Job Opportunity: Agency Development Coordinator

The North York Harvest Food Bank is the primary food bank for northern Toronto, distributing more than two million pounds of food last year through sixty neighbourhood programs. An independent, charitable organization, we envision a community where all members are able to meet their food needs. Our efforts are focused in three major areas: developing dignified community food programs, creating public awareness about hunger and its causes and engaging the community in deciding how best to meet its food needs.

Position Summary

We are recruiting an engaged and social justice-oriented candidate to assist with facilitating transformative change at four pilot neighbourhood food banks in our agency network. This position will appeal to candidates who have some familiarity with or experience working on food security issues. The ideal candidate excels in a community development role and is at ease developing and supporting relationships across a number of stakeholder groups.

The successful candidate will become a valued member of the Community Engagement team and will provide leadership within North York Harvest and across its agency network.

Reporting Relationship: The Agency Development Coordinator works closely with the Senior Manager of Agency Relations and reports to the Director of Community Engagement

Scope:

The Agency Development Coordinator will play a pivotal, hands-on role in a three-year pilot project to build capacity at four neighbourhood food banks in North York Harvest’s member agency network. The position will spend up to one day per week at each site with a fifth day at North York Harvest’s main office.

Working on-site and alongside food bank volunteers and participants, the Agency Development Coordinator will help to identify gaps and create learning opportunities so that the volunteer and leadership teams can better understand their services in the broader context of the social services sector. Within the first year, each site will conduct a self-assessment to help provide a starting point for opportunities for change and program development.

The coordinator will spend the early part of Year Two facilitating a planning process to help prioritize and define what those changes should be, the education and training needs to support it, and the strategies required to reinforce it. Implementation of the change plan will follow, continuing into Year Three.

  Responsibilities

• Building capacity through training, education, and leadership development (e.g. through professional development workshops and on-site mentoring)
• Creating new cross-sectoral partnerships (e.g. by actively developing and cultivating relationships with local service providers)
• Providing opportunities for civic engagement for underserved communities (e.g. establishing community advisory councils and other community consultations)
• Removing barriers to social participation (e.g. by making volunteer opportunities more accessible to underserved community members)
• Encouraging innovation through the use of technology (e.g. by rolling out technology and training in preparation for the implementation of a new database)

Qualifications:

• University or college education in social sciences or related field, or equivalent education, training and/or professional experience
• 1-3 years experience in a community development role
• Demonstrated understanding of community development principles
• Experience working with programs that serve people with low-income
• Experience engaging and supervising volunteers
• Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with diverse stakeholders
• Strong problem solving and analytical skills
• Good written and verbal communication skills
• Knowledge of food security and poverty issues
• Food handling certification is an asset
• Familiarity with northern Toronto is an asset
• Flexible and able to work on the road and in a small office environment
• Some evenings and weekend work required

Hours: 37.5 hours per week split across five locations in northern Toronto. Some evening and weekend hours required.

Compensation: $22.00 to $23.50 per hour.
To apply in confidence, please forward cover letter and resume to jobs@northyorkharvest.com, no later than May 1, 2014. Please quote the job title in the subject line.

Contact: Daniel Liadsky, Director of Community Engagement, 416-635-7771 ext. 32

North York Harvest Food Bank is committed to employment equity and encourages applicants from equity seeking groups.

We thank all applicants for their interest, however, only those to be invited for an interview will be contacted.

North York Harvest Food Bank
640 Lawrence Avenue West
Toronto, Ontario
M6A 1B1
www.northyorkharvest.com