Opportunity: Social Enterprise Manager

The Neil Squire Society is seeking a Social Enterprise Manager.

The Society provides complete end-to-end services for people with physical disabilities. The Society, has been widely praised for its unique combination of programs, services and internationally renowned initiatives in research and development. Programs, products and technologies are directly utilized by program participants and refined in response to their feedback. Specializing in workplace empowerment, the Society has served over 12,000 people since 1984.

The Society is currently converting the already established Consultation and Assessment services into a not-for-profit business and requires a leader with an entrepreneurial spirit and sound business skills. This service provides an assessment process by Specialist Occupational Therapists for individuals who require assistive technology and workplace accommodation, a growing need in our communities.

Responsibilities:

The successful candidate will become familiar with the current Consultation and Assessment Services and will shape and implement a preliminary business plan. This includes building referral relationships, packaging services to fit the market, and overall department administration management.

We are seeking an individual who has the interest to develop a passion for our work and the ability to capture the potential of our social enterprise that will in turn assist us to reach out and serve more people with physical disabilities.
Overall responsibility of the Social Enterprise with revenue targets and reports to Executive Director

Qualifications:

Candidate should have demonstrated leadership skills and have proven ability in developing and implementing business plans.

Business administration education & training and/or experience.

A self-starter with excellent time, project, and resource management skills and proven business success.

Some education, knowledge, experience and understanding of Occupational Therapy, Kinesiology an asset.

Ability to work with, lead and manage clinical and administrative staff.

Knowledge of accounting practices, administrative management and strong computer skills.

A valid BC driver’s license and access to a vehicle is also required.

We thank all applicants in advance, as only those selected for interview will be contacted.

Contact Information:
Social Enterprise Manager Search
c/o #220- 2250 Boundary Rd
Burnaby, BC V5M 3Z3
Fax: 604-473-9364
Email: hr@neilsquire.ca

NetSquared: The Power of Podcasting

Our NPO partners frequently look to the media to deliver "profile", especially at this time of year.

The VSEF wants to push the idea of speaking to the public, your segment of the public ... directly.

We thank our friends at NetSquared for this post on The Power of Podcasting.

At the other end of the spectrum take a look at Evonne Heyning's citizen documentary. Evonne is using Google Video to share the peacetiles project in Thailand which features women and children from the Siam-Care camp and Life Home Project, two organizations providing AIDS care and awareness.

The Peace Tiles project is an international art and activism project uniting communities through dialogue on the Millenium Development Goals, particularly on AIDS awareness.

Tyee Establishes Two New Charitable Funds

The Tyee, a Vancouver based on-line news source, is celebrating its second anniversary by launching two new charitable funds to support independent journalism in British Columbia.

The funds:

* The Tyee Investigative Fellowship Fund.

- provides resources for reporters wanting to research and document unfolding, possibly hidden problems facing BC

* The Tyee Solutions Fellowship Fund.

- provides support for journalists seeking to report on and explain promising experiments that might lead to solving those problems.

The funds are currently seeking donations with the objective of raising $30,000 by January 30th, 2006. The key thing ... if "you give now, your dollar doubles. That's because a generous donor has agreed to match the first $15,000 that Tyee readers give to support this exciting new initiative."

Interested? There's more here.

Changes at SustainAbility

John Elkington, founder of SustainAbility, is "leaning even further out into the future" and adopting the title of Chief Entrepreneur.

Vancouverites might like to know who'll take the helm as CEO ...

That person is none other than former Manager, Corporate Social Responsibility at VanCity - Mark Lee.

You can read about Mark here.

The Purpose Prize ~ Celebrating Social Entrepreneurs over 60

Civic Ventures, a US nonprofit organization based in San Francisco and founded in the late 1990s by social entrepreneurs John Gardner and Marc Freedman, has received $10 million in funding from The Atlantic Philanthropies and The John Templeton Foundation to launch The Purpose Prize, celebrating social entrepreneurs who are over the age of 60.

Civic Ventures is reframing the debate about aging in America and working to redefine the second half of life as a time of individual renewal and significant social contribution.

The Purpose Prize campaign was launched on December 1st and seeks to shift society's views through powerful examples -- about what people can achieve in the second half of life.