We're hiring!

The Role

This is an incredibly unique opportunity for a young leader to grow, learn and lead in an impact-driven and holistically supportive youth-led organisation.

In close collaboration with the YANZ team and community, you will learn, contribute, and co-develop strategies that will shape the future of YANZ. This role is carefully designed to provide you with a comprehensive learning experience, co-designed mentorship (especially with YANZ’s Founder and current CEO, Matthew Goldsworthy), and an intimate understanding of YANZ’s values, operations, and ethos. Therefore, no formal/traditional prior management experience is necessary.

We’re looking for someone based in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland (or willing to relocate) who has worked alongside teams, communities or other groups (including rangatahi/young people) to create positive change. This could be through volunteering, past employment, education, supporting whānau - we’re open to how you define ‘leadership’. This might be your first CEO/management position within an employment context - and that’s totally okay!

A full role description can be found here.

‍

As a values-driven organisation, we’re looking for someone who is:

1. An effective communicator and advocate: You are a skilled communicator and storyteller who is able to convey YANZ's mission, impact, and values with clarity and passion. Your advocacy skills inspire support and engagement from across the YANZ community and beyond.
2. Passionate about the creative arts and youth empowerment: You possess a personal passion for the arts, creativity, and/or empowering rangatahi across Aotearoa.
3. A collaborative leader and strategic thinker: You excel in collaborative environments, fostering teamwork and innovative thinking. Your ability to merge existing ideas and generate new concepts contributes to a culture of continuous growth and advancement, joining the dots of the youth creative sector.
4. Culturally competent and an empathetic engager: Your cultural awareness and intersectional understanding ensure inclusivity across all aspects of YANZ's work. Your empathetic nature and active listening skills create an environment that supports and uplifts both the YANZ team and the wider community.
5. Motivated to learn and grow: Above all, you possess an innate curiosity and a strong desire to learn and evolve. Your commitment to personal growth aligns with YANZ's dynamic journey, and our reflective and reflexive ‘give it a go’ spirit.

‍

The CEO role - which you will pick up more of throughout the first few months- includes:

• Strategic development and growth: Guiding the creation, refinement, and execution of YANZ's strategic roadmap, fostering stakeholder relationships, and advocating for YANZ’s vision and values within relevant spaces.
• Funding and financial oversight: Overseeing financial operations, cultivating funding relationships, and orchestrating effective fundraising efforts to sustain YANZ's mission and impact.
• Compliance and reporting: Ensuring YANZ's adherence to legal requirements, maintaining policies, and providing transparent reporting to the Board, Charities Services, and other stakeholders.
• Team support: Supporting and nurturing the YANZ team, facilitating their professional growth and wellbeing, and fostering a thriving collaborative environment - including working alongside the YANZ Board.

‍

About YANZ

Founded by 3 creative rangatahi in 2018 with a vision for more accessible creative experiences and pathways for Aotearoa’s young people, YANZ is Aotearoa’s leading youth-led social enterprise generating equitable opportunities for rangatahi to explore creativity; both as a career and as a means of self-expression. Our vision is for an Aotearoa where every young New Zealander knows the worth of their creative identity.

Our past and current initiatives include:

• Te Kāhui: A creative expression programme for rangatahi in Corrections and other under-resourced youth communities. This is our biggest programme and operates nationally, led and facilitated by indigenous rangatahi - all incredible creatives and writers themselves.
• Paid creative opportunities: Paring young creatives with paid gig work opportunities - especially musicians and visual artists. This has looked like a performance collaboration with the recent FIFA Women's World Cup and America's Cup, mural commissions and award show performances.
• Event Pathways Programme: An annual paid immersive learning journey for 6 young Pasifika to gain hands-on experience in the live events sector, supporting them to develop lifelong skills and become fully confident backstage leaders.
• Youth Voice Hui: A facilitated open-door space - held monthly online - for any rangatahi to share their thoughts, experiences and stories with the YANZ team and Board of Trustees, to inform and influence strategic discussions and decision making.

Since our founding in 2018, our youth-led team have run 350+ impactful events and projects, facilitated creative experiences for over 700 rangatahi across Aotearoa, and distributed over $610,000 in artist fees to young creatives through our initiatives.

You can learn more about YANZ, our team, and what we do below:

• Strategic plan
• 2022-23 impact report
• About YANZ

Interested? Apply or get in touch!

Please click here to submit an application. Applicants will be shortlisted and interviewed on a rolling basis until we find the right match, so please submit your application as soon as possible to avoid missing out!

We actively welcome younger people, and those who serve as champions for underserved rangatahi voices in Aotearoa, to apply for this role.

If you have any questions or are interested but aren’t quite sure if you fit the role, get in touch with our current CEO and Founder, Matthew, at matthew@youtharts.co.nz - let’s chat about how you could get involved! You can also reach out to our awesome Chairperson, Tania Jones, at chair@youtharts.co.nz.

Thanks so much for taking the time to consider joining the YANZ whānau; we very much look forward to hearing from you!