Position Available: Director of International Outreach (application form >here

Organization Background: Students Offering Support is a charitable social venture that develops and supports SOS chapters residing within post-secondary schools across North America. Each University SOS chapter raises money to raise roofs through raising marks during our 'Exam-AID' group review sessions, taught and coordinated by student volunteers for university students. Each year, the money raised is spent creating sustainable education projects in developing nations on annual two-week outreach trips. Since 2005, more than 2,500 SOS volunteers have tutored over 25,000 students and raised more than $1,000,000 for various rural communities across Latin America.

Situation Overview: In the upcoming 2012-13 year, SOS will have more than 1500 volunteers across 25 university campuses across North America. These volunteers are working throughout the year to run Exam-AID sessions that will raise roughly $300,000 to be invested in educational development projects in Central and South America. Over the summer months, 22 teams of students will travel to these partnering communities to make a human investment in these projects. Through financial and personal investment in these projects, we will support locally-driven projects which target the accessibility, quality and relevancy of education in rural Central and South American towns.

Position Description: As the Director of International Outreach, you will be responsible for the effective execution of all things concerning outreach, with these 4 pillars as cornerstones of the position:

  1. NGO Partnering organization support:
    • Support 12 NGO partner organizations located throughout Latin America as they develop and execute on their projects and trips
    • Build connectivity between these partnering organizations and our university chapters
    • Build connectivity between partnering organizations to support their growth and development
  2. Project development, monitoring, and evaluation:
    • Creatively co-develop projects that target the accessibility, quality and relevancy of education in rural Central/South America
    • Monitor their impact of completed projects, ensuring that any short-comings are addressed and successes are shared
    • Monitor financial accountability throughout project development
  3. Outreach Trip programming & development:
    • Work to support the creation of systems that support responsible volontourism trips
    • Manage the execution of 22+ volunteer trips in February, May and August
    • Develop processes and policies to ensure that these trips follow the highest health, safety and emergency processes
    • Create resources for participating volunteers to engage them with their host-community, partnering organization, and concepts of volontourism
    • Process and track finances for projects as well as trips.
  4. Volunteer Leadership development & training:
    • Support leaders at SOS chapters to define their contribution to SOS Outreach and to lead their own team down to their chosen partnering community.
    • Develop leadership training methods to ensure that Trip Leaders are prepared to lead and support international volunteers on their trips

Skills and Qualifications:

  • Bachelor’s degree in Global Development Studies, Anthropology, Sociology, Political Science or a related degree
  • Minimum 1 year related experience
  • International volunteering experience
  • Fluency in English (written and verbal)
  • Intermediate to advanced Spanish (written and verbal)
  • Proficient in the Office Suite
  • Self-directed, self-starter, and able to complete projects with limited supervision
  • Ability to multi-task and work in a flexible environment
  • Attention to detail is a must
  • Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
  • Cross-cultural sensitivity
  • Experience with setting budgets, cash flows, financial tracking and management would be a great asset
  • Valid passport

The successful candidate should have experience in/passion for:

  • Community and International Development
  • Student Leadership
  • Volontourism
  • Educational development

Job Details: This position details aren't finalized, but most likely a 1 year full-time contract position with the potential to grow into full time/permanent role. The candidate should be able to start, at the latest, on January 3rd, 2012. Hopefully the successful candidate will be available the week before the December holiday available for job shadowing and knowledge transfer with the current Director of Outreach.

Location & Travel: SOS’s Head Office is located at 398 Bloor St W. in Toronto. Canada. This role involves annual travel to Central & South America.

HOW TO APPLY: The deadline for applications is Friday November 23rd.

Students Offering Support is a charitable sustainable social venture that develops and supports SOS chapters residing within post-secondary schools across North America. Each University SOS chapter raises money to raise roofs through raising marks during our 'Exam-AID' group review sessions, taught and coordinated by student volunteers for university and college students. Each year, the money raised is spent creating sustainable education projects in developing nations on annual outreach trips. Since 2004, over SOS volunteers have tutored over students and raised more than for various development projects across Latin America.

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