We are Hiring a Youth Coordinator

Job Description

Summary:

The Youth Coordinator works as part of a collaborative team helping Vancouver Poetry House maintain our youth programs and expand our relationships with associated partners.

Position:

The Youth Coordinator oversees the WordPlay Poets outreach program and coordinates the Hullabaloo Festival, a 3-day youth poetry slam event. This role coordinates with the Executive Artistic Director and Operations Manager to manage ongoing development of educational programming and, when possible, to organize professional development for WordPlay Poets facilitators. This is a remote position, and requires computer and internet access.

This is a Ten Month contract position beginning September 1, 2025 and closing June 30, 2027 paying $6000, with a total of 240 hours.

Duties:

  • Promote educational programming to schools and maintain professional communication with teachers, poets and school representatives;
  • Coordinate and assign poets for bookings with schools and/or other clients;
  • Support and/or coordinate professional development opportunities to teaching poets, when possible;
  • Review health and safety requirements, VPH code of conduct and criminal records checks with poets yearly;
  • In consultation with the Artistic Director, maintain a roster of poets, including onboarding and/or retiring artists from the roster, as required;
  • Respond to concerns, and manage feedback and reporting from program bookings;
  • Record payments to poets in the payment register;
  • Communicate invoicing information with Financial Coordinator;
  • In collaboration with the Verses Festival production team, oversee the programming and management of Hullabaloo youth slam event that includes:
    • Artist management
    • Audience management
    • Venue management- liaising with venues
    • Promotion and outreach to schools
    • Supporting participating school team
  • Working with the Inclusion Coordinator, and senior management, and festival team to do due diligence in providing safe, accessible, and inclusive programming that is proactive and responsive to issues of equity, and care for participants, organizers, and audiences.
  • Attend staff meetings, as needed

Competencies:

  • Strong written and spoken communication skills
  • Strong organizational and time management skills
  • Leadership skills involved with overseeing a team of volunteers, working with diverse audiences, and potential conflict management
  • Experience with Youth Poetry
  • Ability to work in-person
  • Second language is an asset
  • Experiencing facilitating poetry workshops is preferred
  • Curriculum development skills are an asset
  • Social media promotion skills are an asset
  • Production management, event planning skills are an asset
  • Basic understandings of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Decolonization are an asset

What to Send the Hiring Committee by August 25, 2027 (we will receive applications until filled):

  • A resume and cover letter, or it can be something else that shows competency
  • Your contact information.
  • References will be requested at the interview.

What Happens Next:

We will collect all applications and contact successful applicants to set up interviews. Interviews can be in person or by Zoom.

Application Email: hiring@vancouverpoetryhouse.com

Vancouver Poetry House Statement of Values:

Participatory and Cooperative

Vancouver Poetry House is a member-driven organization. We work to reduce barriers to literary art so that we can ensure accessibility and full participation for the communities we serve. We value diversity and the array of knowledge that different life experiences bring. We actively support skill and artistic capacity development for our membership and sharing with the wider community.

Social Justice and Community

We value respectful dialogue, attempt to resolve conflict and misunderstandings in ways that respect each individual’s lived experience and act to build bridges of communication across misunderstandings. We nurture healthy, sustainable environments for the arts to thrive. We challenge systems of oppression through sharing the health-bringing arts to the wider community and by offering a place of solace and sharing to anyone who attends or takes part in our programs.

Professionalism in the Arts

We seek to develop and share myriad skills essential to living a sustainable life as an artist. In a diverse community there are many skills. Vancouver Poetry House nurtures moments and methods for the equitable sharing of those skills for the benefit of both individuals and community.

VPH seeks to provide opportunities to build skills that help members fulfill their capacity for artistic development and career goals.

Vision

A sustainable literary arts community rooted in social justice where new creativity can grow from old forms.

Vancouver Poetry House events take place on the ancestral territories of the Xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh First Nations, whose lands were never sold, ceded, or relinquished,—lands that were taken. Vancouver Poetry House supports the resurgence of Indigenous culture and the work of Indigenous poets.