Host: City of Goleta
Region: Central California
Openings: 1
Project Focus: Ecosystem / Habitat Conservation, Waste Management, Water Management, Water Policy
Skills Needed: Community Engagement, Stakeholder Engagement, Leadership

Service Needs & Plans

The City of Goleta needs resiliency resources for reducing trash pollution in our neighborhoods, creeks, and open spaces, and evaluating the effectiveness of our trash pollution programs throughout the City. The City needs the tools and communication in order to get information and expertise directly from the community and to help evaluate our programs.

Project Description

The Fellow will support the city to:

1. Reduce trash pollution
2. Create/modify tools and technology to gain public input/participation, access community expertise, automate/streamline program assessment tools, identify program improvements or adjustments needed.
3. The City is able to gain public resources to identify specific needs, access public expertise, and effectively evaluate the effectiveness of our programs.
4. Create tools and communications that support education and outreach programs with local businesses to support SB 1383 compliance, encourage waste reduction, and protect water quality.
5. The City cannot be everywhere at once to identify trash pollution and gauge the effectiveness of our programs. A Fellow could help create tools that seek public input and expertise, and aid us in the evaluation of our programs using that data. Once these tools are developed, our capacity to address these issues increases.

Desired Skills

The ideal Fellow will have:

1) Enthusiasm for the environment
2) Enthusiasm for community outreach
3) Some knowledge of legislation/regulations regarding water quality (e.g., clean water act), materials sustainability (e.g. SB1383, AB 939) or related initiatives.
4) Knowledge or interest in researching different communication and tracking tools
5) Experience with GIS
6) Experience with data analysis

Organization & Community Highlights

The City of Goleta has impressive natural resources in the form of creeks, beaches, oceans, and vast expanses of open space. Our City’s top strategic goal is environmental sustainability, which reflect our residents’ values. We have adopted many programs in order to achieve these goals. The City is committed to equity, justice, and inclusion, including environmental justice. A component of all of our projects and programs is an evaluation of how to better serve our underrepresented communities, and additional resources and focus are typically allocated to communities with greater need.

Remote or On-Site Placement

Serving remotely is fine for most of the time, but the Fellow can expect to be on site as needed for field work, materials preparation, etc. We follow the latest federal, state, County and City guidance, in addition to evaluating how each activity can be done safely.