Horticulture Farm Thrapist

JJOB TITLE: Horticultural Farm Therapist

CLASSIFICATION: Non-Exempt

Salary Range: Hourly based on experience

REPORTS TO: Program Operations Manager, Executive Director

SUPERVISES: None

JOB PURPOSE:

The horticultural therapist will lead horticultural therapy and

life-science-themed educational activities for participants using an active treatment and trauma-informed care framework. The horticultural therapist will assist in the creation and planning of hands-on programming material as well as collaborate closely with the programming team.

The horticultural therapist is responsible for leading a nature-based program that provides hands-on activities to stimulate sensory, motor, and cognitive and communications skills for the participants at Rouses Group Home Inc.

Responsibilities include:

Horticultural therapists will develop and lead monthly hands-on nature-based programs for the utilizing literature, plants, and materials found in nature.

These programs will be designed to provide opportunities for the participants to practice fine and gross motor skills, social interaction, and communication skills as well as to promote an awareness of and exposure to the natural

environment.

Programs will be adapted to meet the needs of each participant, abilities and interest level. Horticultural therapists will be responsible for designing, maintaining and updating garden areas to be used as an outdoor classroom for the participants, faculty, staff and community.The design will focus on providing a safe environment that will encourage a variety of sensory and learning experiences.

Horticultural therapists will actively seek outside funding to support both the indoor and outdoor components of the program. Horticultural therapists will be responsible for developing and presenting educational programs for the community. Horticultural therapists will work closely with the QIDPs, Habilitation Staff, Direct Support Professional staff and parents to support the needs and goals of the participants at RGH and RGH II Inc..

Horticultural therapist will provide supervision for other horticultural therapists and horticultural interns working for The Centers for Exceptional Children. Horticultural therapists will provide recommendations regarding landscaping decisions, including design, material selection and maintenance of the school campus.

Do you have a background in social work/mental health, therapeutic work, special education or do you have experience in gardening and a desire to support neurodivergent individuals? Are you available to work outside 10-15 hours per week, coaching up to three neurodivergent apprentices seeking to develop their job skills, self-awareness, and ability to self-advocate in future employment positions?

About Our Program Growing Together, our mentor/apprentice program, is focused on job skills training, mentoring, and facilitating increased personal development for neurodivergent individuals ages 16 .

Our core clientele includes neurodivergent individuals with autism, ADHD, learning disabilities, traumatic brain injury, mental health disorders, PTSD, and anxiety - neurotypes that vary from perceived norms and affect an individual's ability to achieve employment and independence in the current job market. We hire mentors for a variety of job contracts, structured around a clearly designed 7-step framework.

Mentors provide job coaching for neurodivergent individuals to introduce work skills, help develop personal awareness, and address specific challenges each individual has experience in getting and keeping a job. This is an opportunity to give back to your community, while increasing your own skills in working with neurodiverse individuals and enjoying a calm garden environment. You do not need gardening experience! You do need patience, calm communications skills, and understanding of the executive function, self-regulation, and self-awareness challenges and gifts associated with neurodiversity.

We prioritize a mindful, relationally based work environment where communication is key to learning and self-development. We welcome challenges and set-backs as learning opportunities. We believe that a balanced, well-regulated nervous system is the first step in increasing executive function, organizational, and emotional regulation on the job.

Essential Functions: - Work on garden projects with small teams of neurodivergent individuals ages 16 who are engaged in educational training and paid vocational work as a bridge to independent employment - Review, assess, and prioritize apprentice(s)' personal goals and skills development quarterly, ensuring clarity on progress plans in daily work

Create supports and materials that move apprentices along a continuum of progress and independence in job skills

- Adjust daily tasks to garden demands (as needed) and help apprentices to clarify last-minute adjustments, changes to focus, and ability to meet deliverables

- Work alongside apprentices to complete tasks that help maintain Rouses Farms gardens

- Check in with assigned apprentice(s) on areas of challenge and strategies for success related to responsibilities

- Participate in a 4-week online mindfulness 101 course for certification (paid by Rouses Farms)

-Maintain professional standards of behavior and interaction that embody and set an example of an effective employee, including such qualities as: arriving to work on time and prepared, maintaining a positive attitude, managing personal emotions in regard to challenges, frustrations, etc. and speaking mindfully about personal approach to managing those feelings - As appropriate to experience, guide other mentors, entrepreneurial apprentices, and mentors-in-training to progress taking on leadership roles

- Assist in periodic farmers markets to coach apprentices on products, sales, and social interaction Other Beneficial Experience: - A background in mindfulness practice (not required, training will be provided also by Rouses Farms)

- Enthusiasm for growing flowers, vegetables, herbs and/or entrepreneurial and small business development

- Understanding of issues surrounding neurodiversity empowerment

ESSENTIAL JOB RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Lead mentor/apprentice program to supply farm fresh foods for farm to fork and farm to market, events and product deliveries to area families and restaurants.
• Lead mentor/apprentice program for entrepreneurially focused apprentices and mentors who are advanced and desire their own individual gardens to develop, sell, deliver and collaborate with other farm cooperatives and serve families and restaurants in the community.
• Create and maintain a safe and inclusive indoor and outdoor classroom environment
• Collaborate with lesson planning and further program development
• Assess and monitor learning, adjusting instruction as needed
• Collaborate with other staff members
• Coordinate the work of support personnel (aides, youth care workers)
• Manage instructional materials and resources
• Maintain all plant life used in horticultural therapy programming to include classroom garden beds.
• Be responsible for the management of the 'Living Science Center' which will include but not be limited to a greenhouse, possibly chickens and goats

• Meet departmental and program deadlines

Physical and Environmental Demands

• Must be able to lift the weight of consumers either assisted or unassisted.
• Must be able to operate equipment (e.g. wheelchairs, hoya lifts).
• Must be able to exert up to seventy-five pounds of force occasionally and/or lift, carry, push, pull or otherwise move objects.
• Physical demands are in excess of sedentary work; position requires walking, standing, reaching, fingering stooping, etc.
• Must be able to stand or sit for extended periods of time, up to 8 hours.
• Will lift no more than forty pounds independently.
• Must be able to stoop, bend and reach overhead.
• Must be able to lift and/or carry weights of up to one hundred and seventy-five pounds with assistance.
• Must be able to provide daily living skills and/or personal care for consumers' needs.

Job Types: Full-time, Part-time

Pay: From $14.00 per hour

Benefits:

• Dental insurance
• Health insurance
• Life insurance
• Paid time off
• Vision insurance

Schedule:

• 12 hour shift
• 8 hour shift
• Day shift
• Evening shift
• Holidays
• Night shift
• Overnight shift
• Overtime
• Weekends as needed

Shift availability:

• Day Shift (Required)

Ability to Commute:

• Stoneville, NC 27048 (Required)

Work Location: In person

Salary : $14