Associate Director
- Job Type
- Full Time
- Job Level
- Other
- Location
- Toronto, ON
- Impact Area
- Other
- Impact Category
- Other
- Company Type
- Other
About this position
The Storefront has deep roots in the Kingston-Galloway/Orton Park community of East Scarborough. For the past 20 years The Storefront has been working with grassroots leaders, organizations and institutions to find new ways to strengthen the community’s social fabric to improve social, economic and environmental conditions for the residents who live in East Scarborough’s inner-suburban communities. We are seeking an Associate Director to continue this collective work.
The Storefront has designed this Associate Director role as a “growth” position within The Storefront’s organizational structure, meaning that the selected candidate will begin in the Associate Director position and receive mentorship (from the founding Director and others) in order to intentionally learn about the organization, the Connected Community Approach and the KGO/East Scarborough community. For the right candidate, there is a strong potential of taking on the role of Storefront Director with full leadership responsibilities (and commensurate salary)within a year or two.
The Storefront is a project on MakeWay’s shared platform.
MakeWay believes in a world where everyone is living in a stable climate and is treated fairly and equally. Where people feel secure and part of a community. Ecosystems are in balance, and waters are clean. When our environment is healthy, economies and communities can thrive. This is the world we work toward. We do it with collaboration and creativity, with changemakers, funders, community organizations and investors from coast to coast to coast.
What the Associate Director will be responsible for:
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Learning about and exploring ways to use the Connected Community Approach in strategy development, planning and decision making
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Providing support and leadership to The Storefront staff team
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Actively supporting Storefront’s commitment to equity, social and racial justice policy and practice
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Developing relationships/partnerships with East Scarborough community builders
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Exploring ways that The Storefront can further support community ecosystem that grows stronger over time
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Co-developing policies, funding proposals, budgets, strategies and work plans
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Gaining the experience necessary to take on full leadership of The Storefront in the next phase of development
Who we are looking for:
This position would be ideal for someone who has a blend of community development and business experience; who has a post secondary degree in a human and/or community centred discipline with more than five years experience in a senior leadership role.
The successful candidate will have extensive experience working in and with diverse communities and facilitating collective processes. An understanding and ability to use design thinking approaches would be an asset.
Specific knowledge about/experience in sectors related to community development and employment, sport, food systems, resilience or climate action considered an asset
The Storefront Associate Director will be asset based in their approach, strategic in their thinking and values driven in their leadership style.
We are looking for someone who has a deep commitment to equity principles and goals and who believes in the power of “by the community for the community” solutions to complex social issues. Lived experience of poverty, racialization or other forms of marginalization considered an asset.
The ideal candidate is passionate and knowledgeable about place-based community development work; they will put relationships at the centre of their work.
Providing leadership for The Storefront requires a comfort with complexity and working in emergence; the successful candidate will be able move easily between the conceptual and the practical and take ownership for excellent process while at the same time sharing power, trusting the process and having fun.
In order to develop and adapt Storefront strategies, it is important for the Storefront Associate Director to have excellent skills in
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Integrating new information and designing processes that are adaptable to changing circumstances
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Facilitating complex collective processes (both in person and digitally)
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Leadership, coaching, mentoring and supervision
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Synthesizing divergent types of data and information to produce coherent, accessible, compelling narratives
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Verbal and written communication
The ideal candidate will have strong aptitude for the technical aspects of the job and have excellent proposal/report writing and financial management and data analysis skills
Organizational context: MakeWay Society holds full legal and fiduciary responsibility for the work of The Storefront and delegates responsibility for the vision and community based priorities and strategies to The Storefront Steering Committee and Director; the selected candidate will be an employee of MakeWay
The Storefront has approximately 20 staff and a budget of $1.7 million. Funding for The Storefront comes primarily from grants (both government and foundation), which are augmented by an active fundraising program.
Currently Storefront projects focus on:
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Facilitating and managing a service delivery hub
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Designing and implementing workforce development pathways
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Supporting projects designed and implemented by grassroots groups
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Building capacity and facilitating knowledge exchange
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Using the power of sport and play to foster civic engagement
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Weaving networks for community centred resilience and pandemic response
The Storefront facilitates collaborative processes both in our service hub (35 partners) and on community wide projects; we make 48000 connections with local residents every year. For more information about The Storefront and MakeWay, please visit:
https://makeway.org/solutions/shared-platform/
How to Apply
The Storefront is committed to finding the right candidate for this position and there is therefore no posting deadline. We encourage candidates to apply early by sending a 1-2 page reflection on why you feel you may be the right fit for this position along with your CV to: Anne Gloger: agloger@connectedcommunities.ca
MakeWay and The Storefront are strongly committed to creating a diverse and equitable workplace reflective of the community; we welcome and encourage applications from Black and Indigenous people, other equity seeking groups. We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer.
MakeWay will provide accommodation during all steps of the hiring process, upon request, to applicants with disabilities. Please advise us if you need any accommodation.
No phone calls or recruiters please