Summer Staff

Young adult leadership is critical to SSP’s mission to mentor and guide volunteers, especially youth, in their service-learning work with our partner communities. We hire teams of 7 staff members to lead each site.

Rewarding & Challenging

Our staff live and work together, running all aspects of the summer program for 150 to 300 youth, young adult, and adult volunteers. Most volunteers spend a week at site, but local volunteers may serve with us just for a day.
Unique Responsibilities

From preparing meals for large groups to drawing plans for construction projects, each position has unique responsibilities. No prior SSP or job experience needed, training provided.
Community Building

All staff members share in the responsibility for safeguarding the health and safety of the whole community. All staff and volunteers are required to follow SSP’s Medical Advisory Council’s Covid-19 Safety Guidelines. Each staff member contributes to modeling and creating a safe, supportive environment of growth for all participants.

Sierra Service Project is now accepting applications for these summer staff positions:

Site Director
Food Service Coordinator
Program Coordinator (formerly called Spiritual Life Coordinator)

Construction Team Members (each team has either 3 Project Coordinators, or 2 Supply Coordinators + 1 Home Repair Coordinator, this depends on the site’s needs and applicant experience.)

Project Coordinator (formerly called Construction Coordinator, this role will work with partners to lead community-based projects, may lead some construction projects)
Supply Coordinator (less experienced in planning and leading construction projects, may support some community-based projects)
Home Repair Coordinator (more experienced in planning and leading construction projects, may lead some community-based projects)

We will be serving with three partner communities during the 2023 summer.

Summer Program Schedule

Partial or full summer staffing opportunities are available, between May 31 (when training begins) and August 13 (when debrief concludes). Flexible employment timelines are available for those with quarter school schedules or who have other conflicts!

Site Directors work part-time throughout the winter and spring part-time to interview applicants, communicate with their staff team after hiring, visit partner communities, and prepare for staff training. This is mostly asynchronous work, increasing in frequency as the summer approaches, and based on the Site Director team availability. Site Directors meet on Zoom for training and planning sessions for one hour every other week, increasing to weekly in the weeks leading up to the summer.

Qualifications

High school graduate (or GED) plus at least one year of college or work experience
Suitability to work with and act as a role model to youth
Mature and flexible leadership among people of all ages and backgrounds
Capability in conflict resolution, communication, and organization
Able to work with no or limited interruption for the duration of your employment. Please identify your schedule limitations within the application.
A background check will be run on all hired applicants; any convictions may lead to a job offer being revoked.

Application Due Date

Applications are open, due March 27, 2023. Early applications encouraged.

Application Process

Complete an online application, which includes essay questions and identifying references. We will send an online questionnaire to your references via email, and advise you to give advance notice to allow them sufficient time to complete this reference.

We suggest writing and editing your essays in a separate document and copying and pasting your responses into the fields. Take the essay questions seriously, but limit your responses to 150-250 words. If you prefer, you may answer any question via a 1 to 3 minute audio / video response.

Interviews

After completing this application, someone in the SSP office will contact you. Interviews with a site director and HQ staff will begin in March and job offers will be made by April 15. Please let us know if you need to know earlier and we can schedule your interview earlier. We are excited to get to know you and learn about your gifts!

Apply for Summer Staff

Staff Pay

The base salary is $4,415 for 10 ½ weeks of work. Meals, housing, vehicle use during the summer, and transportation from Sacramento, CA to your site and back are provided.

Salaries for SSP summer staff are determined by the experience required to do each job. The salary calculation for each job is:

Salary = Standard Base Salary + Experience Additional Pay

Standard Base Salary

The standard base salary for all positions is $4,415 for 10 ½ weeks of work (which includes a 29% increase for 2023). This is calculated on a schedule of 7 weeks of volunteers (75 days); it will be reduced for those who have partial summer employment.

In-Person Experience Additional Pay

Individuals who have worked for SSP in the past receive additional pay according to the number of years they have served on staff in-person. This pay is received regardless of whether you have done a particular job before or not. It is based on 7 weeks of volunteers and may be reduced for those who have partial summer employment.

1 year: $200 additional pay
2 years: $500 additional pay
3 years: $900 additional pay
4 or more years: $1,300 additional pay

Site Directors will also be paid $1,150 throughout the spring for pre-summer work including reviewing staff applications, hiring weekend, regular check ins, and site visits.

Examples:

If it is your first summer on staff, your pay will be base $4,415.
If you worked for one summer in-person, your pay will be the base $4,415 + $200 additional pay = $4,615.

Apply for Summer Staff

Not quite ready to apply?

Ask any questions you have in the contact form below and someone will get back to you within 72 hours.

Apply for Summer Staff

Job Descriptions

* All staff are paid a base salary plus additional pay based on the number of years they have served on staff in-person. This is calculated on a schedule for seven weeks of volunteers (75 days); it will be adjusted based on the number of days for partial summer employment based on the number of days worked.

Project Coordinator

There are generally three Project Coordinators at each site. They work together as a team who are responsible for the selection and completion of home repair and community projects, taking care of work teams, and managing the site’s tool and building material budgets.