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The National Young Farmers Coalition
The National Young Farmers Coalition (Young Farmers) represents, mobilizes, and engages young farmers to ensure their success. Since our founding in 2010, we have grown our grassroots network to over 200,000 individuals and partner organizations. We give young farmers tools to become leaders in their communities, building an effective political voice at the local, state, and national level. Together, we tackle the most critical structural and economic barriers that prevent motivated young people from starting and growing successful farm businesses—including access to affordable farmland, student debt, climate change, healthcare, racial inequities, and more. We have won historic investments in beginning farmer training, outreach to farmers of color, and farmland conservation. Our advocacy for a USDA Farm Service Agency microloan resulted in a loan program in every county that has served more than 30,000 farmers.
Starting in 2020, Young Farmers was selected by the Department of Agriculture as the lead grantee for the Northeast portion of Farmer Stress Assistance Network (FRSAN). FRSAN Northeast, rebranded as the more approachable “Cultivemos”, is an inclusive network of service providers where diverse farming communities are connected to mental health and stress assistance programs. The Cultivemos Network consists of approximately 160 individuals from over 90 organizations providing services, from mental health assistance and stress wellness to financial literacy and farmland management. Through this network of service providers, Cultivemos offers annual trainings and workshops to farmers and farmer service providers, direct outreach services, peer groups, a resource clearinghouse, and a telephone hotline in Spanish and English that can help farmers and farmworkers facing challenges and acute crises.
Young Farmers seeks a full-time Farmer Mental Health Director to play an integral role in project management to ensure the broad network of members, participants, and stakeholders align on this regional effort. The Farmer Mental Health Director will facilitate a broad coalition of partners and prioritize the needs of farming communities in this effort. The Farmer Mental Health Director will be responsible for managing relationships with new and existing Cultivemos organizational and individual members, connecting the Network to Young Farmers’ campaigns, develop and implement outreach and communication strategies, representing the Cultivemos in press and speaking opportunities and leading on all grant reporting for this project. They will represent Young Farmers in this Network effort and will work to make this network inclusive of all the region’s farming communities with a specific focus on BIPOC farmers and farmworkers.
Title: Farmer Mental Health Director
Reports to: Co-Executive Director
Status: Full Time; Exempt
Location: Remote, U.S. Based Home Office, located anywhere in the Northeast(ME, NH, VT, NY, MA, CT, RI, PA, NJ, DE, DC, MD, WV)– Applicants must be eligible to work in the U.S.
Start date: September 2024
Responsibilities
Farmer Mental Health Strategy and Outreach (40%)
– Lead strategy for the Cultivemos’ Leadership Team, composed of subawardees (partner organization) and farmer leaders, including coordination on grant deliverables, overall strategic decision and alignment, collective financial decision-making and collective governance processes.
– Ensure cohesive connections between FRSAN subgrantees and all aspects of work across the Cultivemos network, including accurate budgets, compliant contracts, completed activities, transparent communications, and timely reports
– Lead the network in long-term strategic and financial planning, working alongside the network and Young Farmers staff.
– Develop and implement processes and projects to improve network equity and accessibility outcomes. Builds in feedback loops to ensure diverse perspectives are taken into account to improve equity and inclusion in programs.
– Foster and implement collaborative processes for government grant application, budgeting and reporting.
– Serve as an advocate and spokesperson for farmer mental health and Cultivemos by overseeing and directly participating in press, conferences, and policy efforts, as needed.
– Oversee all aspects of Cultivemos programming, especially related to the Farmer programming, Quarterly Calls, trainings, conflict transformation, and communications.
– Strategically connect Farmer Mental Health programming to other Young Farmer programs and priorities, especially climate and land, to ensure broader base-building and alignment across Young Farmers’ networks
FRSAN Grant Management and Budgeting (29%)
– Lead financial, development, and compliance responsibilities on behalf of the network including applying for grants, applying for budget adjustments, creating budget projections, ensuring compliance with grant requirements and representing
– Cultivemos with governmental institutions.
– Translate grant deliverables into actionable work plans for Young Farmers Team and network, and conduct monitoring to ensure we remain on track with timelines and deliverables.
– Oversee Cultivemos contracting processes to ensure best practice and government compliance
– Implements strong project and team management strategies to ensure timely and thorough NIFA and Congressional reporting, including sourcing materials from evaluation reports and partners and coordinating Cultivemos, Development, and Finance teams.
– Lead development efforts for Cultivemos and Farmer Mental Health related to FRSAN and other funding sources, including aligning with partners, grant-writing, and submitting proposals in coordination with Development team and Finance team.
– Lead relationships with NIFA and FRSAN Regions, including participating in monthly National Coordination Council (NCC) meetings, hosting four NCC meetings, and attending one in person NIFA meeting
Staff and Team Management (15%)
– Lead the management and coordination of the Cultivemos team (2 Cultivemos Managers and Cultivemos Associate Director) in a manner that equips and empowers team members to succeed in their roles through team-building and professional development;
– Oversee the Cultivemos Team strategy-setting, work plans, and performance evaluations.
– Directly manage Cultivemos Associate Director – attend & lead weekly check ins, monitor team workflows, prioritize and delegate tasks, recognize and address performance gaps and achievements, provide consistent and timely feedback, and support professional development. Make yourself available to meet with your team and your reports as requested.
– Attend the monthly Management Team call, helping to shape staff experiences at Young Farmers and stay up to date on organization-wide processes. Hold reports accountable to their completion of organization-wide and role-specific processes.
– Inform team of any organizational decisions/processes, make space for feedback, escalate feedback, and to ensure alignment with confirmed decisions.
– Perform managers’ administrative duties, such as approving time cards, time off requests, and expense reports, on time.
Leadership Team (6%)
– Attend and participate in bi-weekly Leadership Team meetings. Complete all pre-work in order to provide thought partnership in org-wide discussions, decision-making, and updates.
– Uplift feedback and emergent issues to be discussed during upcoming Leadership Team meetings.
– Direct team-level responsibilities to ensure team meets its annual goals by facilitating weekly team meetings and quarterly stepbacks, supporting team members through regular check-ins, and facilitating opportunities for professional development.
– Lead goal setting, tracking, and accountability for the team. Make high level strategic decisions regarding the direction of the team’s work in alignment with strategic plan goals.
– Manage program budgets; leads the development of program budgets and forecasts, understands the specific resource needs of their program and how their programs are funded. Lead budget tracking and forecasting. Communicates budgetary issues with the Finance Director and Executive Team in a timely manner.
– Advise Executive Team on major organizational decisions, and serves as a problem-solving partner to other managers on staff
General Staff Responsibilities (10%)
– Serve as a contributing team member who willingly supports organizational efforts in alignment with the strategic plan and models the organizational values.
– All staff admin: individually complete time cards and expense reports on time, attend weekly staff calls, supervisory meetings, team meetings, staff retreats, and other staff social spaces, and participate in providing feedback and implementation of annual processes.
Qualifications
This could be the right position for you, if you have:
– Demonstrated experience building and maintain large, multi-organization grassroots coalitions or networks with diverse membership
– Experience managing government grants and budgets
– Demonstrated subject matter expertise on mental health service provision, including the expert ability to analyze access and equity of mental health service landscapes and demonstrated experience designing and implementing operational practices informed by these intersections.
– Enthusiasm for and experience in cultivating lasting relationships and accountable partnerships with a diverse body of stakeholders and decision makers
– Strong project management skills, capable of planning, prioritizing, troubleshooting, and evaluating efforts in an ongoing manner
– Exceptional interpersonal skills, including the ability to listen well, build trust, and model healthy conflict resolution
– A strong team player and leader oriented toward collaboration, shared success, accountability, and learning
– 2+ years experience directly managing staff
The ideal candidate may also have:
– Experience providing behavioral health services and/or an advanced degree relating to public health or social work
– Excellent written and verbal communication and public speaking skills, including distilling complex material for a variety of stakeholders
– Experience cultivating donor and foundation relationships and crafting grant language
– Experience and training as a facilitator to develop consensus among diverse stakeholders
– Experience with long-term strategic planning as well as annual planning and priority setting
– Experience with utilizing Customer Relationship Management Tools (CRM- specifically Salesforce) to make data informed programmatic decisions
– Experience working on a farm or ranch and/or rooted in the agricultural community.
- Fluency in Spanish*
Schedule and Compensation
– Regular full-time exempt employees work 40 hours per week including a one (1) hour paid lunch break each day.
– The current salary range for this role is $98,880, in accordance with our 2024 Salary Guidelines.
– Young Farmers offers a competitive benefits package, health, vision and dental insurance, generous paid time off, paid sick days, personal days, paid family leave, and retirement matching.
A Note to Potential Candidates: Studies have shown that women, trans, non-binary folks, and BIPOC are less likely to apply for jobs unless they believe they meet every single one of the qualifications as described in a job description. We are committed to building a diverse and inclusive organization, and we are most interested in finding the best candidate for the job. That candidate may be one who comes from a background less traditional to our field of work, and that’s okay. We would strongly encourage you to apply, even if you don’t believe you meet every one of the qualifications described.
How to Apply
Apply by July 26th using this form to be considered for an interview. Applications without both a cover letter and resume will be considered incomplete.
The job post is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing every activity, duty or responsibility that is required of the employee. Duties, responsibilities and activities may change slightly or be added depending on the needs of the organization.
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Disclaimer: Part time and full time positions require legal authorization to work in the United States.
You will receive an email confirmation when your application has been submitted and no further action is needed. The team will reach out to you directly if your application is selected to move forward in the process. Email [email protected] with any questions.