Internship
Freshwater Stewardship Education Intern
Watersheds Canada
Posted: April 27, 2021
Location: Perth and surrounding areas, ON
Internship Program: ImpAct
Salary Range: $10,000 - $20,000
Hours per Week: 35
Start Date: July 10, 2023
End Date: October 27, 2023
Job Description
The intern will join the Watersheds Canada team to lead the development and implementation of climate change mitigation and sustainable shoreline planning projects that will accelerate our impact to serve freshwater groups, nature organizations, individuals, and youth, and meet our mission to protect Canada's freshwater. The Intern is responsible for the planning and delivery of projects and education resources to build capacity of municipalities, families, waterfront and community groups, and individuals to take action to protect and enhance their local freshwater and shoreline areas.
Through this position, the Intern will deliver technology-based projects including the Freshwater Stewardship Community and Planning for our Shorelands Program, and outreach programs including Nature Discovery Programming. The Intern will be responsible for developing and delivering technology- and science-grounded outreach projects for the general public to utilize to prevent and eliminate possible degradation of the terrestrial and aquatic environment in their community and on their properties.
This role focuses on protecting the environment and advancing nature-based processes to have positive environmental outcomes for Canada’s freshwater. The Intern will be crucial in providing resources and tools to stakeholders like shoreline property owners and municipalities and giving them concrete steps to take action for their freshwater in the wake of climate change impacts and increased degradation of freshwater areas. The Intern will implement environmental protection and sustainable shoreline planning projects that will accelerate Watersheds Canada’s impact to serve freshwater groups, nature organizations, individuals, and youth. This position will include extensive scientific research, content creation, outreach events, and preparing reports and infographics.
Duties and Responsibilities
The successful applicant will contribute to the stewardship and outreach work at Watersheds Canada by raising awareness of water stewardship principles and the importance of nature-based climate change solutions to protect the health of Canada’s lakes, rivers, wetlands, and shorelines. This includes a focus on programs that are equitable in creation and delivery, and ensuring that economic growth and shoreland development is done in a sustainable manner with nature in mind.
The Intern’s duties and responsibilities include:
• Ensure the conservation, restoration, and sustainable use of terrestrial and inland freshwater ecosystems and their services by writing compelling original educational content including blog posts, lesson plan creation, activity sheets, design work for reporting and infographics, press releases, newsletters, fact sheets, social media posts, and more.
• Assist with maintenance of social media and websites and preparing analytic reports.
• Perform media and fundraising research, identifying new media opportunities.
• Use NationBuilder to engage with existing contacts and add data as required.
• Keep all lists up to date and work with staff to create content to engage individuals, businesses and foundations for financial support and project partnerships, including reports, letters of intent, and more.
• Use strong scientific research skills to conduct literature reviews.
• Help organize and deliver online workshops and presentations on our programs.
• Represent the project, the proponent, and partners at online and in-person environmental events.
• Promote our program and engage new stakeholders in shoreline education projects.
• Facilitate community knowledge sharing and create science-supported documents to integrate ecosystem and biodiversity values into local municipality planning.
• Improve education and individual knowledge capacity on nature-based solutions to reduce freshwater health impacts and increase adaptation to climate change impacts.
• Conduct research into sustainable development practices based on earth sciences (water resources, geology, and the interaction between land and water).
• Perform other duties assigned.
Knowledge and Skills
Watersheds Canada recognizes that all candidates may not have all of these knowledge and skills. We encourage applicants who possess many of the following to still submit their application for consideration.
• Excellent English written and oral communication. French bilingualism is an asset.
• A demonstrated knowledge and passion of Canadian freshwater issues and protection.
• Previous field work/lab experience/research/non-profit experience an asset.
• A knowledge of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
• Comfortable with public speaking and engagement of the public.
• Comfortable disseminating complex scientific principles into understandable terms.
• Experience with Wordpress, various social media platforms, Canva, Google Suite, Adobe, Microsoft Office, and Zoom.
• Proven multi-tasking skills in a fast-paced environment, completing projects within time constraints and with changing deadlines.
• Ability to work both independently and in a team environment.
• Proven high level of motivation and initiative.
• Original content creation experience, such as lesson plans, handouts, video series, and social media posts.
• High attention to detail for data entry and generating reports.
• Ability to work independently. A self-motivator.
• Valid driver’s license and access to a vehicle an asset.
Education Required
BSc in environmental science, communications, policy, or a related field
Certification Required
Valid G license, clean driving record
How to Apply
To apply, send your resume to info@watersheds.ca.
What are people saying about our programs?
Hear first-hand from the employers and job seekers who have benefitted from one of our programs.
All current staff members of Intervale have gotten their start through this internship program. If it were not for this program, Intervale would not have been able to provide employment to young people from rural communities of Newfoundland and Labrador.
Kathleen Blanchard
Intervale Associates Inc.
Here are a few of the great employers we have supported.
Do you want to address your labour shortages, diversify your workforce, and strengthen your organization?
