About CEE

Community Empowering Enterprises (CEE) is a new initiative funded by the Youth Challenge Fund. CEE aims to increase economic opportunities for Black youth living in Toronto’s priority neighborhoods, aged 18-29, by supporting them in the areas of employability, social enterprise and entrepreneurship. Our work supports Black youth who face multiple barriers in achieving financial stability for themselves and their families, helping to strengthen the communities in which they live. Over 2013-2014 we will be launching a series of new programs and activities, in the Jane and Finch community and across Toronto’s priority neighbourhoods.

The Ideal Candidate

You are a driven professional, committed to social change, with experience in developing community projects and a strong understanding of entrepreneurship and business. You have a proven track record of working effectively with Black youth in Toronto’s priority neighbourhoods. You are knowledgeable in the fundamentals of business and are able to explain business concepts in an engaging and accessible way. You have an entrepreneurial personality and are excited about the opportunity to design and implement programming to help young Black entrepreneurs.

Hours: Full Time Position, 1 year renewable contract
Salary: $45,000 to $50,000 with extended health benefits.

Role and Responsibilities

The Entrepreneurship Programs Coordinator will design and implement CEE’s programming for supporting young entrepreneurs, while serving on planning committees for CEE partnerships that involve entrepreneurship activities.

Primary Responsibilities

• CEE’s Entrepreneurship Program: Design and implement an ongoing program to build the skills of young Black entrepreneurs. The pilot of the program will launch in the Jane and Finch community, to be scaled-up and expanded to other priority neighbourhoods upon successful completion. Responsibilities would include:
  • Researching models for youth entrepreneurial support programs
  • Developing a program outline and budget
  • Setting outcomes for the program and working with outside evaluators to implement a project evaluation system
  • Creating a system to ensure participants receive the learning outcomes set and get feedback on their progress
  • Building partnerships with other community organizations to support in content delivery, recruitment and hosting of the program
  • Recruiting volunteers and facilitators needed for delivery of the program’s content
  • Providing marketing ideas for the program and directly recruiting participants for the program
  • Insuring the program is accessible to youth who may face multiple barriers to participation (such as financial hardship, conflict with the law, being a young parent)
  • Implementing the program and supervising the work of volunteers and facilitators
  • Serving as a mentor and coach to the young entrepreneurs involved
  • Designing a means for CEE to continue to support participants after the program finishes
  • Producing a report on the program’s outcomes
• CEE’s Entrepreneurship Activities: Design a series of 5 one-time events (workshops, trainings or networking sessions) to be delivered within priority neighbourhoods between April 2013-April 2014. Responsibilities would include:
  • Designing event content and budgets
  • Securing locations to host events within the priority neighbourhoods
  • Coordinating facilitators and/or recruiting volunteers needed to deliver the event
  • Providing marketing ideas for the event and directly promoting it
  • Hosting the event
  • Designing and implementing evaluation tools
  • Drafting a report on the outcomes of the events

Secondary Responsibilities

• Youth Entrepreneurship Conference: Serve on the planning team which will design and host a youth entrepreneurship conference to be held in Winter 2014.
• School for Social Entrepreneurs Ontario Partnership: Work with CEE’s Managing Director to support the development of a program to support young Black social-entrepreneurs working on non-profit social enterprises, run through the School for Social Entrepreneurs Ontario (SSE-O). Support SSE-O staff in the delivery of the program where necessary. This role is dependent on SSE-O receiving grant funding for the project.
• Community Engagement: All members of the CEE team are expected to be accessible to community, be present at community events when required and serve as ambassadors for CEE.
• Other tasks as assigned by Managing Director

Required Skills and Experience:

Requirements

• A minimum of 3 years of experience in designing and implementing community programs
• A proven ability to work with Black youth living in priority neighbourhoods
• A solid foundation in the fundamentals of entrepreneurship
• A post-secondary degree or a combination of relevant experiences and related education
• A proven ability to mentor, coach or train individuals in business concepts (business plan development, market research, creating marketing plans etc.)
• Experience in skills training or workshop facilitation
• Experience in producing work-plans, budgets and project evaluations
• Experience in marketing events and recruiting participants for programs
• The ability to build partnerships and deliver collaborative programming
• Competent in Microsoft Office and related software
• Excellent communication skills, both oral and written
• Knowledge and experience of working within an anti-oppression and anti-racist framework
• Personal commitment to the values and mission of CEE
• Asset: Experience in starting a small business, working within a start-up business or academic training in business methods would be a strong asset.

To apply for this position, please email your cover letter and resume as a single Word document to ceehiring@gmail.com by Friday April 19th, 2013.