Narrative Fellow wanted (water justice) | $50,000 over 12 months, half-time (remote, temporary)

COMPANY/PUBLICATION: CLIMATE NEXUS

Deadline: 27 March 2023

The Water Hub is a program of Climate Nexus that uses story-based strategies to advance water justice and resilience. We provide pro bono communications support to advocates and experts, from content creation to media and opinion research, training and coaching. We work to make water communications more accessible and activism more effective, so the people most impacted by water challenges — largely people of color and Tribes — have greater power to set the solutions.

The Water Hub works to create narratives of progress and possibility, spotlighting the water solutions taking root from urban neighborhoods to forests and farmland, while broadening the conversation, uplifting the voices and stories of frontline communities, Tribes, and other underrepresented groups.

The Water Hub is committed to a diverse and inclusive workplace and considers qualified applicants for employment without regard to age, sex, ethnicity, religion, disability, sexual orientation or gender identity, military/veteran status, or any other basis prohibited by applicable law. We strongly encourage candidates of all backgrounds, identities, and experiences to apply, especially people from communities that have been historically underrepresented in the energy, climate and environmental sectors.

THE ROLE

The Narrative Fellow is a new, temporary, half-time role we are hiring to support a multi-platform solutions storytelling campaign that will elevate the positive impact federal water infrastructure spending is having in communities–and ecosystems–across the country. Specifically, we are searching for a cultural organizer to complement the earned media, digital and creative skills on our team, and bring a fresh set of eyes and ideas to this work. This new campaign, tentatively titled “Water Funding at Work,” is meant to tell a bigger and better story about federal infrastructure dollars being put to work for people, to ensure the public narrative around the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act is focused on the benefits rather than the cost, paving the way for future funding.

Our vision is that artists and cultural strategists can play an active role in outlining and describing community change related to water. This temporary, half-time hire will engage with a highly collaborative five-person team. The ideal candidate will have strong storytelling skills, connections with the water, environmental justice, climate or health movements, and a passion for narrative change. Water Hub’s Relationships Manager, José Aranda will oversee the Narrative Fellow.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Phase I: Research, planning and listening (~1 month)

• Collaborate on the development of a campaign brief and initial branding and identity (see this infrastructure jobs campaign we launched last year for a sense of how we hope to develop a strong visual identity)
• Engage with nonprofit and community groups working on safe water, sanitation, and climate preparedness in your region to learn about their work and communications needs

Phase II: Website/creative development (~5 months)

• Help flesh out the campaign plan by identifying key concepts, stories and statistics to highlight through creative content
• Support the website development process by providing feedback on wireframes and mockups and producing visual content: illustrations, b-roll, charts, animations, and videos and graphics
• Support engagement with artists on visual identity and strategy
• Oversee production and sharing of three pieces of commissioned creative content (developing concept, managing contracts with artists, and planning/executing the outreach strategy)

Phase III: Launch and ongoing outreach (~6 months)

• Work with our digital director to develop digital content for the launch of the campaign and media/social pushes designed around timely themes (flooding, for instance, or back-to-school)
• Co-host two to three partner workshops to share messaging and materials, and build capacity around a shared narrative regarding water infrastructure investments

ATTRIBUTES

• Proactive, creative, and excited to help build something impactful
• Demonstrable commitment to advancing justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion
• Creative content producer and deep listener with the ability to communicate persuasively
• Curious, critic, with an aptitude for research and making complex concepts more accessible
• Bold, solution-driven, passionate about challenging the status-quo and drafting new narratives
• Interested in both activating emotions and providing strategic information to spark change
• Sensitive to vulnerability, subjectivity, sacredness, and humanity around water issues
• Mindful of ways to validate alternative and marginalized value systems and ways of knowing

SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

• Experience in visual design, audiovisual production and digital media, from brainstorming creative ideas to developing visual concepts and designs
• Experience in storytelling, social change communications, and/or cultural strategies
• Experience in setting the boundaries and possibilities for a campaign’s scope and reach
• Experience coordinating with coalitions, movements, and communities
• Basic understanding of current water challenges, and willingness to study up and go deep
• Experience bridging across divides by speaking to different cultures, literacies, and backgrounds

LOCATION

Flexible (remote). The Water Hub team is fully remote and currently distributed across California, Oregon, and Colorado. We have a desire to grow our geographic footprint and encourage candidates from the South (Deep South and Gulf Coast), Mid-Atlantic, and Midwest (Great Lakes) regions to apply.

COMPENSATION

The salary for this temporary, half-time position (20 hrs./week) is $50,000 over 12 months.

APPLICATIONS

Please submit (1) a statement of experience/qualifications to undertake this project, (2) your resume, and (3) a sample of your work (portfolio or website) to jaranda@climatenexus.org by Monday, March 27.

We will review applications on a rolling basis until the position is filled.

The Water Hub’s Narrative Fellowship is a program intended to support a new campaign during a 12 month period. In this historic moment for water across the country, the Water Hub is grateful to be able to partner with artists and cultural strategists to help envision a narrative that highlights how water investments are being put to work by and for the places and people that need it the most.

Climate Nexus is a fiscally sponsored project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, Inc., an equal opportunity employer. Climate Nexus is committed to a diverse and inclusive workplace and encourages qualified persons of diverse age, sex, ethnicity, religion, disability, sexual orientation or gender identity, or military or veteran status to apply.

CONTACT INFORMATION (please do not share the email address publicly):

Questions/applications: jaranda@climatenexus.org

Website: https://climatenexus.org/

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