Job Opening ~ Project Coordinator

Sharing Wisdom Across the Ages
Project Coordinator

The Anglican Parish of Huntley is looking for a fun & creative individual who will lead the coordination and implementation of it’s project ‘Sharing Wisdom Across the Ages’. This is a part-time paid position that will begin in May 2016 and conclude in February 2017. Those interested should send a CV and letter of interest to the Reverend Monique Stone at huntleypriest@bellnet.ca

About the Project:
Sharing Wisdom across the Ages in the Rural Community of Carp is a six-event program to encourage cross-generational wisdom sharing and relationship building in the rural community of Carp, Ontario. The events, that are free to the community, include a historical bus tour of Carp, knitting workshops, a cooking & local food workshop, a ‘founded on farming’ open house and a facilitated session for long-term activities.

Goal of the Project:
The purpose of this program is to enable relationships to be built amidst diverse community members through the volunteer leadership of seniors in partnership with supporting individuals and organizations in Carp, Ontario. This goal will be achieved through a one-year program of six social activities that will harness the expertise and wisdom of our rural community elders who will provide knowledge and expertise in various activities that are structured in a manner that will create lasting relationships and enable increased community connection. The program seeks to promote volunteerism among seniors and other generations; and engage seniors in the community through the mentoring of others.

The coordinator role will include the following tasks:

• Provide administration support to the Working Group and Co-Chair the Working Group along with one volunteer
• Manage the logistics for the six events (in partnership with volunteers)
• Manage the promotion and advertising of the events
• Ensure evaluation tools are utilized at all events and meetings for the purpose of contributing to the final report
• Coordinate the writing of a final report for distribution to funders
• Communicate effectively with all partners
• Manage the budget of the project
• To minute meetings and circulate the draft minutes to all Working Group members
• To check that Working Group members and partners have carried out action(s) agreed.
• To ensure up-to-date records are kept of Working Group membership.
• Ensure that the project complies with the requirements of any funding body who has provided financial support to the project

Qualities and Skills Required:

• Knowledge of Carp and its community leaders.
• Ability to work well with seniors and community partners
• Ability to work with and engage volunteers
• Organizational ability.
• Experience of committee work and procedures.
• Minute-taking experience.
• Good communication and interpersonal skills.
• Impartiality, fairness and the ability to respect confidences.
• Approachable and sensitive to the feelings of others.
• Well organised and an eye for detail.
• Ability to work with MSOffice
• The Coordinator need not have an affiliation with the parish and/or any religious community.

Time Commitment:
Ten paid hours per event has been assigned to this role along with additional hours for administration, for a total of 136 hours over 10 months (working from home with a flexible schedule). Must be available during weekdays for meetings.

Background
The Anglican Parish of Huntley is a founding Christian community in the rural community of Carp, Ontario. For over 177 years the parish has been actively involved in activities, events, and worship opportunities for the purpose of strengthening the quality of life for Carp’s residents.

As an organization that has decades of experience in communicating and engaging relationships with individuals of all ages, the parish is uniquely poised to provide support and build a successful volunteer leadership team (predominantly senior aged leaders) for the purpose of implementing this social project that will add capacity and enable relationship building across generations. Our church has a strong connection with seniors in the community and is also very experienced in volunteer management and volunteer leadership development. For over twelve decades our organization has had at its core a commitment to enabling volunteers to make positive impact on their community and on the quality of life of all citizens through shared relationships and shared experience.

Project Objectives:

• To conduct six events that will center on existing knowledge and wisdom that is held by the seniors’ population in our community and addresses needs of the larger rural community of Carp thus ensuring that seniors will benefit from, and contribute to, the quality of life in their community through active living an participation in social activities.
• To provide an organizational structure that will ensure that the creation and implementation of these events is led by our senior population with the support of other individuals and organizations.
• To ensure all activities aim to develop long-lasting relationships and sustainability amongst all participants, across generations.
• To measure and evaluate activities on an ongoing basis to ensure that adaptation of remaining programs can take effect within the project period and so that future activities (beyond the scope of this immediate project) can be considered, modified and implemented.

Outcomes:

• Increase the participation of seniors in a community strengthening project by having a Working Team of 12 people including 8 seniors and four supporters.
• Increase the interaction of seniors with youth, children and families by creating events that seek to have intergenerational attendance
• To create and implement an evaluation tool for each event that will gather data as to whether the goals of the project were achieved at each activity.
• To develop intergenerational relationships at each of the project events and to use each event to encourage lasting relationships
• To have wisdom from the senior population transferred to younger generations
• To increase the knowledge of the rural community of Carp amongst new residents through the expertise of long-time residents
• To review evaluation data for the purpose of determining future opportunities for sustainable seniors volunteer engagement, social inclusion, cross-generational relationships and mentoring(as measured by the developed evaluation tools) that does not depend on government funding