Overview:

Hua foundation is a youth empowerment non-profit working on racial equity and civic engagement issues on unceded territories and lands, in particular, those of the three title-holding Nations: the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), colonially known as Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Our work lives at the intersection of cultural heritage and social change. Our roots are in Vancouver’s Chinatown and we have been working for years alongside youth and community members from the Asian diaspora.

The Language Access Project (LAP) will address the growing need for cultural competency and language accessibility from all levels of government and public institutions, by sharing knowledge and creating space for collaboration between community experts and institutional staff. 

While our short term aim is to work collaboratively towards better language policy, our hope is that this process will create long lasting relationships between communities and institutions, that extend beyond the end of the project. Our goal is to support ongoing work highlighting systemic barriers, to increase language accessibility and cultural sensitivity in civic engagement, and to enable full participation for those who face these barriers, through an illustrative toolkit and a Community of Practice.

A Community of Practice (CP) is a group of people who share a common concern, a set of problems, or an interest in a topic and who come together to fulfill both individual and group goals. CP’s meet regularly over an extended period of time to share knowledge and experiences, provide feedback and soundboarding space, and work together towards common learning goals. 

Our goal is to convene a cohort of regional communications and engagement professionals with a shared desire to improve processes for working with non-English speaking language communities. 

Description:

For the LAP, hua foundation is hiring a contract Facilitator for the Community of Practice. The Facilitator will work closely with the Coordinator and session lead(s), and under the direction of the LAP Project Lead, to design and facilitate nine 2-hour sessions over the course of one year: 5 virtual and 4 in-person sessions in the Metro Vancouver region. We estimate that the cohort will be approximately 12-15 members. This contract begins in early April. Facilitation supplies and materials will be provided by hua foundation.

This position is supervised by the LAP Project Lead and hua foundation manager of operations + special projects, Christina Lee. Where unavailable, this position reports to hua foundation executive director, Kevin Huang. 

This contract is for majority remote work, but will require some in-person coordination for in-person sessions. In the case that the Facilitator is required to be on-site and interacting with the public, hua foundation will provide appropriate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and a Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) kit. As per hua foundation’s organizational COVID-19 policies (available on request), the Facilitator is required to be fully vaccinated. In-person events are subject to the latest government health policies, and will be under ongoing evaluation for the health and safety of our most vulnerable community members.  

Responsibilities:

• Work with the Project Lead to understand the project context and goals;
• Work with cohort members to develop a community agreement and principles for working together;
• Design and facilitate nine 2-hour sessions (5 virtual and 4 in-person);
• Work with the Project Coordinator for documentation of sessions; and,
• Attend planning meetings (up to 3 hours in advance of each CP session).

Skills & Assets:

• Experience facilitating cohort-style workshops, across virtual and in-person spaces;
• Anti-oppressive and justice-based facilitation, creation of welcoming and responsive dialogue spaces; 
• Strong fluency in asynchronous work systems and platforms (Slack, Google Workspace) and online work environments (Zoom);
• Familiarity with civic and government communications and engagement, the regional language accessibility context, and intercultural practices and opportunities; and,
• Interest in public policy development.

Working Hours:

By nature, this position will require some availability during standard daytime working hours (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm), exact timing to be determined. CP sessions will occur on Wednesday afternoons on the following dates:

• April 19, 2023
• May 17, 2023
• June 14, 2023 (in-person)
• September 20, 2023 (in-person)
• October 18, 2023
• November 15, 2023 (in-person)
• January 17, 2024
• February 21, 2024
• March 20, 2024 (in-person)

Compensation:

This contract will be compensated at $5,000, and will be paid out in three installments at the beginning ($2,000), middle ($2,000), and end of the program ($1,000).

Applications:

Please submit an expression of interest (no more than 1-page) and resume as one PDF to christina@huafoundation.org, with the subject line: “Facilitator – Community of Practice, First Name Last Name”. In your email, please indicate your availability for interviews between March 20-21, 2023. Interview candidates will receive notification by email, by EOD March 15, 2023.

Deadline to apply is Friday, March 10 @ 5pm PST.