Bridgeport/West Haven WildLife Guard Crew Leader

National Audubon Society•T35 MD BPP, ME

3d•$19

About The Position

In partnership with the Cities of Bridgeport and West Haven, the WildLife Guard Crew Leader will be responsible for the direct supervision, training, and execution of an Audubon Connecticut youth employment program. Bridgeport, CT is known as the Park City for its many public parks. Pleasure Beach, Seaside Park, and Beardsley Park are the largest and in addition to providing opportunities for city residents to enjoy the outdoors, are vital to birds. Pleasure Beach is a nesting site for the federally threatened Piping Plover and the state threatened Least Tern, as well as four CT state listed plant species. Beardsley Park provides important migratory songbird stopover habitat and Seaside Park provides resting and foraging opportunities to migrating waterbirds. Sandy Point Beach & Bird Sanctuary in West Haven, CT is one of the most significant mainland nesting areas in the state for Piping Plover and Least Tern, and the state threatened American Oystercatcher. It is a popular site amongst anglers and local residents looking for a beautiful walk along the shore. To ensure that these birds have the opportunity to nest successfully, rest, and refuel during migration, Audubon Connecticut, in partnership with the cities of Bridgeport and West Haven, created the WildLife Guards Program. The program trains, mentors, and employs crews of eight local high school students to monitor nesting shorebirds, restore habitat, and engage visitors, families, and friends about the parks and their wildlife. This is a seasonal, full-time position working Tuesday through Saturday (30-hrs/week) starting June 16th and ending August 22nd. Note: Audubon staff will provide two weeks of paid training to Crew Leaders at the beginning of the WildLife Guards program. Positions are based in Bridgeport and West Haven, CT. Compensation: $19.00 / hour

Requirements

Experience guiding and mentoring students while fostering positive learning environments.
Experience supervising high school aged students required (comparable/equivalent experience may be considered).
Experience and ability to communicate clearly via written, spoken and graphical means along with responding to communications in a prompt and timely manner.
Crew Leaders should be comfortable interacting with students, their families, the public, and project partners in a professional manner.
Good planning skills desired.
In the event of poor weather, Crew Leaders will need to coordinate with the Program Manager and have their teams work at a pre-determined “classroom setting” location when fieldwork is not possible.
Familiarity with Microsoft Office Suite (Outlook, Word, Excel, and Power Point) and Google Workspace (Gmail, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Forms) software required.

Nice To Haves

Coursework in the active pursuit of a degree in biology, wildlife management, or related field preferred.
Experience leading environmental education and public outreach programs highly desirable

Responsibilities

Mentoring, motivating, and inspiring the students to work as part of the employment program in a professional manner.
Facilitating team building and helping students work through challenging situations.
Developing and implementing public outreach programs (e.g., nature walks, seine netting, touch tank, scavenger hunt, arts and crafts, tabling).
Every week (or as is required) creating a schedule of activities (e.g., outreach programs, bird monitoring, and habitat restoration work) to be performed daily by students as well as educational enrichment. This shall also include testing for student program participants at the beginning and end of the field season.
Tracking program metrics (e.g., number of people engaged, materials distributed, pledges to protect birds signed and hours spent monitoring site.)
Provide content for applicable Audubon CT social media.
Collecting and entering data into online databases (e.g., Microsoft Excel & Google Sheets).
Writing weekly reports detailing management activities at each site.
Coordinating monitoring efforts with other Audubon CT staff and partners.
Organizing and leading volunteer events as needed.
Should be comfortable speaking and facilitating group discussion.
Additional duties may be assigned to support other aspects of the youth employment program.