Career Opportunity

Community Development Assistant (9770) - Urban Agriculture and Community Gardens

Recruitment: RTF0149105-01135621

Published: August 06, 2024

Apply using SmartRecruiters, the City and County of San Francisco's application portal Learn More

About:

Application Open: July 31, 2024
Application Deadline: August 7, 2024 

Salary Range: $75,998.00 - $92,456.00

Contact: Dorothy Young at dorothy.s.young@sfgov.org

This is a Position-Based Test conducted in accordance with CSC Rule 111A.

Amid a dynamic and ever-evolving urban landscape, the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department stewards one of the premier urban park systems in America.  San Francisco recently became the first city in the United States for which 100% of its residents live within a ten-minute walk of a park.  Considered by San Franciscans to be one of the City’s most popular and effective public agencies, our Department manages and maintains more than 225 parks, playgrounds, and open spaces in San Francisco, including two outside of city limits: Sharp Park in Pacifica and Camp Mather in the High Sierras. Our 4,100- acre system includes 25 recreation centers, 9 swimming pools, 5 golf courses and numerous athletic facilities, including sports courts, ball diamonds, soccer fields and gymnasiums. Included in the department’s responsibilities are Golden Gate Park, Coit Tower, the Marina Yacht Harbor, the Palace of Fine Arts, and TPC Harding Park golf course.

More than 2,000 talented individuals are part of our team, from gardeners, foresters, and recreation leaders to park rangers, custodians, electricians, painters and more. Our core mission, as it has been throughout our history, is to provide opportunities for San Francisco residents and visitors alike to gather, play, learn, relax, and enjoy nature in the city.

Urban Agriculture and Community Gardens:
The citywide Urban Agriculture Program is an interagency program that supports and supplies the infrastructure for community members to steward our urban green spaces, on both public and private land. We believe that the act of growing food, flowers or animals in a city builds community, educates an urban public about the ecosystem and food system around them, connects people to nature, and encourages an active citizenry who believes in stewarding our green spaces.

Role description

The 9770 Community Development Assistant (Urban Agriculture & Community Gardens) will support the Urban Agriculture and Community Gardens Program Director and the forthcoming San Francisco Garden Resource Outreach and Workshop (SF GROW) Center.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

1. Develop, coordinate, and execute curriculum workshops for youth and adult learners on practical garden related topics including fruit tree pruning and grafting, on-site compost management, management of beehives and egg-laying chickens, and seasonal planting calendars by partnering with other Recreation and Parks (RPD) staff and University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources (UCANR) programs to implement hands-on workshops. 
2. Assist with outreach activities for adults and children necessary to maintain the San Francisco Garden Resource Outreach and Workshop (SF GROW) Center operations and programming. 
3. Oversee SF GROW Center operations including public program implementation, scheduling and calendar management, and procurement of materials and supplies.
4. Assist with fundraising activities including researching, soliciting, and stewarding current and potential donors necessary to generate financial support for SF GROW Center operations and programming, such as ongoing and one-off trainings and the Master Gardener Help Desk.
5. Track requests from community garden leadership teams on repairs, workdays, educational needs, projects, and events at RPD Community Garden and Urban Agriculture sites.
6. Administer the division’s online activities in conjunction with Policy and Public Affairs Communications staff, such as manage the Rec and Park website and garden waitlist, using Microsoft and Google Suites.
7. Assist with monitoring and tracking finances for the Urban Agriculture and Community Gardening team, including annual and project budget tracking, purchase order (PO) creation and use tracking, and vendor coordination.
8. Respond to general email inbox and physical mail on behalf of the Urban Agriculture and Community Garden team.
9. Content development, including writing, editing, and collecting information, for the quarterly Community Gardens team newsletter, the ComPost.
10. Execute program events, including day-of staffing, coordination of vendor or partner agreements, program delivery, and overseeing materials scheduling, volunteers, and other support as needed.
11. Track and provide reporting on program data for annual reporting, grant, and contract reporting, and weekly highlights.

How to qualify

Minimum Qualifications:
1. Possession of a baccalaureate degree from an accredited college or university AND one (1) year of administrative/professional experience in community development , housing and/or housing development, workforce development, finance, education, social work, children/youth work, criminal justice, or elections related work;

OR

2. Possession of a baccalaureate degree from an accredited college or university with a major in one of the following fields: public or business administration, urban planning, government, social work, education, finance or criminal justice.

Substitution:
Verifiable administrative/professional experience involving community development, housing and/or housing development, workforce development, finance, education, social work, children/youth work, criminal justice, and/or elections related work may substitute for the educational requirement in Minimum Qualification #1 on a year-for-year basis.

Desirable Qualifications:

• Bilingual fluency in languages spoken in San Francisco, particularly Cantonese.
• Experience working in agricultural gardens or with similar food productive plants in the San Francisco Bay Area or other urban farming settings with comparable climate.
• Experience with outdoor education.

The stated desirable qualifications may be considered at the end of the selection process when candidates are referred for hiring.

Verification of Experience and Education
Every application is reviewed to ensure that you meet the minimum qualifications as listed in the job ad. Please review our articles on Employment Application and Minimum Qualifications and Verification of Experience and/or Education for considerations taken when reviewing applications. 

Note: Falsifying one’s education, training, or work experience or attempted deception on the application may result in disqualification from this and future job opportunities with the City and County of San Francisco.

What else should I know?

Behavioral Consistency Questionnaire (Weight: 100%):
Qualified candidates will be sent a Behavioral Consistency Questionnaire that must be completed by the set date. Candidates will be evaluated on their relative knowledge, skill and ability levels in job-related areas including, but not limited to, knowledge of: basic concepts and practices of community development programs including local garden and outdoor education programs; functions and organization of community stewarded spaces (i.e. gardens); methods and techniques for gathering and analyzing information and preparing reports for internal agency use (i.e. program performance evaluation, needs assessments, and other necessary reports) as a basis for making recommendations; collecting, analyzing and processing data on community development related issues; and ability to: use software applications including Microsoft Office Professional Suite (i.e. Word, Excel, and PowerPoint); deal tactfully and effectively with the general public, with sensitivity towards vulnerable and underserved populations, service providers, and other stakeholders; communicate orally in a clear and effective manner to provide information that will be understood by a diverse audience; write clearly and effectively to prepare reports, correspondence, and other necessary documents; and perform basic statistical analysis.

A passing score must be achieved on the Behavioral Consistency Questionnaire in order to be placed/ranked on the Eligible List. Candidate responses on the Behavioral Consistency Questionnaire cannot be changed once submitted. Candidates will be placed in rank order according to their final score on the Behavioral Consistency Questionnaire. 

Eligible List/Score Report:
A confidential eligible list of applicant names that have passed the civil service examination process will be created, and used for certification purposes only. An examination score report will be established, so applicants can view the ranks, final scores and number of eligible candidates. Applicant information, including names of applicants on the eligible list, shall not be made public unless required by law. However, an eligible list shall be made available for public inspection, upon request, once the eligible list is exhausted or expired and referrals resolved. The eligible list/score report resulting from this civil service examination process is subject to change after adoption (e.g., as a result of appeals), as directed by the Human Resources Director or the Civil Service Commission.

Eligible List Duration: The duration of the eligible list resulting from this examination process will be of 12 months, and may be extended with the approval of the Human Resources Director.

Certification Rule: The certification rule for the eligible list resulting from this examination will be Rule of The List. Additional selection processes may be conducted by the hiring department prior to making final hiring decisions.

Exam Type: Entrance Only

Applicants will receive a confirmation email from notification@careers.sf.gov that their online application has been received in response to every announcement for which they file. Applicants should retain this confirmation email for their records. Failure to receive this email means that the online application was not submitted or received.

Additional Information Regarding Employment with the City and County of San Francisco

• Information About the Hiring Process
• Conviction History
• Employee Benefits Overview  
• Equal Employment Opportunity 
• Disaster Service Worker
• ADA Accommodation
• Veterans Preference
• Right to Work
• Copies of Application Documents
• Diversity Statement

The terms of this announcement may be appealed under Civil Service Rule 111A.35.1 and Appeals must be submitted directly to the Executive Officer of the Civil Service Commission within five business days of the announcement issuance date.

Applicants may be contacted by email about this announcement and, therefore, it is their responsibility to ensure that their registered email address is accurate and kept up-to-date. 

California Public Resources Code 5164
Candidates for positions with the Recreation and Park Department may be disqualified from consideration should their conviction history not meet the standards established under California Public Resources Code 5164. 

Race and Social Equity Statement
We believe that parks and open space in San Francisco provides the opportunity to model equitable access for all.  With this belief, San Francisco became the first city in the United States for which 100% of its residents live within a ten-minute walk of a park. The Recreation and Park Department’s goal is to close the gaps and improve equity and access to quality parks and open space, and recreation activities for historically marginalized communities.  

We envision a department that proactively infuses racial and social equity in its internal operations.  With a multi-disciplinary team of talented individuals - gardeners, recreation leaders, park rangers, custodians, craft shop personnel, park and recreation managers and more, the department is committed to doing its part to provide equitable access to parks and programs for all the communities we serve to enjoy, as well as foster a work environment where our differences are celebrated, and everyone has what they need to thrive regardless of their race, age, ability, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, or country of origin.

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.

The City and County of San Francisco encourages women, minorities and persons with disabilities to apply. Applicants will be considered regardless of their sex, race, age, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition (associated with cancer, a history of cancer, or genetic characteristics), HIV/AIDS status, genetic information, marital status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, military and veteran status, or other protected category under the law.