Climate Resilience Facilitator

The Peace Corps is seeking a Climate Resilience Facilitator in Oregon, IL, to support communities in Tonga, which faces significant climate change challenges. Volunteers will engage in relationship building, co-design educational resources, assess climate risks, and implement adaptation measures. The role emphasizes collaboration and community involvement to enhance climate knowledge and resilience through participatory approaches and localized solutions.
Location: Oregon

The Kingdom of Tonga – located in Polynesia in the South Pacific – consists of 169 islands stretching 500 miles north to south with a land mass of 290 square miles over 270,000 square miles of ocean. A strongly Christian nation, religion plays a large part in Tongan society and intersects with custom beliefs and the four golden values of Tonga: mutual respect, sharing, cooperating and fulfillment of mutual obligations, humility and generosity, and loyalty and commitment.

Tonga is one of the world’s most exposed countries to climate change and natural disasters, increasing the complexity and variability for community resilience and risk management. The Ministry of Meteorology, Energy, Information, Disaster Management, Environment, Climate Change and Communications (MEIDECC) and Peace Corps continue to build a strong partnership focused on improving climate change outcomes. The focus of this development approach is long-term and sustained shared learning, understanding, and growth.

Relationship building, collaboration, and locally prioritized projects are measures for success. For Volunteers, the quiet pace and hands-off approach of the Peace Corps’ development model can take adjustment. Rather than managing much themselves, Volunteers support the growth of foundational knowledge and skills that, when understood deeply, can be transformational. Along the way, there are vibrant opportunities for Volunteers to leverage their skills and passions, catalyzing localized solutions in their communities.
Volunteer

Roles

Volunteers play multiple roles during their service. Volunteers and their partners are trained to utilize participatory tools in a phased, asset-based approach to uncover existing strengths, advantages, and opportunities:
• Increasing knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of the environment, climate change, and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR): Volunteers co-design and co-develop environmental, climate change, and DRR and preparedness education resources; co-train, co-teach, and co-facilitate environmental education lessons in schools and communities that increase knowledge of local climate change impacts, disaster risk reduction and preparedness, and environmental appreciation and conservation; and co-plan and co-facilitate environmental education clubs and camps.
• Assessing and action planning for community-specific climate risks: Volunteers co-facilitate equitable and inclusive community-level climate impact risk assessments, co-creating action plans for community-level adaptation and mitigation aligned with national action plans and local community development plans, and co-training community members on climate change risk management.
• Strengthening community-level climate change adaptation and mitigation measures: Volunteers co-implement adaptation and mitigation measures including guiding communities and schools on best practices for waste management, implementing sustainable water improvement practices; supporting best practices for environmental conservation; co-facilitating youth camps, clubs, and community workshops focused on leadership skills and project planning.Environmental Adaptation and Resilience

As the impacts of climate change become ever more evident, the social, economic, and environmental conditions faced by local communities will become increasingly problematic, particularly for vulnerable households in low-lying areas and historically marginalized communities. As a Peace Corps Volunteer, you will be trained to use a participatory approach and tools to identify locally determined priorities and conditions, including those related to the impacts of climate change.

The types of interventions undertaken will be guided by national and local priorities for climate change adaptation as identified in your country’s National Adaptation Plan (NAP) and those environment-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs 6, 12, 13, 14 & 15) that have been identified for local action.
Required Skills

Qualified candidates will have an expressed interest in promoting environmental awareness in schools and communities, and one or more of the following criteria:
• Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of…