Job Title: Program Coordinator
FTE: 1.0 FTE; 2-year term to June 30, 2026 with the potential for extension
Annual Salary: Ranging from $59,000 - $92,000, commensurate with qualifications and related experience. Secondment opportunities will be considered.
Start Date: August 6, 2024/Flexible
Location: Edmonton
Indigenous Youth Mentorship Program (IYMP):
IYMP is a communal, relationship-based after-school healthy living program. It is delivered by
Indigenous high school students for elementary school children. Co-developed with Indigenous youth, educators, and researchers, IYMP promotes well-being, resiliency, and overall positive mental health, including
Mino-Bimaadiziwin/Mino-Pimâtisiwin (“living in a good way”). It is grounded in teachings of Indigenous scholars Dr.
Brokenleg (Circle of Courage - belonging, mastery, generosity, independence) and Dr. Kirkness (The Four R’s: Respect, Relevance, Reciprocal Relationships, Responsibility). The core components of IYMP are healthy eating, physical activity and relationship building and mentorship.
IYMP typically runs once per week for 90 minutes, delivering healthy snacks and physical activity for at least 20 weeks throughout the school year. IYMP builds on the strengths, energy, and talents of youth and communities. IYMP has been rippling across Canada in partnership with Ever Active Schools and is currently offered in over 50 communities.
Ever Active Schools:
Ever Active Schools (EAS) is a registered national charity based in Alberta that is designed to assist schools in creating and sustaining healthy school communities. EAS contributes to the healthy development of children and youth by fostering social and physical environments that support the health and learning outcomes of students. We are an innovation-forward social impact organization passionate about well-being, and it shows in all we do! We’re committed to creating environments that support health, learning, and growth because that’s the type of place we want to live and work in. We value relationships - our work begins as collaborators, is built as partners, and continues in friendship. We show up for each other and our communities, act with empathy, and bring our authentic selves to work every day. We recognize, value, and celebrate diverse abilities, identities, cultures, and ways of knowing. We don’t know all the answers but we’re listening, learning, and growing. We’re biased, but we think you’ll like working here too.
Opportunity:
The Program Coordinator is an enthusiastic and organized person who helps facilitate partnerships and communication among Alberta IYMP sites, the national IYMP office in Alberta, and IYMP sites across Canada. The successful candidate will support the program with administration and implementation, community and school visits, build and maintain relationships and staff training. Reporting to the National Director, IYMP, this position will contribute to the collective work of the organization and IYMP. The individual must be willing and able to travel frequently throughout Alberta and Canada and motivated to work in a fast-paced, exciting and fun environment.
This position reports to the National Director, IYMP and complements a team of other consultants with diverse skill sets operating within the larger interdisciplinary team of IYMP and EAS.
This position requires innovative leadership, strong interpersonal skills, experience working in a school setting, knowledge of physical literacy, and an understanding of wellness-related work (health promotion). The individual must be able to frequently travel throughout Alberta and be motivated to work in a fast-paced, exciting, and fun environment.
Duties and Responsibilities
- Within Edmonton, develop and facilitate sector collaboration and cross-sector coordination, between organizations representing health, education, post-secondary, sport and wellbeing
○ Establish a common vision through facilitated Morning Star Visioning, and ceremony. The network will work together to establish an urban structure for IYMP to thrive in Edmonton
○ Facilitation of the network will support a needs assessment to understand the unique experiences of Indigenous youth in Edmonton; one-on-one partnership meetings and phone calls, 3 in-person meetings of the network per year, additional ad hoc meetings as required
○ The network will also work alongside Indigenous communities surrounding Edmonton, to understand the culture, language, ceremonies and ways of knowing that will connect youth living in Edmonton, back to their home fires
○ The collaborative will explore how IYMP could flourish in Edmonton, considering agreements/MOUs with school boards, facilities, local grocers/food providers, programmers and other partners
○ Facilitate pilot urban IYMP program in Edmonton alongside Edmonton schools
- Establish and maintain close working relationships with IYMP Program Coordinators, Indigenous and community organizations, program partners including school principals, teacher champions and band councils, and funding partners.
- Create a positive workplace environment where staff thrive personally and culturally.
- Manage budgets, create funding applications, monitor activity, expenditure, and progress of applications, and prepare funding reports.
- Organize and participate in regular meetings with the IYMP provincial and national team, and relevant stakeholders.
- Independently and proactively track and report on deliverables to the Director.
- Gather and present information such as data, statistics, and successful practices related to programming to the Director.
- Support the development and planning of provincial trainings and events and participate in planning national events.
- Prepare, track, and reconcile honoraria, travel costs, or appropriate remuneration for community partners. ● Contribute to evaluation reports, publication, and presentations.
- Collaborate within and across EAS teams and provincially across sectors to promote school based wellness initiatives
- Support overall work of the organization through activities such as events, learning opportunities, communication and media, and resource development
- Other duties as assigned
Required Competencies:
- In-depth understanding of intersectionality, particularly regarding how gender, race, class, sexual orientation, physical ability, and geography shapes the experiences of Indigenous peoples is required.
- Honours protocols, decision-making and goals of partner communities; shares power wherever possible and supports groups to develop and implement their own solutions while authentically representing the organization.
- Skilled in negotiating and facilitating through cultural differences and conflicts, and adapting style in response to different intercultural communications and working styles.
- Adept at teamwork with the ability and desire to work cooperatively on a team.
- Has the ability to focus on the desired result of one’s own or one’s unit’s work, setting challenging goals, focusing effort on the goals and meeting or exceeding them.
- Effectively manages change by demonstrating support for innovation and for organizational changes needed to improve the organization’s effectiveness.
- Expresses ideas clearly and concisely in speaking and in writing in ways that engage the audience and ensures retention of key messages.
- Possesses the ability to gain support for ideas while remaining open to different perspectives and confident in the ability of others to be successful.
- Has the ability to develop, maintain and strengthen partnerships with others inside and outside the organization with whom to share information, assistance and support.
- Gathers and shares research and information from credible sources and integrates it appropriately.
- Exhibits thoroughness by ensuring one’s own work and information are complete and accurate, prepares carefully for meetings and presentations and follows up to ensure commitments have been fulfilled ● Remains positive and constructive when faced with challenges or adversity.
- Exhibits personal credibility with demonstrated attention to responsibility, reliability and trustworthiness
- Has an openness to different and new ways of doing things; willingness to modify one’s preferred way of doing things.
- Identifies what needs to be done and takes action before being asked, or before the situation requires it, effectively managing both time and resources.
Qualifications and Experience:
- Bachelor degree in Education, Health or a related field, Master's degree is an asset
- Current Alberta teaching certificate an asset
- An acceptable equivalent combination of education and work experience may be considered.
- A minimum of 3 to 5 years of experience in a school, community or health promotion setting
- Experience leading a project from start to finish is an asset
- Valid Alberta Class 5 driver’s license and access to a vehicle
Candidates must be willing and able to travel throughout Alberta, and sometimes flex work time to include evenings and weekends.
EAS is committed to equity in its policies, practices, and programs while supporting diversity in its community, school, and work environments; EAS encourages qualified applicants of all backgrounds and abilities to apply for this position.
To apply, please include your cover letter and resume in one document and email: employment@everactive.org. Please include the Job Title in the subject line.
Your application will be assessed based on how strongly your identified qualifications meet the criteria in the job advertisement. When applying, customize your application with your relevant skills and experience to address the job qualifications listed above.
Application Deadline:
July 19, 2024
DUE TO THE SIGNIFICANT CULTURAL REQUIREMENTS OF THE POSITION, THIS POSITION IS DESIGNATED FOR INDIGENOUS CANDIDATES. APPLICANTS MUST SELF-DECLARE ON THEIR COVER LETTER/RESUME AS INDIGENOUS (FIRST NATIONS, METIS AND/OR INUIT).
Please note that the interview will include a process to verify Indigenous kinship and citizenship in a respectful and sensitive manner.
Thank you for taking the time to apply. Only successful applicants will be contacted for an interview. Thank you for taking the time to apply. Only successful applicants will be contacted for an interview. Please note interviews will be held in Edmonton, July 25-26, 2024.