand the existing Community Leadership Grants program to have a resilience lens, broadening the stakeholders that can benefit from funding, the staff that can be involved in the program, and the relevance of this program to the OCF Next Move strategies. In this project the Fellow will reimagine the Community Leadership Grants program and will use these refinements to launch a second year of the pilot program to lead with climate resilience and equity. The Fellow will also create a hub for existing and future City funding/grant-making opportunities that invest in local capacity-building while centering resilience and equity.
Staff members from the Environmental Services Department would supervise and support this work, and the Fellow and OCF staff would work together in building and nurturing relationships with community members and organizations.
Project outcomes include: a portfolio of small grant project reports with community organizations; a web-based “hub” for grant-makers to centralize City funding opportunities; a summary of the Fellow’s reflections, recommendations, and research regarding City and community partnerships; and a network of community partners (this last outcome will be shared across the Fellow’s work and OCF staff’s work). These outcomes will help the City improve its capacity for being in genuine partnership with community, strengthen the networks of climate action work, and continue to distribute leadership on climate action throughout the community, making achieving OCF’s goals possible and more equitable.
Desired Skills
- Experience and interest in sustainability leadership, including climate change mitigation, adaptation, and resilience.
- Understands and adheres to the concept of equity as a process and outcome.
- Experience with public speaking, community engagement or community organizing.
- Ability to write in English clearly and articulately. Ability to read and speak Spanish is desirable.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills. Ability to make presentations to groups on occasion.
- Demonstrated proficiency in empathy and listening. Desire to learn and willingness to try new things.
- Experience working directly with people from diverse racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds.
- Strong interpersonal skills. Ability to collaborate effectively.
- Strong organizational skills. Ability to track processes and results in a consistent manner.
- Proficiency in Microsoft applications, spreadsheets, and computer systems.
- Adaptable and able to work under a rapidly changing work environment.
- Self-directed, quick learner, responsible, dedicated, uses good judgment, positive attitude, and a good team-player.
Organization & Community Highlights
Fort Collins is a flourishing city that has managed to preserve its small-town magic. Known as the Choice City, Fort Collins has been recognized for its safety, its livability, its friendliness and its charm—after all, Disneyland’s Main Street was inspired by Old Town Fort Collins.
Sustainability Services, the service area the Fellow would join, is a welcoming, inclusive, and purpose-driven work group. We strive to learn together, come to work as our whole selves and foster a culture of belonging – and we recognize the joy and difficulties that come from the work we do.
The entire service area took part in a Racial Justice Curriculum in 2021 and continues to practice identifying how racial justice work is part of everything we do and then addressing those implications.
Individuals are encouraged to explore their areas of interest, even if those interests are not explicitly part of their job description, and people’s unique talents are celebrated. Many staff are open to being mentors to interns and fellows and support folks in their professional development.
The Environmental Services Department (part of Sustainability Services) will be undergoing a strategic visioning and restructuring process throughout the remainder of 2023.
Remote or On-Site Placement
The Fellow will need to be based in or near to Fort Collins. It may be helpful for the Fellow to be able to meet OCF partners in person to build relationships and attend community partners’ events. The City is closely monitoring COVID conditions and highly values safety, in-person events will not be required if there are safety concerns.