Commitment: 8 months, 35 hours/week (You are expected to work primarily out of the LEDlab offices in downtown Vancouver on a 9-4 schedule, although flexibility can be given to students finishing course work.)
Start date: September 6, 2016
End date: April 28, 2016
Compensation: $20,000, nonnegotiable (Funding for this position is provided by Mitacs Canada and stipends are fixed. You must be a graduate student at a Canadian university to apply. No exceptions. This is not an employee position. Candidates are expected to have their own laptop.)
The Local Economic Development Lab (LEDlab), initiated and closely supported by Ecotrust Canada and RADIUS SFU, incubates community-driven social enterprise for a more vibrant and inclusive local economy in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. We do this by partnering with local organizations and leaders, resourcing them with talented full-time graduate students, and working collectively with experts in a ‘Lab’ format to develop shared skills and knowledge, collaborate, and test new ideas to change the local economic system over time.
Our intended outcomes are to:
- Catalyze new economic activity that benefits the local low-income community;
- Equip local individuals, organizations, and networks with the tools, methods, processes and agency to advance future ideas on their own; and to
- Build stronger networks and opportunities for collaboration and coordination amongst inner city organizations, residents, funders and other stakeholders.
Community Partner: Potluck Cafe Society
Project: Knack 2.0
Knack is an expanding initiative of Potluck Café Society, which connects employers who want to achieve community impact with a labour force that is experiencing barriers to employment. In order to meet the needs and abilities of local residents, Knack reframes the unit of work from 40hours/week to small tasks, and aims to create a ‘task bank’ of low barrier income generating opportunities.
Knack’s online platform uses digital badges (similar to girl scout badges) to create a standard common language for employment-related skills. This online platform allows ‘Knack Earners’ to show off their collection of badges earned through attending workshops, volunteering, and working. This micro-credentialing system (aka digital badges) addresses long gaps in resumes experienced by many residents of Vancouver’s inner city population.
Knack is a quick-growing start up: over 50 Knack Earners have been awarded more than 150 badges, and a task bank with 15 employers to date. Learn more at www.knackworks.ca
The goal of the project “Knack 2.0” is to further develop a digital badging ecosystem amongst inner city organizations recognized by government in order to broaden the Knack labour pool. This will require collaborating with other agencies in the DTES along the income generating continuum through recognition, navigation, and motivation of employment-related skills.
Your role will be to:
- Map out how Knack could take the form of a collective impact initiative for employment related skills in the DTES
- Interview other social enterprises/agencies doing preemployment training and understand who is doing what
- Identify opportunities for shared training and badging
- Model the economic opportunity in shared training and badging
- On behalf of Knack, support agencies to create and upload badges
- Assist with strategic development and growth, including new partner acquisition
Is this you?
- You’re familiar with human centered design and lean methodology, and have a knack for prototyping and testing new ideas
- You’re familiar with collective impact models, including governance and financing
- You can speak to a diversity of stakeholders, and identify synergies and opportunities amongst multiple interests and perspectives
- You are fascinated with new economic models, and think the economy is something that should work for people
Deliverables:
- Case study of collective impact solution proposed, including economic analysis and governance recommendations
- Sharable infographics and/or other community engagement tools to help easily disseminate learnings online and at community events
- A minimum of two blogs about your experience as an LEDlab Project Coordinator
How to Apply:
Apply by sending a cover letter, CV, and a writing sample to Kiri Bird at info at ledlab.ca by midnight, Sunday June 12th, 2016. Identify which position you are applying for in the subject of the email.
In your cover letter, address the following questions:
- Why do you you want to join the LEDlab team? (100 words)
- Tell us about the skills you have to get the job done (150 words)
- Tell us about an experience that has profoundly changed you (150 words)
- Tell us about a time you tried something and failed, what happened next? (150 words)
