AORC Year Long Positions

• An annual living allowance of $19,802
• An education award of $6,895 for a completed term of service to be used to pay student loans or for future education
• Health care coverage for members
• Child care (if income eligible)
• Mileage, training, and equipment budget totaling $1,400
• Assistance finding comfortable and affordable housing in your service community
• Professional development and training opportunities including valuable certifications and industry credentials
• Joining a family of AmeriCorps Alums in the region committed to lifelong-service and activism

• Student loan forbearance and the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program
• Networking with local non-profit and government leaders
• Connection to post-service careers with Employers of National Service

Conservation

• [FILLED] Rural Action Watersheds at the Trimble Office (Athens County): Three (3) members will serve the Watershed program. One member will focus on modern rural concerns such as wastewater treatment issues, social enterprise, and surface water quality monitoring and improvements, one member will focus on promoting watershed rehabilitation and water quality improvement, and one member will focus on watershed assessment through stream monitoring and data collection and analysis. Members will gain experience in a range of watershed-related work, like chemical and biological stream monitoring, data analysis, and community outreach.
• [FILLED] Rural Action Watersheds at the Middle Tuscarawas Office (Tuscarawas County): This member will serve at the Middle Tuscarawas Watershed office in New Philadelphia, Ohio. Middle Tusc members have additional opportunities to serve in zero waste programming, community-based environmental education, and community organizing. This AORC member will be teamed up with a Rural Action AmeriCorps VISTA colleague.
• Muskingum Valley Park District (Muskingum County): Two members will serve out of the Muskingum Valley Park District office located in Zanesville, Ohio. The main activities will include implementing environmental education programs, invasive species control, water quality testing, social media presence and spreading park awareness in the community.
• Rural Action Sustainable Forestry (Athens County): This member will plan and implement landowner and other educational activities in communities within the target region. This includes planning, facilitating, and evaluating landowner education workshops and events designed to provide local landowners and others interested with skills to manage their forested lands. The member will provide education around non-timber forest products as a way to increase income from managed lands for the target region.
• Dawes Arboretum (Licking County): These members (3) will serve at Dawes Arboretum in Newark, Ohio. The members will be responsible for propagation and maintenance of native plants, supporting native pollinators, mitigating invasive species, volunteer recruitment and management, and outreach and education.
• Outdoor Recreation Council of Appalachia (ORCA) (Athens County): This member will promote the recreational use and conservation of public lands such as the Bailey’s Trail System (Chauncey). The member will work closely with staff and AmeriCorps at Wayne National Forest, the Buckeye Trail Association, and Rural Action.
• Raccoon Creek Partnership (Athens County): Two members will serve with the Raccoon Creek Partnership 501(c)3 nonprofit watershed group. These members, with office space at the Ohio University Voinovich School in Athens, Ohio, assist with a wide variety of watershed-related tasks, from chemical and biological monitoring to data entry, environmental education, and social media. Raccoon Creek mainstem is 112 miles long and the watershed drains parts of 6 counties in southeast Ohio.
• Buckeye Trail Association (Perry County): The BTA AmeriCorps member will serve from Shawnee, Ohio, to develop a communication strategy to promote BTA and it volunteer opportunities. Social media, press releases, Facebook, and web postings will be the responsibility of the member along with communications with volunteer leaders on volunteer opportunities, events, and volunteer recognition. Participation in trail maintenance and events is included.
• [FILLED] United Plant Savers Education and Trail (Meigs County): Three (3) members will serve out of the UpS property in Rutland. The members will develop trails, create and monitor botanical woodland test plots, coordinate education activities, support the propagation of native plants, help to manage invasive species, and recruit and manage volunteers.
• *Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District Cohort Leader (Tuscarawas County): One (1) member will serve with the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District in New Philadelphia, Ohio. The member will help coordinate large-scale conservation projects and serve as a peer mentor with a 3 month summer cohort. Conservation projects may include work with forestry and survey crews, trail building, tree planting, water quality monitoring, and more.
• *Rural Action Conservation Cohort Leader (Athens County): One (1) member will serve in Athens, Ohio, working from the Rural Action Land Lab at Sugarbush. The member will help coordinate large-scale conservation projects with Rural Action and key partners, as well as serve as a peer mentor with a 9-week summer conservation cohort. Conservation projects may include: alley cropping and silvopasture implementation, waterway clean up, tree planting and maintenance, invasive species control, and trail work. Other duties as assigned may include assisting with riparian buffer installation, forest farming with ginseng, and ArcGIS mapping.
• Licking Parks District (Licking County): This AmeriCorps member will promote the use of public lands in Licking County, especially “passive recreation” lands like hiking and biking trails. The member will also lead and promote environmental education activities.
• [FILLED] Crane Hollow Preserve (Hocking County): This member will serve with Crane Hollow Preserve in Hocking County, Ohio. The member will help to monitor and control invasive species, propagate native species, and support regional environmental education efforts.
• [FILLED] Crane Hollow and Ohio Museum Complex (Hocking & Athens County): This member will engage in data entry to transcribe scanned, handwritten field notes into the database that directly correlate with a newly accessioned natural history specimen collection from Crane Hollow Preserve, assist with configuring the Crane Hollow collections space, and provide feedback to streamline data entry and specimen accessibility and care. They will serve part time out of Crane Hollow in Hocking County and part time from Ohio University (The Ridges).

Agriculture

• [FILLED] Chesterhill Produce Auction (Morgan County): This member will serve out of the Chesterhill Produce Auction in Chesterhill, OH during the growing season and out of the Rural Action office in The Plains, OH during the winter. Duties include the development of tourism opportunities and events at the Chesterhill Produce Auction, supporting local producers through peer education opportunities, volunteer recruitment and management, event coordination to share about the auction as a rural food hub model, and supporting other Sustainable Agriculture projects such as food access distribution, Farm to School, and the Whole Farm project to support beginning farmers.
• Appalachian Accessible Food Network (AAFN) Cohort Leader (Athens County): This member will work alongside the AAFN Network Coordinator and ACEnet Director, CFI Executive Director and Rural Action Sustainable Agriculture team to plan for and prepare projects for the summer cohort, including but not limited to: food processing days, school and community garden maintenance, farm harvests and gleaning work, Chesterhill Produce Auction support, Food access distribution (Veggie Van, Donation Station, Produce Prescriptions), and more.
• [FILLED] Rural Action Farm to School (Athens County): This member, with Sustainable Agriculture, will work to increase local school and institution access to fresh, quality, and local foods. The member work with school and institution personnel, farmers, the Chesterhill Produce Auction, and volunteers to increase local foods in the value chain of dietary options in schools and other facilities.

Education

• Rural Action Environmental Education (Athens County): 6 members will work together to provide environmental education activities for watershed residents, both youth and adults, activities will include school-based and after school activities, presentations at libraries, community groups, and other venues and one-day educational events at schools, festivals, and other locations. Environmental training for teachers in local school systems will also be provided using such programs as Project Learning Tree, Project Wild, and Project Wet workshops.
• Big Brothers Big Sisters Camp Oty’Okwa (Hocking County): Camp Oty’Okwa is located in the Hocking Hills region, not far outside of Logan. The member will coordinate and implement community environmental education events at Camp and at area schools and will assist with environmental education for residential campers, as well. The member will focus on youth education but will also have the opportunity to engage adults in conservation work.
• Edge of Appalachia Preserve (Adams County): 2 members will serve at the Edge of Appalachia Preserve System in Adams County, west of Shawnee State Forest and right on the pristine Ohio Brush Creek. Members will serve alongside Cincinnati Museum Center’s Chief Naturalist as educators for the preserve’s environmental education program, summer youth programs, educator workshops and public nature programs. Members will also serve alongside The Nature Conservancy staff conducting stewardship activities focused on non-native invasive species (NNIS), habitat restoration, and trail maintenance. There is nearby affordable housing for rent with this position!
• [FILLED] Bishop Educational Gardens, Inc./Hocking Soil & Water Conservation District (Hocking County): This member’s primary service will be alongside Hocking SWCD Bishop Education Gardens Coordinator at the Bishop Educational Gardens site; grounds maintenance, planning and coordinating education programs, leading eco-management crews, assisting with volunteer recruitment and other tasks that apply to the operation of the site. There will be opportunities to work with the Hocking SWCD Watershed Coordinator, and the Forestry/Wildlife Technician on planning and implementing education events and field work.
• Solid Ground School & Rising Appalachia (Athens County): Solid Ground School and its sister organization, Rising Appalachia, are located on a 17-acre sustainable farm just outside of the City of Athens. During the school year, 1 member will work with our Faculty Council to coordinate and implement environmental and/or art education activities throughout the week to our students ranging in age from PreK to 6^th grade. They will also work directly with small groups of children to provide classroom support alongside our Lead Teachers in our indoor and outdoor classroom spaces. In the summer, the member will work to provide environmental education to campers aged 6-17 at RAW Camp. There will be opportunities to work with the Executive Director to develop your skills in designing and leading place-based and project-based educational activities, as well as learn to work with children using responsive and respectful approaches from our talented Lead Teachers. This position is perfect for someone looking to join us in transforming educational practices for our changing world.

Reduced Waste

• Rural Action Zero Waste (Athens County): These members (2) will focus on assessing waste streams and engaging communities to address the needs and help to implement infrastructure solutions. Outreach, education, recruitment, and organization of volunteer cleanups and events are included in the responsibility of members. The members will also serve on the Zero Waste Pledge program to support businesses in minimizing their waste stream and diverting the remainder from the landfill. They will also be the point person for all dumpsite cleanups and local, small-scale zero-waste events and event waste minimization.
• *Rural Action Zero Waste Cohort Leader (Athens County): One (1) member will serve at Upcycle Ohio in support of Rural Action’s commitment to promote the development of a zero-waste economy. The member will focus on material recovery, organization, and distribution, the implementation of mobile “Center for Hard to Recycle Materials” events, and overall support for the Rural Action Zero Waste program, Upcycle Ohio Thrift, and Makerspace. Additionally this member will serve as a peer mentor with the 6-month zero waste cohort.
• [FILLED] Athens-Hocking Recycling Center (AHRC) (Athens + Hocking County): AHRC’s mission is to “Collect and process recyclable materials in the greater southeast Ohio area in order to create a cleaner, safer, and better place to live.” This member will provide recycling education and advocacy to improve the quality and quantity of recycling in southeast Ohio and collaborate closely with other AmeriCorps members in the Reduced Waste track.
• [FILLED] Athens-Hocking Solid Waste District (Athens + Hocking County): This member will be responsible for identifying industries which accept hard to recycle materials from batteries to old flooring to e-waste and to assist in community and site-specific events. The goal of this program is to support the organizations, community members, events, and nonprofit organizations to identify homes for hard to recycle materials diverting the material from the landfill.
• Community Makerspace (Athens County): This member will respond to the key priorities of Rural Action’s Makerspace: to give community members access to tools, equipment, and space that will allow them to create products, build community, and learn new skills. The member will help increase access to skill building opportunities for community members through organizing classes, working with partner organizations and researching the needs of low income community members. They will help design and organize classes, recruit participants and follow through with Makerspace members to turn education into job opportunities.