National Program Coordinator, Eastern Canada

About this position

Organization Overview

MusicBox Children’s Charity brings music education to vulnerable children in Canada, fostering creativity and a love of music; making arts education more accessible; and promoting the development of holistically healthy children.

As a community-based organization, we collaborate with communities to shape and implement our programs to suit their needs. We engage youth volunteers in our chapters to help foster their sense of responsibility to the community. Supported by a strong working board, MusicBox addresses the participants’ needs and helps them grow through music education.

Position Overview

The National Program Coordinator, Eastern Canada (NPC-EC) is contracted to work directly with the MusicBox Chapters in Eastern Canada, presently just Ontario (4-6 chapters). They provide oversight and coaching to student volunteers and support chapter relationships with their local community organizations to ensure successful implementation of MusicBox’s programs in Ontario that are grounded in principles of inclusion, community collaboration and anti-oppressive practice.

In collaboration with the National Program Coordinator for Western Canada, the NPC-EC also directly manages volunteers that create content for the Charity’s national YouTube channel, a new initiative of the pandemic. The NPC-EC’s scope of work frequently includes other national initiatives, including administration, policy development, program evaluation and management in close partnership with the NPC-WC.

Please note that this is a contract position with a renewable term.

Reporting: The NPC-EC reports to the National Board of Directors and works collaboratively with the National Program Coordinator, Western Canada.

General Responsibilities

• Provide direction, mentorship and coaching to chapter executives and volunteers

• Facilitate strong relationships with community partners of the chapters

• Maintain organized records of ongoing activities, including program evaluation and financial records

• Develop new university chapters and community partner agencies in Eastern Canada

• Create, manage and support national program development, evaluation and policy development to continually improve the Charity

• Develop tools and resources for the Charity

• Uphold the Charity’s standards, policies, and processes

Specific Deliverables

• Support and mentor chapter executives to develop strategic plans, create budgets, maintain lesson plans, evaluate their programs through qualitative and quantitative reporting, and complete a year-end audit

• Develop and maintain good working relationships university chapters and their respective community partners with clear lines of communication

• Help chapters troubleshoot any issues that arise (e.g. how to manage volunteer attrition and avoid it through planning, how to resolve internal and external conflicts, how to approach sensitive conversations with community partners or difficult team members)

• Maintain ongoing communication with community partners in Ontario to assess program needs and evaluate programs, sharing collated feedback every semester with the National Board of Directors

• Conduct site visits to observe programs and volunteers in action, as able

• Review all chapter external communications (e.g. posters, banners, sponsorship requests, letters to community partners) prior to publishing

• Provide monthly updates to the National Program Coordinator/National Board

• Participate in charity-wide board meetings twice a year by Skype and/or in person

• Help plan, deliver, and evaluate yearly volunteer training events in January, May, August and September

• Provide input on charity-wide strategic initiatives and projects as needed

Qualifications

The ideal contractor will have the following experiences:

• At least 1-2 years’ experience working with a community-based organization, non-profit, or educational setting

• Experience working with and coaching post-secondary or young adult volunteers

• Program planning, delivery, and evaluation experience

• Experience with mentoring and supporting youth, particularly university students, in volunteer or paid work, personal or professional leadership an asset

• Experience teaching or working with young children, including experience with lesson plan creation and delivery an asset

• Experience with relationship-building with community partner organizations/stakeholder management

• Demonstrate a commitment to values of justice, equity, anti-racism and anti-oppressive practice

Skills:

• Excellent written and oral communication skills

• Ability to work independently with minimal supervision, as well as part of a diverse team in a remote work setting

• Strong conflict resolution skills

• Demonstrated ability to be receptive to and respond to feedback

• Outstanding administrative and time management skills

• Excellent knowledge of MS Office (Word, Powerpoint, Excel), Skype, Google Hangouts, Google Drive, Google Sites

• Knowledge of social media (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Squarespace) and graphics tools (Canva, Piktochart) an asset

Other:

• Preference for with physical presence in Ontario, but not required

• Some travel will be required to chapter locations for in-person meetings with chapters and community partners