National Public Relations Coordinator, Ottawa

1 Year Contract (Maternity leave replacement) starting September 1, 2010
Application closing date: July 23, 2010

Role and Mission

The National Public Relations Coordinator is a key member of the CPAWS communications team, with the goal of building support for CPAWS’ conservation work among our target audiences and increasing membership within CPAWS. The NPRC is a creative, well organized individual who will work interactively with a variety of personnel within a small office environment and CPAWS’ chapters across Canada to ensure the organization’s objectives are met.

Accountability

The NPRC reports to the National Director of Communications and Marketing.

Responsibilities:

• Planning and implementing CPAWS’ national public outreach and communications activities
• Managing production and dissemination of print promotional materials
• Writing PR content for CPAWS’ website and other social media channels
• Supporting CPAWS chapters in organizing local events linked to national themes
• Media relations, including writing of media materials, pitching media stories, responding to media requests and organizing media events
• Recruiting and supervising outreach volunteers and staff
• Ensuring integration of fundraising opportunities into membership contacts, public events and all other public outreach activities
• Tracking and reporting on budget and program implementation
• Preparation of content for reports to grant-makers and major donors when required
• Other duties as assigned

Qualifications

• Minimum 2 years experience in public relations
• Professional training/education in communications, journalism, public relations, marketing or related discipline
• Excellent English oral and written communication skills
• Proven capability working as part of a team
• Proven event organizing skills
• Proven media relations skills
• Experience recruiting and working with volunteers

Assets:

• Bilingual oral and written proficiency (English and French)
• Experience in the non-profit sector
• Knowledge of complex national organizations
• Knowledge of environmental/nature conservation issues 

Salary

Commensurate with experience

Please submit applications by email only to:

Andrée Charlebois
National Executive Assistant
Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society
acharlebois@cpaws.org

We thank all applicants for their interest. Only those shortlisted for an interview will be contacted.

Public Outreach Coordinator – Ottawa

The Ottawa Valley Chapter of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society is seeking a Public Outreach Intern to support the Chapter’s outreach and public engagement program that aims to broaden public awareness and support of protecting Canada’s wilderness.

About CPAWS

CPAWS is Canada’s pre-eminent, national community-based voice for public wilderness protection. Since 1963 CPAWS has taken a lead role in establishing two-thirds of Canada’s protected wild spaces — an area over seven times the size of Nova Scotia -including such iconic provincial and national parks as Temagami, Nahanni and Kluane.  CPAWS has an ambitious vision that Canada will keep at least half of our public land and water forever wild for the public trust. In the Ottawa Valley, CPAWS works to restore and maintain ecological connections for wildlife, establish new protected areas in western Quebec and ensure the ecological integrity of the region’s largest park, Algonquin, is maintained. Closer to Ottawa, we are working to obtain increased protection for Gatineau Park and to protect the National Capital Greenbelt from development. 

The key responsibilities of the Intern will include:

• Work with volunteers from the Conservation and Outreach Committees on conservation outreach activities
• Assist in public outreach activities related to The Big Wild
• Work with the Caribou and you team on public outreach and communication support
• Assist in the development of a late summer fundraising event
• Support CPAWS’ social media campaigns and link to offline outreach
• Help redesign Chapter website, create new content (writing)
• Assist in the development and execution an outreach plan for university students
• Assist in the development of our volunteer program
• Develop  CPAWS presentation materials (brochures, posters and other promotional / web material)
• Research new venues to promote CPAWS
• Set-up, staff and coordinate volunteers for information tables and booths
• Administration support related to outreach
• Communications support as required

Skills:

• Knowledge and interest in the outdoors, Canada’s wilderness and environmental issues
• Strong interpersonal skills
• Excellent communications skills
• Capacity to collaborate within a team but also work independently
• Experience undertaking projects
• Fluency in English essential
• Fluency in French is an asset
• Relevant degree and/or equivalent educational qualifications
• Ability to prioritize and handle multiple demands effectively

This is a four month contract position. This position is based in CPAWS Ottawa Valley office in the City of Ottawa.

Salary offered is $12.00 / hour for a 35 hour week.

Deadline for applications is June 10, 2010.

Candidates may be high school graduates or students who have begun, but have not yet completed, their post secondary education. This 4-month position runs through October and is full time, so students returning to studies in September would not be eligible.
 
This position is being funded through the YMCA Youth Eco Internship Program (YEIP). The YEIP encourages applicants from visible minority, Aboriginal, immigrant, refugee and traditionally marginalized communities to apply. The successful candidate for this position must meet the Youth Eco Internship Program’s eligibility requirements, including;
 

• Being aged between 15 and 30
• Currently Unemployed
• Being a Canadian Citizen, permanent resident, or a person to whom refugee protection has been granted under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act
• Legally entitled to work in Canada and the province of Ontario

 
For further information, or to apply, please contact John McDonnell, Executive Director 
250 City Centre Avenue, Suite 601
Ottawa, Ontario K1R 6K7
(613) 232-7297
Jmcdonnell@cpaws.org
www.cpaws-ov-vo.org
 

Help protect the Nahanni Headwaters

Share your views on new Nááts´ihch´oh National Park Reserve boundaries!

Last June, after years of working hard on the Nahanni Forever campaign, CPAWS and our supporters celebrated the monumental success of the expansion of Nahanni National Park Reserve. Now Parks Canada is conducting public consultations on the boundaries for a new park that will protect the area around the Nahanni headwaters.

Called Nááts´ihch´oh [pronounced Nah tseen cho], this National Park Reserve is being established in collaboration with the local Sahtu Dene and Métis people in the NWT. The result will be two connected national parks that will protect the globally renowned Boreal wilderness of the South Nahanni watershed. This is a place of deep cultural significance to First Nations. It’s also a spectacular recreational destination for canoeing and hiking, and is critical habitat for woodland caribou, grizzly bears and other wildlife species.

Learn more and take action!

Web intern (Ottawa, ON)

This position will play a role in improving, updating and analyzing CPAWS’ web activities

• Making updates to CPAWS managed sites as directed, using our CMS
• Using public domain image repositories to find appropriate images for projects
• Coding HTML emails
• Suggesting ways to improve existing sites
• Assembling statistics on our email blasts, websites and social media accounts for analysis
• Organizing and tag images from our collection
• Using services like Google maps, Twitter, etc. to create interactive tools for our sites
• Researching and compare online service providers.
• Working with our chapters to improve their websites
• Writing and editing text for the web

• Experience with updating blogs and/or content management systems – if you have your own blog, site or social media presences, feel free to include them in your cover letter.
• Basic understanding of HTML and CSS syntax, tags/selectors, etc.
• Image editing skills (cropping, resizing)

• Stronger understanding of HTML/CSS
• Knowledge of Javascript
• Programming experience (especially PHP/MySQL)
• Bilingual
• Laptop with your own preferred image editing and web development software.
• Some background in conservation

How to apply:

Email webmaster@cpaws.org by March 30 with a cover letter and resume.  If you have a blog, social media presence, or site that shows off your skills, please include links to those as well.

This position is being offered through the Youth Eco Internship Program at YWCA Canada with funding from the Government of Canada’s Economic Action Plan.  The YEIP particularly encourages applicants from visible minority, Aboriginal, immigrant, refugee and traditionally marginalized communities to apply, and is committed to providing employment supports wherever possible.  For more information please visit www.yeip.ca.

Alberta’s threatened grizzly bears need protection now

Alberta’s grizzly bear is a threatened species that needs special protection. In 2002, Alberta’s Endangered Species Conservation Committee (ESCC), representing scientists, universities, First Nations, industries, hunters, conservationists and ranchers, recommended that the grizzly bear be listed as a Threatened species under Alberta’s Wildlife Act. Unfortunately, the government so far has failed to implement this recommendation and Alberta’s grizzlies continue to suffer from a wide array of threats.

At roughly 600 bears, Alberta’s grizzly population remains far below provincially and internationally recognized thresholds.

The province has embarked on a further status review and, eight years later, it will ask the ESCC once again to re-examine whether the grizzly bear should be listed as a protected species.

Once the status review is complete it will be up to Mel Knight, the newly appointed Minister of Sustainable Resource Development, to decide if the grizzly bear will be listed as Threatened and given legal protection.

Please take a moment to contact Sustainable Resource Development Minister Mel Knight and let him know your thoughts on grizzly bear recovery, including legal listing and habitat protection.

Learn more at CPAWS Southern Alberta

Read our news release about the new status report on Grizzlies in Alberta

ALBERTA: Speak up for woodland caribou and wilderness

As you’ve likely seen in the news, CPAWS is warning that Boreal woodland caribou in Alberta’s oil sands region will perish unless the province moves to protect at least half of this area’s intact forests and wetlands.

• Read our news release and CPAWS’ open letter to Premier Stelmach
• See media coverage at the Globe, where you can add your comments, and in Canwest papers across Canada

Since 1993, nearly half of the Boreal woodland caribou in the area where the oil sands industry is concentrated have disappeared. You can make a difference. Please sign the petition now to protect at least 50% of Alberta’s Lower Athabasca planning region.

This region, part of CPAWS’s Athabasca Heartland campaign, contains some of the most pristine wilderness in the province. It’s threatened by heavy industrial development, including Alberta’s oil sands.

Take action!

• Sign the petition to protect Alberta’s last great wilderness: for people, for wildlife, forever.

ONTARIO: Bou needs your help to protect Boreal woodland caribou

 

Ontario’s Boreal woodland caribou are losing space to live, fast. In fact, the caribou’s rate of habitat loss is about 35,000 square km per decade. By protecting the caribou’s Boreal habitat we also protect ourselves, because the Boreal forest where caribou live is a major store of carbon. We already know that woodland caribou have lost 50% of their range, so we need to act now to ensure the species’ survival .

Please take a moment to send a message to the Ontario government to protect woodland caribou and their Boreal forest habitat. CPAWS is asking the government to put an immediate halt to logging and road building in the commercial forest that is critical for the Boreal caribou’s survival, until permanently protected areas are created.

Take action now!

ALBERTA: Your input needed on South Saskatchewan Regional Plan

The Government of Alberta is seeking input from Albertans on some of the important questions contained in the South Saskatchewan Regional Plan terms of reference. They are looking for input about:

• Challenges in developing the region
• Lands which should be conserved
• What you think are high-value tourism and recreation areas 

Take Action!

Comments are due by January 15, 2010.

CPAWS Saskatchewan Executive Director

• Location: Saskatchewan (variable)
• Type: Half-time (20 hours / week) position, with the possibility to evolve into a full time position depending on funding availability
• Applying: Please submit your resume and cover letter (indicate your salary expectation in the cover letter) to info@cpaws-sask.org
• Deadilne: January 7, 2010.  Those candidates selected for further screening will be contacted in January 2010.

The Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) is seeking an Executive Director for its Saskatchewan Chapter.

CPAWS is dedicated to protecting wild ecosystems and to promoting awareness and understanding of ecological principles within those ecosystems.  CPAWS works both cooperatively in multi-stakeholder processes and with individuals to achieve these goals.

As the Executive Director, the successful candidate will be responsible for the overall leadership of CPAWS Saskatchewan (CPAWS-SK). Reporting to the Board of Directors, the Executive Director will:

• Generate and carry out projects and campaign activities as approved by the CPAWS-SK Board of Directors. 
• Engage with governments, First Nations, local communities, progressive industries and other environmental organizations on a regular basis to negotiate “wins” for conservation.
• Develop and implement fundraising strategies that will secure funds to finance CPAWS-SK campaign activities and CPAWS-SK overhead expenses.
• Oversee Chapter budgeting.
• Oversee liaison activities with CPAWS National.
• Manage the day – to – day operations of CPAWS-SK
• Assist with the planning, preparation and execution of board meetings.

Qualifications:

The successful candidate will demonstrate adequate education, experience and skills to successfully perform the duties of the chapter Executive Director.  The successful candidate will possess:

• Demonstrated experience in a leadership capacity
• Undergraduate Degree in a related discipline or equivalent experience
• Personnel, budget, time, and project management expertise
• Fundraising, communications, and marketing savvy
• Public speaking and presentation skills
• Substantial knowledge of environmental issues both provincially and nationally
• Computer skills
• Ability to travel
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
• Verifiable record of successfully completed projects
• Ability to build and maintain partnerships with governmental agencies and non-governmental agencies
• Ability to work out of a home office

The following experience would be considered an asset:

• Experience working with First Nations communities in northern Saskatchewan
• A demonstrated understanding of the forestry and/or energy sectors

For more information on CPAWS, go to www.cpaws.org.
 

BC: Help Protect Critical Salmon Habitat

The future of the Atlin-Taku region in BC’s wild north needs your voice.

You have the rare opportunity to speak out and help protect a region roughly the size of Vancouver Island. The Atlin-Taku region in northwestern BC has thrived for millennia under First Nations management and is a largely unroaded jewel. It is home to a vast array of wildlife and ecosystems as well as vital habitat to all five Pacific salmon species.

The governments of British Columbia and the Taku River Tlingit First Nation are about to make a decision that will determine the fate of the area. Will the Atlin-Taku continue to be a biological sanctuary for thousands of species? Or will it be fragmented by roads and mines?

Your voice is needed to show that there is broad support for a bold conservation vision in the Atlin-Taku.

Click here to take action!

For more information, visit:
Taku Legacy
CPAWS BC