Programme Coordinator

Job Description

Love our coastlines? Want to play a key role in restoring and protecting them? Are you community focused with an epic ability to bring people together towards a shared kaupapa? If you’ve had experience working with community groups and mana whenua and ideally in the environmental space and you are based in Christchurch – you could be just the people we’re looking for.

About Us

Established in April 2009, the Sustainable Coastlines Charitable Trust is a multi award-winning New Zealand charity that exists to connect people to nature and inspire change. Our long-term, shared vision is to restore the mauri for our moana and our mission is to support communities around Aotearoa to prevent litter and restore waterways. We want to see beautiful beaches / oneone kōrekoreko, healthy waters / waiora and inspired people / tāngata whakaohooho. We believe we can be part of a solution, working with local communities, government and business across Aotearoa and the world.

We deliver and support large-scale coastal clean-up events, educational programmes, public awareness campaigns, catchment-based freshwater restoration and citizen science activities to collect environmental data. We also enable others by supporting ‘Do It Yourself’ efforts and training groups to run their own events.

The Roles

We’re looking for two new members of our programmes delivery team, with one role based in Christchurch.

The Programme Coordinators will deliver the “on-the-ground” components of the Love Your Water, Love Your Coast and Litter Intelligence programmes, in conjunction with colleagues and community groups, to deliver the world-class mahi Sustainable Coastlines is known for, in terms of programme impacts and funder deliverables.

Working with the support and guidance of our Programme Managers, the purpose of this position is to coordinate and implement waterway restoration projects, as well as beach clean-up projects and campaigns and litter survey and audits. This includes but is not limited to: school education and events, corporate events, sponsor projects, monitoring and evaluation, training and support and training workshops. Success in this role looks like professional and well run programmes with strong community presence & support.

Being the local Sustainable Coastlines representative across our programmes will require you to be a community engagement superstar. Alongside planning, running events and reporting on them, as the key contact person for groups in your area you will deliver training activities with schools & community members, enthusiastically deliver presentations & run engagements with personality, and be confident to speak to the issues core to Sustainable Coastlines to a variety of audiences. You will be able to support data collection in freshwater & litter monitoring, as well as clean-up and planting events.

The work will be at times physical & dirty. You’ll be loading utes with trees or rubbish one day and running a Litter Intelligence training workshop with a corporate group the next. Mixed in with office work, your days will always be variable. You will use your adaptability and flexibility to manage priorities well and you’ll bring creative ideas to the table to integrate across programmes.

As you’ll be working across several programmes, you’ll need to be highly organised and excel at communicating proactively. The Christchurch role will work remotely and report to a manager in Auckland, so a particularly high level of initiative is required here.

The position will require you to attend events at weekends a number of times during the year.

Personal Attributes

Creativity and strong problem-solving skills with the ability to think on your feet.
A growth mindset and a commitment to learning.

Level headedness and a high sense of organisation and initiative.
A commitment to the mission, vision and values of Sustainable Coastlines and a strong connection to the ocean.
An enthusiastic interpersonal style that fosters great relationships with colleagues and external partners.
Confidence in presenting/public speaking with large groups
Ability to build great relationships with a range of stakeholders, including community groups and mana whenua.
Ability and desire to travel domestically and be on the road on a regular basis, including weekends.
Reasonable level of fitness to do demanding physical work

Skills & Experience

Some industry experience and knowledge, with a view to specialising in community led restoration projects.
A good understanding of te ao Māori and te reo.
Ability to manage budgets and event planning; a proven history of successfully delivering and reporting on community projects within budget constraints.
Strong writing and communication skills.
Demonstrated experience in using digital tools for planning, reporting and communicating.
Proven success in the planning, and/or delivery of educational activities and programmes, including managing of events logistics
Excellent ability to manage priorities

Values Alignment

Our core values at SC are:

Respect indigenous knowledge – We’re committed to being a better collaborator by increasing our understanding of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, tikanga, te reo, and te ao māori.

Create the high five effect – We motivate people through passion, fun, positivity and a sense of achievement.

Together is better – We’re caring, collaborative, diverse and inclusive.

Strive for brilliance – We’re curious, tech-enabled people, open to new approaches.

Make waves – We focus on high impact solutions and measurable outcomes.

Come join our whānau to support communities to restore waterways and prevent litter. We need a passionate person who loves our coastlines and cares about the communities around them. Being familiar with te ao and te reo would definitely be a plus. If you want to work in an exciting, inclusive, fast-paced non-profit, then we’d love to hear from you.