Cultivating Community is a not for profit organisation and accredited Social Enterprise supporting diverse and low-income families to create fair, secure and resilient food systems.

Our vision is for joyful, connected communities who care for each other and our earth.

Our purpose to inspire a healthy and just world.

Cultivating Community Values are:

Sustainability: We use the earth’s resources thoughtfully

Innovation: We are creative, adaptive, open and resourceful

Learning: We seek out learning opportunities for ourselves and others

Integrity: We are passionate about quality, integrity and positive outcomes and are inclusive of all

Respect: We respect all people and the environment

The Public Housing Community Gardens Program is a Government program providing community gardens to public housing tenants. There are 21 community gardens in the program with over 800 plots combined. The garden communities are incredibly diverse with over 30 languages represented.

The Department of Health and Human Services provides funding to Cultivating Community to manage the gardens, including facilitation and support to the gardeners and site maintenance. The Department provides operational guidelines that must be followed across all work areas in the program.

POSITION SUMMARY

The Horticultural Maintenance & Support’s role is to provide high quality, safe and well-maintained community garden spaces.

You will work in the team across all the 21 Public Housing Community Gardens, providing horticultural maintenance in the community gardens and when required support individual gardeners to maintain and grow quality food and plants in their garden plots.

COVID-19 Impact

The Public Housing Community Gardens has experienced significant impact from the pandemic. Since March, the gardens have been locked down twice for extended periods of time. The gardens have reopened in late October and the gardeners are able to access their plots in their own time.

The team need support over the next few months to bring the gardens back to life by repairing overgrown path areas, communal garden beds and clearing gardener plots.

Direct engagement with gardeners will be limited as we work safely within guidelines with the hope of increasing this over the coming year.

LOCATION

You will need to meet onsite at any of the 21 gardens located across inner Melbourne and other locations within the Cultivating Community portfolio as required.

MAIN DUTIES/RESPONSIBILITIES

• Horticultural maintenance planning and assessment in community setting
• Identifying and planning horticultural maintenance requirements in gardens
• Weed management in garden areas
• Waste & compost management including loading green waste, worm farms and composting
• Maintenance of communal plantings, including fruit trees, ornamentals and shared crops
• Contribution to the ongoing improvement of the program's delivery
• Problem solving, advice, education and assistance to gardeners
• Recommending and distributing materials and supplies to gardens and gardeners
• Carry out relevant reporting, evaluation and monitoring.
• Work within a budget
• Maintain effective relationships internally and externally.
• Maintain safe environments to protect customers, team members and yourself in line with occupational health and safety legislation and Cultivating Community policy requirements
• Operate within the guidelines provided by the DHHS

SKILLS & EXPERIENCE

• Certificate II in Horticulture or above preferred
• Demonstrated skills in horticultural maintenance
• Demonstrated skills and passion for food growing
• Strong interest and compassion to work in a community setting, across various languages, cultures and stories
• Capacity to work outside doing manual labour tasks
• Confident working with horticultural equipment including brush cutters and lawnmowers.
• Patient listener and clear communicator
• Strong digital capacity skills

REQUIREMENTS

• Current Working with Children Check
• Police Check
• Minimum of two references
• Full driver's license

CONTRACT AND HOURS

• Part-time fixed term contract until 30 June 2021

• 22.8hrs per week over three days including Tuesday and Thursday.