2023 Delaware River Watershed Fellowship
at Tacony/Tookany Frankford Watershed Partnership (TTF)
Start date: June 5-14, 2023 End date: August 18-25, 2023
The Delaware River Watershed Fellowship is a 12-week, paid summer job opportunity designed to introduce young people from local communities to careers in environmental education. Fellows are hired at one of 23 environmental education centers across the Delaware River Watershed. Fellows participate in training sessions to help prepare them for a summer of helping people connect with nature and informing their local communities about issues affecting the Delaware River, the source of drinking water for 13 million people living in the region.
Tacony/Tookany Frankford Watershed Partnership (TTF), a member of the Alliance for Watershed Education (AWE), is seeking to hire a Fellow from Philadelphia to connect with community members around protecting the Delaware River and its waterways, with a focus on connecting and engaging community members to our River Alive! Learning Trail and Tacony Creek Park programs.
The River Alive! Learning Trail is an environmental education experience based on the River Alive exhibit at the Independence Seaport Museum, but on a neighborhood scale along Cayuga Street in the Juniata Park neighborhood. Located next to Ferko Recreation Center which is adjacent to Tacony Creek Park, the trail includes six stations, each featuring a unique animal sculpture, seating, and English/Spanish bilingual signage for families to learn about the local watershed and nearby Tacony Creek.
Position Location: TTF is located at the Globe Dye Works in Frankford, 4500 Worth St. Philadelphia PA 19124. The fellow will spend much of their time in and around Tacony Creek Park (TCP), in lower Northeast Philadelphia.
Compensation: Fellows are paid $15.50/hr, 35-40 hours a week over the summer.
Duties:
- Fellows will participate in a 3-day watershed education training, at the Pocono Environmental Education Center (overnight, June 14-16.) http://www.peec.org/ (Depending on Covid limitations at the time, some or all of this training may take place virtually).
- Fellows will help their host Center lead programs and activities, whether in-person or virtually, for community members and visitors to their site.
- Fellows will attend virtual webinars as well as in-person meetings with Fellows from other AWE Centers.
- Fellows will be paired with mentors from AWE Centers as well as past Fellowship Fellows will check in with their mentors twice a month.
- With guidance from their supervisor and mentors, Fellows will focus their efforts on a specific Capstone Project and present their work at the end-of-program Summit event (August 18).
- Fellows will document their progress by completing a short log report every week.
The TTF Fellow will specifically:
- Plan and implement River Alive Learning Trail and TCP program outreach and engagement with staff and partner organizations.
- Work collaboratively to develop creative ways to engage communities unaware of TCP and programs.
- Communicate and share materials and information with TCP users, neighborhood residents, organizations, and businesses through emails, phone calls, social media, canvassing, and spending time in TCP.
- Lead (or assist with) environmental education and programming in TCP, including the River Alive Learning Trail.
Qualifications and Experience:
- Age 18+ by June 5, 2023 start date.
- A background in environmental education is not required.
- Conversational in Spanish or Vietnamese.
- Familiarity with the Lower Northeast and Tacony Creek Park, Philadelphia resident preferred
- Occasional evening and weekend hours required.
- Interest in or experience with communications and/or community engagement
- Valid state driver’s license required OR proficient with public transportation.
- Enjoy interacting with the public, willingness to start conversations with strangers
- Enjoy working outdoors and in public spaces.
Essential dates:
- June 5, 2023: Fellow start date at TTF (Fellows may arrange with their Supervisor to begin any time within the first week of the program.)
- June 14-16: Fellowship Orientation (overnight) at Pocono Environmental Education (Meals, transportation, and accommodations provided.)
- August 18: Watershed Fellowship Summit (location to be announced).
- August 25: Last day of Fellowship (Fellows may finish their term of service any time after the August 18 Summit as needed.)
How to apply:
Email a resume and a brief letter of interest to: Malcolm@ttfwatershed.org. Please email any questions!
Supervisor: Malcolm Bundy
Supervisor Title: Philadelphia Community Organizer
Supervisor email address: Malcolm@ttfwatershed.org
Application Deadline: Friday, April 21, 2023
More about Tookany/Tacony-Frankford Watershed Partnership
The Tookany/Tacony-Frankford Watershed Partnership’s mission is to improve the health and vitality of the Tookany/Tacony-Frankford Creek and watershed — which includes neighborhoods in North, Northeast, and Northwest Philadelphia and Abington, Cheltenham, Jenkintown, Rockledge, and Springfield in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania — by engaging our communities in education, stewardship, restoration, and advocacy. Working closely with our communities, we support the Philadelphia Water Department’s Green City, Clean Waters 25-year plan to protect our watershed by managing stormwater with innovative green infrastructure. We implement and encourage these same strategies with partners in our upstream communities.
More about the Alliance for Watershed Education
Organized in 2016, the Alliance for Watershed Education of the Delaware River is a regional initiative of twenty-three partnering environmental education centers, funded and supported by the William Penn Foundation. Each of these centers is located along the Circuit Trail or a major connecting trail, and on waterways throughout the Delaware River Watershed in Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.
This position is made possible through the support of the William Penn Foundation.
View a PDF of the TTF 2023 Fellowship Job Description here.
