Lifeguard

Job Type: Full time seasonal
Reports to: Day Camp Director
Works closely with: Operations Coordinator
Salary Range: $550/week, housing available

Project Overview 

The lake is one of our most engaging learner laboratories as campers can swim, boat, jet ski, fish, splash and more!  We will welcome campers from all cultures and backgrounds including marginalized communities (LGBTQIA+, BIPOC, etc) that have not historically had safe waterfront access.  For our lifeguard position, you will receive training and certification that will allow you to engage while maintaining safety standards at the lake. You will keep campers safe while encouraging them to develop life saving swimming skills and break down systemic barriers that have traditionally excluded marginalized communities. When the waterfront is not running, you will serve as a program specialist, running activities like archery, hikes, and ropes course facilitation based on experience, training, and need.

Camp Reimagined Overview

Camp Reimagined – We exist to reorient youth to what is possible while working towards socially and racially just, LGBTQIA+ inclusive gender-inclusive camp environments with youth voices at the center.

Camp Reimagined is designed to create access and opportunities for campers learners – particularly those from systematically marginalized groups. Camp works to implement its strategies, which include programming for youth and adults, and seeks to elevate its work to foster industry-shifting impact. Camp Reimagined seeks to shift the larger narrative around what is possible for youth, stepping beyond the confines of “camp.”

General Role:

This role’s core responsibilities are to:

• Assist in creating a waterfront culture that welcomes all campers and guests as they are. 
• Attend trainings and professional development events. Training topics will be both job specific and values-oriented. Training subjects will include inclusion, restorative practices, LGBTQ+/BIPOC equity and inclusion, trauma informed care and other social justice practices. 
• Engages campers in a partner with vs. power over model
• Supervises swimming activities at the waterfront and ensures that policies, guidelines, and safety procedures are followed.
• Administers first aid in the event of injury, rescues swimmers in distress or danger of drowning, and administers CPR and/or artificial respiration, if necessary.
• Inspects beach, dock, and waterfront facilities, equipment, and water to ensure that they are safe and usable.
• Instructs or assists classes in fundamentals of swimming as needed.
• Work in a team setting 
• Understand the unique challenges that waterfront lifeguarding presents versus a pool setting such as weather, wildlife, and water conditions. 
• Other duties as assigned

Qualifications(some or all):

• Readiness to question convention and take bold but calculated risks 
• Have a sense of humor
• Excitement about bringing your own creativity to the waterfront programming while maintaining safety standards. 
• Strong verbal communication skills 
• A keen attention to detail 
• Experience working children
• Knowledge of on-site protocols, operational procedures, and safety policies
• Ability to judge and evaluate evolving dynamics of individuals participating in aquatic activities to immediately assess their capabilities and threats to their safety

Essential Functions:

• Ability to stand for long periods of time, often in the sun

• Ability to lift 50 pounds
• Strong ability to swim and tread water for extended periods
• Ability to be in an environment that is often loud
• Ability to quickly shift focus and take direction in high intensity situations
• Ability to use honoring and respectful language and behavior in alignment with our areas of work: social and racial justice and LGBTQIA+ inclusion

We will provide one of the following trainings for you, but please let us know if you already have one of these certifications.  Becoming a certified lifeguard is a condition of employment.

• Certified Red Cross Lifeguard Training Certificate for Waterfront, or equivalent
• American Red Cross CPR for the Professional Rescuer, or equivalent
• American Red Cross Standard First Aid, or equivalent

Physical Capacity

• Strong ability to swim and tread water for extended periods
• Ability to lift 50lbs
• Ability to stand for extended periods in sun

What we can offer you (as a baseline): 

• Snacks and Lunch each day
• Support, and thoughtful partnering
• Opportunity to work with an innovative organization
• Career development and post-season job search assistance. 
• Valuing your input and creativity in swim related activities. 
• Opportunity to work with an innovative organization in our first year. We plan to grow and have year-round positions available by the summer of 2024.
  

We believe that traditional hiring practices have historically and systemically marginalized entire groups of people — including people of color, people from working class backgrounds, women, and people in the LGBTQIA+ community to name a few. We believe that we are better as an organization when we work to deconstruct the barriers intrinsic in that system so that our team has authentic representation from diverse communities, backgrounds and beliefs. Hence, we strongly encourage people with these identities or who are members of other marginalized communities to apply for roles within our team.