Director Of Community Programs

Join Fernwood NRG and Lead Community Transformation as our Director of Community Programs!

Fernwood Neighbourhood Resource Group (NRG) is a vibrant and inclusive non-profit organization located in Victoria, BC. We are committed to fostering a sense of belonging and improve the quality of life for individuals and families in the Fernwood community. Our programs and initiatives span into various areas, including children, families, youth, seniors, and food security. As we embark on our new Strategic Plan, set to be completed in September 2023, we are seeking a Director of Community Programs to join our team and lead the delivery of our diverse range of community-based programs. We are seeking an exceptional leader who embodies passion, experience, and collaboration, making them the perfect fit for this role. This is a full-time, permanent position that reports directly to the Executive Director and holds a pivotal role within our senior leadership team.

The ideal candidate is a collaborative leader who loves working with people to grow resources, relationships, and opportunities that support the ability of communities to thrive. You have a deep understanding of community development and place-based approaches and have excellent team building skills. You have a passion for creating more socially just, inclusive, and resilient communities, and have experience bringing an equity lens to people management and community programming. You are a thoughtful leader who is fair, communicates clearly and honestly, and engages people in planning and decision-making processes. You create welcoming environments and build relationships that foster growth and leadership among staff and community alike. You have strong writing skills and extensive experience in proposal writing.

Additionally, your work is credible with Indigenous, immigrant, and racialized staff, volunteers, and partner organizations. You bring an optimistic, open-hearted approach to your work and enjoy the challenge of developing and supporting multiple, diverse staff teams while building team capacity to effectively integrate their work into a larger cohesive whole. We are looking for a leader who is ready to make a 3+ year commitment.

About Us:Fernwood NRG is committed to ensuring that equity, diversity, and inclusion are valued in our decision-making, in our internal work, and our work in the Neighbourhood. We continue to work towards deeper organization-wide understanding and competence with anti-racism and decolonization. Employees’ lived experience and commitment to these values is highly valued. We recognize that people from communities who experience marginalization (e.g. on the basis of ethnicity, citizenship/immigration status, gender, sexual orientation, ability, socioeconomic status, etc) may be less likely to apply for leadership positions. We strongly encourage you to apply if you have a passion for our mission and meet the core requirements below.

Fernwood Neighbourhood Resource Group (Fernwood NRG) is a multi-service non-profit community organization working on lək̓ʷəŋən (Lekwungen) lands in Victoria, BC. Fernwood NRG serves the Fernwood neighbourhood by: offering programs and services for families, youth, and seniors; operating 105 licenced child care spaces; operating the Fernwood Community Centre; providing 10 units of affordable housing; running the Good Food Box program; supporting the neighbourhood to celebrate events; hosts FernFest; develops and distributes the Village Vibe; stewards community gardens; runs food security programming

Duties and Responsibilities

Community Programs Leadership:

• Digest and communicate the relationships between systemic social justice issues, public policy, and community development priorities and practice
• Exercises good judgment in responding to emergent needs within their portfolio and influences the same among their team
• Upon request, provides recommendations to the ED, or Board of Directors regarding Community Programs
• Identifies and analyzes portfolio risks to then report on and develop risk-management processes as it pertains to their department
• Enhance and expand high-quality programs by leading your team to plan, develop, and implement impactful community programs; ultimately, fostering partnerships that respond to local needs and context.
• Leads strategy development, planning, risk management, and evaluation for Community Programs
• Potentially oversees mission-aligned social enterprises in collaboration with Executive Director and Director of Operations.

Program Management:

• Ensures that communications and promotions about community programs are accurate and up to date (program guide, social media, posters, calendar etc)
• Plans for and provides back-up and supports team.
• Ensures all programs and services adhere to contract and licensing requirements
• Maintain and monitor annual program impact frameworks, outcome measurement frameworks, and reporting systems that align with strategic plan and needs of stakeholders.

People Development and Management:

• Models a healthy workplace culture, including (1) a commitment to justice, equity, diversity, decolonization, and inclusion, and (2) a commitment to healthy work/life boundaries and rhythms of rest and recovery
• Collaborates with colleagues as required to address workload or other emergent human resources issues affecting their direct reports
• Hires, onboards, evaluates, and offboards their direct reports in alignment with organizational policy, process, and practice
• Identifies and creates opportunities that support professional learning, growth, and development among their team
• Provides consistent and thoughtful leadership, direction, support, coaching, and oversight to their direct reports

Resource Development and Stewardship:

• Write, edit, and facilitate the development of funding proposals and contracts to support financial sustainability of existing and new programs and services.
• Ensures that programs and services in their portfolio adhere to funder requirements and approved budgets.
• Identify additional opportunities to generate revenue to support programs.
• Develop and manage program budgets.

Community Relations & Partnerships:

• Maintains and fosters positive relationships with other community organizations in Victoria and program funders, to ensure a high level of participation and learn of the emerging needs and approaches.
• Leads stats and data collection to support internal evaluation, strategy development, funder reporting, and impact communication to community members, partners, and staff.
• Represents Fernwood NRG attends community meetings related to their portfolio. Including but not limited to: Saanich Victoria Early Years, BCAPOP, CAPC Coalition.
• Collaborates with the Director team to assess training needs.
• Leads organization-wide decolonization efforts, with a focus on training.

QUALIFICATIONS & REQUIREMENTS

We strongly encourage you to apply if you have a passion for Fernwood NRG’s mission and meet the below requirements:

• Ability to think strategically, plan, prioritize, organize, and implement among an active non-profit environment
• Ability to take responsibility for the position responsibilities identified above, and identifying where you will require additional training or external assistance to succeed
• Ability to work effectively and collaboratively with others, including problem solving, delegating, coaching, conflict resolution, and other interpersonal skills
• Ability to build relationships of trust and integrity with all members of the neighbourhood, particularly including Indigenous people, refugees, im/migrants, LGBTQ2S* people, people with disabilities, and people experiencing poverty, addiction, mental health issues, and/or housing insecurity
• Demonstrated program development, evaluation, and grant-writing skills.
• Ability to communicate clearly and build relationships of trust, including with people with different identities and lived experiences from you
• Experience developing and managing program budgets, cash flow forecasts and financial reports
• Experience in a non-profit or community-serving context (paid or volunteer)
• Ability to translate your commitment to justice, equity, diversity, decolonization, and inclusion into action in a community programs context
• Demonstrated leadership such as daily supervision, performance management, mentorship, and team building in a diverse work and community context.

Additional assets (we do not expect any one candidate to have all of these!):

• Communication skills in languages other than English which are spoken by people living in the Fernwood neighbourhood
• Lived experience with challenges faced by marginalized and/or racialized community members
• Clear desire to effectively communicate, negotiate, or prioritize the interests, desires, needs, and rights for both yourself, your team, and the community
• Formal education related to community development, social services, human resources, social planning, program evaluation, non-profit management, childcare, or another area of Fernwood NRG’s work.
• Experience managing several direct reports at once and/or supporting other managers to manage well
• Relationships with community organizations in and serving the Fernwood community
• Management and/or senior leadership experience, especially in a non-profit or community-serving context

COMPENSATION

This full-time position offers a salary range according to Fernwood NRG’s wage grid of$60,000-$75,000.

• Priority placement for child care spaces at the organization (as a $10/Day site fees are no more than $10 dollars a day), if each component of the policy are met
• Discounted rates on Good Food Box
• Annual professional development budget
• Extended health benefits co-pay
• Annual paid time off in addition to vacation: a winter holiday office closure period; 12 paid wellness days, three religious/cultural observance days; and moving days.

Please provide a resume and cover letter through our site: Director of Community Programs (risepeople.com)