We are a small group of 8 adults, including 2 families with young children in our seventh year of stewarding a land-based community project in beautiful Sonoma County, California.
As our child residents grow (they are 6,4 and almost 3) our focus is being pulled in the direction of wanting to see a small, beautiful education offering on-site to support their (and our!) growth toward unfolding their individual life-pathways and passages. One of our resident parents (that’s me, hello!) is channeling her project time toward this future offering’s unfolding, and is needing the support of an experienced, mature, activated individual to help this project emerge from the ground up. Is this you?
Our dream collaborator/mentor would:
-Have extensive experience working in self-directed learning spaces
-Have a commitment to your own growth and development and willingness to receive feedback from children and adults alike with an open mind and heart
-Be experienced in working within non-hierarchical organizational structures (with both adults and children)
-Be very committed to supporting children along their own learning path without a personal agenda
-Be aware of and/or willing to learn about supporting/working with children and adults through a trauma-informed lens
-Have the ability to self-manage in a supportive work environment
-Have experience with nurturing a fledgling SDE model or Agile Learning Center (not essential, but wonderful!)
-Have knowledge of child development (through school or self-study/experience). We are peoples of the Tina Payne Bryson, Dan Siegel ilk
-Have great prosocial communication skills or experience with Non-Violent Communication and have applied these skills in relating to people of all ages. Must be able to clearly communicate needs early and often.
-Be a skilled practitioner of respectful/peaceful/conscious parenting paradigms
-Have experience with mentoring neurodiverse children
-Have a diverse well of personal passions they love sharing with children in a mentorship role
-Be comfortable with multi-age learning environments, and skilled at meeting a wide range of developmental curiosities/needs within a given subject.
-Have a love of mentoring less experienced adults in apprenticeship roles (not essential, but wonderful!)
-Be at home in the natural world outdoors
-Be able to provide 3 glowing professional references from people you have known/worked with for over 3 years
Role description:
This role would be a mix of a few things, and could evolve over time if there is a mutual desire to work together beyond our initial discovery period.
In our initial sketch you would be a companion and mentor to 3 children ages 3, 4 and 6 years. You would also spend some time each week in a consulting/mentorship role to us as parents to support us in the creative and practical visioning of our spaces, and the nuts and bolts of cultivating a new program. To support a sustainable work/life balance, these roles would exist within a work week of approximately 25 hours.
Discovery Period Offering Beginning Spring 2022
Our initial offering would be a discovery period of six months to learn if we are a good mutual fit. It would include:
-An hourly wage of $30-$40/hour depending on experience and whether or not you would like to explore our housing option
-On-site housing in a small but beautiful, expertly crafted dwelling with full bath, kitchenette, beautiful view, utilities and internet included
-Fixed schedule of 20-25 hours/week (4 or 5 hour days, 5 days/week). We are somewhat flexible on which days.
-Land includes access to many lovely amenities such as natural hot geothermal soaking tubs overlooking our year-round creek, almost 20 acres to roam including almost ¼ mile of creek frontage, along with access to our ¼-acre fenced garden with fresh produce, cafe with espresso machine (if you’re into that sort of thing)…
Contact:
Janne Campbell (janne@travelingspectacular.com)
