Technical Assistance, Senior Program Associate
Trust for Public Land
IT, Operations
New York, NY, USA
Posted on Sunday, August 20, 2023
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- Technical Assistance, Senior Program Associate
Technical Assistance, Senior Program Associate
New York City,
Posted on August 18, 2023
Posted on August 18, 2023
Background:
Parks are superfoods for cities and play a critical role in quality of life for urban communities. They improve physical and mental health, strengthen civic and community vitality, and build social and environmental resilience. Though the benefits of parks are well documented, 100 million people, including 28 million children, lack access to a park and greenspace within a 10-minute walk of home. There is an urgent need to address this U.S. park equity divide.
Trust for Public Land’s 10-Minute Walk Program works with city leaders to ensure that every resident has access to a quality park or greenspace within a 10-minute walk of home. Since 2017, more than 300 mayors, representing cities large and small, have committed to the 10-Minute Walk and to prioritizing access to high-quality parks and green spaces to create healthy, resilient communities. The 10-Minute Walk Program works across the country to identify, support, and accelerate local policy and practices, and to build the tools that are needed to advance equitable park systems and thriving communities. More information on the program can be found here: https://10minutewalk.org/
Position Overview:
The Trust for Public Land is seeking a highly motivated individual to join the 10-Minute Walk Program as Technical Assistance, Senior Program Associate. Reporting to TPL’s 10-Minute Walk Program Park Equity Accelerator and Community of Practice Leads, this role will serve a critical role to advance new and existing efforts that support policy, city learning, and field-wide advancement of park equity.
This role will work directly and primarily with the two 10-Minute Walk Program Park Equity Accelerator and Community of Practice Leads. This work significantly expands upon TPL’s ongoing work around greenspace policy research, recommendations, and action, relates specifically to several of the signature 10-Minute Walk Programs (“10MW”) assistance-focused activities:
Park Equity Accelerator: These are city-specific partnerships to field-test policy ideas, gather real-world insights on the process of change, and gather learnings that can be scaled to benefit other communities. 10MW provides research and support to address a specific policy opportunity.
Park Equity Community of Practice: These are a key way we provide training, co-learning, and networking for our city partners. These tracks focus on a range of influential topics for park equity, and we’ve been thrilled to engage over 200 participants from 80 cities to date.
Webinars and Events: 10-Minute Walk has several programs that bring knowledge, networking opportunities, and learning to various audiences - from city leaders to the general public.
The role will work closely with other members of the 10-Minute Walk team, with other teams across Trust for Public Land, and with external partners (both city elected and appointed officials and staff, local community partners, and national organizational partners).
Key Responsibilities:
City Relationships and Assistance
Resources & Tools
Convening and Events Support
As a full-time, non-exempt employee, you will be eligible for Trust for Public Land’s comprehensive benefits program which includes medical, dental, and vision insurance, three weeks of vacation annually plus holidays, and a 403(b) retirement plan, currently with an up to 7% company match. The anticipated salary is $60,000-70,000 range but may vary depending on qualifications and experience.
Trust for Public Land’s active goal is to be an inclusive and equitable place to work and build community. As the organization actively works to eliminate racial and other disparities it welcomes candidates with diverse backgrounds and/or multicultural skillsets. We are open to the possibility that a great candidate for this job may not precisely meet all of the above criteria; if you believe you are the right person for this job and can persuasively make that case, we encourage you to apply.
Parks are superfoods for cities and play a critical role in quality of life for urban communities. They improve physical and mental health, strengthen civic and community vitality, and build social and environmental resilience. Though the benefits of parks are well documented, 100 million people, including 28 million children, lack access to a park and greenspace within a 10-minute walk of home. There is an urgent need to address this U.S. park equity divide.
Trust for Public Land’s 10-Minute Walk Program works with city leaders to ensure that every resident has access to a quality park or greenspace within a 10-minute walk of home. Since 2017, more than 300 mayors, representing cities large and small, have committed to the 10-Minute Walk and to prioritizing access to high-quality parks and green spaces to create healthy, resilient communities. The 10-Minute Walk Program works across the country to identify, support, and accelerate local policy and practices, and to build the tools that are needed to advance equitable park systems and thriving communities. More information on the program can be found here: https://10minutewalk.org/
Position Overview:
The Trust for Public Land is seeking a highly motivated individual to join the 10-Minute Walk Program as Technical Assistance, Senior Program Associate. Reporting to TPL’s 10-Minute Walk Program Park Equity Accelerator and Community of Practice Leads, this role will serve a critical role to advance new and existing efforts that support policy, city learning, and field-wide advancement of park equity.
This role will work directly and primarily with the two 10-Minute Walk Program Park Equity Accelerator and Community of Practice Leads. This work significantly expands upon TPL’s ongoing work around greenspace policy research, recommendations, and action, relates specifically to several of the signature 10-Minute Walk Programs (“10MW”) assistance-focused activities:
Park Equity Accelerator: These are city-specific partnerships to field-test policy ideas, gather real-world insights on the process of change, and gather learnings that can be scaled to benefit other communities. 10MW provides research and support to address a specific policy opportunity.
Park Equity Community of Practice: These are a key way we provide training, co-learning, and networking for our city partners. These tracks focus on a range of influential topics for park equity, and we’ve been thrilled to engage over 200 participants from 80 cities to date.
Webinars and Events: 10-Minute Walk has several programs that bring knowledge, networking opportunities, and learning to various audiences - from city leaders to the general public.
The role will work closely with other members of the 10-Minute Walk team, with other teams across Trust for Public Land, and with external partners (both city elected and appointed officials and staff, local community partners, and national organizational partners).
Key Responsibilities:
City Relationships and Assistance
- Support in-depth technical assistance efforts, and serve as a key point of contact for technical assistance participants. This work will focus on the Park Equity Accelerator (approximately 8-10 cities over the next 2 years), and will include additional city partnerships as applicable.
- Assist with scoping, agreements, and creation and execution of action plans for each city-specific Technical Assistance effort.
- Manage and support local partnerships to advance community role and collaboration throughout policy-making processes.
- Manage consultants, including contracts and ongoing task management, to help cities rigorously explore and implement policies, practices, and other interventions that can increase park equity locally.
- Support reporting and evaluation work to help identify lessons learned and solutions, and partner on efforts to share these with other communities facing other challenges in order to bring change to scale.
- Conducting background research, benchmarking, and more in-depth investigation related to key topics explored via Technical Assistance and 10-Minute Walk Program.
- Provide general research support for key topics, ranging from specific policy areas to park quality and use.
- Provide support for planning and geospatial research, often completed for each Park Equity Accelerator.
- Manage and support research and synthesis that informs Community of Practice deliverables and sessions.
- Work to identify models and best practices that should be amplified among practitioners.
Resources & Tools
- We partner across the organization - including closely with TPL’s Land and People Lab - and with external organizations to create state-of-the-art tools and resources.
- Lead ongoing coordination with TPL’s Land and People Lab on key bodies of work and tools.
- Coordinate input and advisory groups, involving both internal and external audiences.
Convening and Events Support
- Support events and meetings, which aim to build a cohort of practitioners focused on building park equity, as well as to elevate the role of parks and greenspaces in addressing the most urgent issues facing cities and communities today.
- Work with the 10-Minute Walk Program Park Equity Accelerator and Community of Practice Leads to finalize event objectives, agendas, speakers, budgets and work plans. This includes support with scoping and creating new trainings, as the Community of Practice expands.
- Lead speaker and participant communications and support.
- Lead logistics and planning for Park Equity Accelerator convenings.
- Support logistics, planning, and outreach for the Community of Practice (peer learning and networking sessions).
- Public policy knowledge, and experience developing and working through policy adoption processes, highly preferred
- Community-based planning experience preferred
- Public service experience preferred
- Experience working with a range of audiences, from city leaders to community groups, preferred
- 3+ years of work experience within related fields (such as public policy, public administration, or planning)
- Strong interest in mission of the 10-Minute Walk Program and TPL
- Excellent interpersonal skills, as well as strong verbal and written communication skills
- Excellent critical thinking and problem solving skills, and an entrepreneurial mindset
- Strong track record of project execution, with strong project management skills, highly organized and detail-oriented
- Broad knowledge of public space and parks field preferred
- Familiarity with range of U.S. cities and geographies helpful
- Bachelor’s degree in a related field or related experience
As a full-time, non-exempt employee, you will be eligible for Trust for Public Land’s comprehensive benefits program which includes medical, dental, and vision insurance, three weeks of vacation annually plus holidays, and a 403(b) retirement plan, currently with an up to 7% company match. The anticipated salary is $60,000-70,000 range but may vary depending on qualifications and experience.
Trust for Public Land’s active goal is to be an inclusive and equitable place to work and build community. As the organization actively works to eliminate racial and other disparities it welcomes candidates with diverse backgrounds and/or multicultural skillsets. We are open to the possibility that a great candidate for this job may not precisely meet all of the above criteria; if you believe you are the right person for this job and can persuasively make that case, we encourage you to apply.
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