Dear Colleagues,
The Youth Coalition is currently looking for a researcher.
Please widely distribute this call out to all your affiliated organizations.
Note: Application deadline is AUGUST 1 2005
Please see below for full application
Call for Researcher
The Youth Coalition is currently recruiting for a researcher in order to document the
Youth Coalition’s History. In order to realize the project, the researcher will examine
the documents that the YC has accumulated
since its creation. The researcher will also access minutes of the planning committee meetings,
minutes of previous Steering Committees, YC Task Forces and YC Committees, and reports
of YC activities. The researcher will also interview founding members of the organization,
former staff, other youth who were at some points involved in the process of the creation
of the YC, organizations who supported the YC throughout its history, present members and
staff, present partner organizations and youth networks, and representatives from other sexual
and reproductive rights organizations with which we currently network. The researcher might
also attend some sessions of the Youth Coalition Annual General Meeting, to be held in Delhi,
India, in September 2005. The outcome of the research project will be a History document
highlighting the major steps in the creation of the Youth Coalition, and YC’s successes and lessons learned.
Statement of qualifications:
Ideally, this research would be performed by a young person, in keeping with the YC’s
vision of providing opportunities for young people. A young person could also be more
empathetic to the unique challenges faced by youth organizations and/or young people.
Priority will be given to researcher from the Global South. However, the researcher should
be able to travel to Canada at the end of August and to India at the end of September 2005.
Specific knowledge and skills:
- Post secondary education in the field of sociology, social science or a related field.
- Strong understanding of and demonstrated commitment to principles and values espoused by the Youth Coalition.
- Conceptual knowledge of sexual and reproductive rights, youth participation, and human rights.
- Knowledge of and/or experience with a youth organization
- Excellent understanding of organizational development processes
- Demonstrated experience in research and writing
- Ability to work in multi-cultural settings
- Excellent in WRITTEN and spoken English!
TIMELINE
Selection of researcher: August 10th
Initial travel to Canada: August 29th
Travel to Youth Coalition Annual General Meeting: September 27th - October 2nd
First draft presentation to the Youth Coalition: December 1st
Final presentation to the Youth Coalition: January 9th
COMPENSATION:
The researcher will receive USD$10,000 for the project plus travel, accommodation
and per diems for the days in Canada and Delhi. The researcher will also be reimbursed
for expenses (e.g. telephone, fax bill) during the making of the
Project.
People interested in applying should summit a letter of interest, a resumé and a one-page
unedited writing sample by fax, mail, or email to:
Hiring Committee
Youth Coalition
260 Dalhousie Street, Suite 405
Ottawa, Ontario
Canada K1N 7E4
Fax: +1-613-562-9502
Email: admin@youthcoalition.org mailto:admin@youthcoalition.org
The deadline to send your application is August 1st, 2005. Unfortunately,
applications received after August 1st will not be considered.
We sincerely thank all candidates for their interest; however only those selected
for an interview will be contacted.
The Youth Coalition (YC) is a network of young people working internationally to promote young people’s sexual and reproductive rights. At the time of its creation following The Hague NGO forum for the five-year anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in 1999, the YC was the first youth-led organization working at the international level to promote the sexual and reproductive rights of young people worldwide. Now, over 5 years later, the YC has grown into a sustainable and effective organization, with 25 members living in 21 countries and a secretariat staffed by three full-time employees.
The YC’s decision-making structure was created by a small group of founding members, who, starting in 2000, developed a constitution and decision-making structure, established a secretariat, hired staff and recruited more members. Now, many of the founding members of the YC are turning 30 and are ageing out of the organization, taking much of the knowledge about our history and development with them. We believe that knowing the YC’s history is fundamental for the new members and staff to ensure the organization’s sustainability and to realize its mission. Members need to understand what decisions have been made since the YC’s creation and why, and how the organization has become what it is today. This will allow members to learn from these experiences of their predecessors and build upon them as the YC’s work continues to expand.
Over the past five years, several regional youth networks have also been created to protect and promote young people’s sexual and reproductive rights at the national and regional levels. For many of them, the YC is considered a resource. Because the YC was the first youth-led organization in this field and fills a unique niche at the international level, the YC and its members are often asked for advice on governance and decision-making structures as well as fundraising and activity planning. Comprehensive research documenting how the YC was created and the lessons its members have learned throughout that process and since could be helpful to these networks as they go about establishing and solidifying their own o!
rganizational structures. The YC would like to share our experience to make the process easier for those establishing new networks, as an example of how things can be done. The fact that the project would also address the challenges faced by the YC could also prompt discussions within these networks on how to avoid and/or overcome these challenges.
For the reasons enumerated above, the Youth Coalition would like to undergo a project in order to document its history, and make sure that lessons learned and successes can be shared to new members and other youth organizations working in the field.
The proposed research project “Documenting the Youth Coalition’s History” aims to explore the history of the organization since its creation. It will demonstrate how this ad-hoc youth group became a strong, established organization and how it was able to gain recognition in the field. This document will explore the YC’s history, our challenges, and what we have accomplished. The research project will place a special emphasis on gathering information about the development of the YC’s decision-making and governance struc!
ture. The research will explain why these structures were selected over others. It will also study how these decision-making structures have evolved over the existence of the organization. The research will describe major accomplishments and lessons learned throughout the last five years. It will also try to identify challenges faced by the organization since 1999 and how they were dealt with.
The Organizational Development research will cover three periods in the life of the organization. The first period will be from the moment the YC seed was planted at the Hague Forum in 1999 until the organization officially came into being in 2001. Then the research will concentrate on the first years of activities (from 2001 until now), outlining successes and lessons learned. Lastly, the research project will look ahead to examine what the organization hopes to accomplish in the short and long term and what niche it may fill in the future.
The research will address some of the following questions:
Why is the organization comprised of individual members, rather than NGOs? What does it mean to be a member-based organization?
Why did the organization decide to stay relatively small rather than grow to 100 members or more?
Why did we decide to have a steering committee comprised of members instead of a board of directors?
How was the constitution developed?
How/why were the P&Vs developed?
How/why was the decision made to be consensus based in decision-making?
How/why is the language English?
Who/What helped us in designing the organization’s structure?
Why do we call ourselves an organization rather than a network?
What are the strength and weaknesses of the structure established?
How did we establish our definition of youth?
How did we transition from an organization comprised only of members to an organization with members and permanently staffed secretariat?
Why do we not claim to be representative, but at that same time seek diversity?
Why is the secretariat in Canada? Why isn’t it a rotating secretariat?
Why haven’t we become a ‘legal’ NGO?
How did we prioritize certain issues and activities in terms of planning and organization of our work?
How do we work with other young people, who are not members?
How do we work with adult organizations?
How can the Youth Coalition share its history to new members and its lessons learned to other colleagues working in the field?
How can we learn from the experience other youth networks and organizations are going through?
Why is YC seen as a Northern organization? What led to that?
What happened to the ex Members of YC? How has the YC influenced their life?
What was the founding members vision for YC before when they are building it? Has it been accomplished? Has it changed?
While the document would be a useful learning instrument for YC members, it would also be a useful resource for other people in the field wanting to establish an organization or a network. At present, there are few resources examining best and worst organizational development practices for youth-led and youth-run organizations. The YC history project could serve as such a resource.
The outcome document would also be a resource for youth-led and youth-run organizations working in social justice movements generally, as well as other civil society organizations.
The Youth Coalition is currently recruiting for a researcher in order to document the Youth Coalition’s History. In order to realize the project, the researcher will examine the documents that the YC has accumulated since its creation. The researcher will also access minutes of the planning committee meetings, minutes of previous Steering Committees, YC Task Forces, and YC Committees, and reports of YC activities. The researcher will also interview founding members of the organization, former staff, other youth who were at some points involved in the process of the creation of the YC, organizations who supported the YC throughout its history, present members and staff, present partner organizations and youth networks, and representatives from other sexual and reproductive rights organization! s with which we currently network. The researcher might also attend some sessions of the Youth Coalition Annual General Meeting, to be held in Delhi, India, in September 2005. The outcome of the research project will be a History document highlighting the major steps in the creation of the Youth Coalition, and YC’s successes and lessons learned.
Statement of qualifications:
Ideally, this research would be performed by a young person, in keeping with the YC’s vision of providing opportunities for young people. A young person could also be more empathetic to the unique challenges faced by youth organizations and/or young people.
Priority will be given to researcher from the Global South. However, the researcher should be able to travel to Canada at the end of August and to India at the end of September 2005
Specific knowledge and skills:
Post secondary education in the field of sociology, social science or a related field.
Strong understanding of and demonstrated commitment to principles and values espoused by the Youth Coalition.
Conceptual knowledge of sexual and reproductive rights, youth participation, and human rights.
Knowledge of and/or experience with a youth organization
Excellent understanding of organizational development processes
Demonstrated experience in research and writing
Ability to work in multi-cultural settings
Excellent in WRITTEN and spoken English
Selection of researcher: August 10th
Initial travel to Canada: August 29th
Travel to Youth Coalition Annual General Meeting: September 27th – October 2nd
First draft presentation to the Youth Coalition: December 1st
Final presentation to the Youth Coalition: January 9th
COMPENSATION:
The researcher will receive USD$10,000 for the project plus travel, accommodation and per diems for the days in Canada and Delhi. The researcher will also be reimbursed for expenses (e.g. telephone, fax bill) during the making of the
Project.
People interested in applying should summit a letter of interest, a resumé and a one-page unedited writing sample by fax, mail, or email to:
Attn: Hiring Committee
Youth Coalition
260 Dalhousie Street, Suite 405
Ottawa, Ontario
Canada K1N 7E4
Fax: +1-613-562-9502
Email: admin@youthcoalition.org
The deadline to send your application is August 1st, 2005. Unfortunately, applications received after August 1st will not be considered. We sincerely thank all candidates for their interest; however only those selected for an interview will be contacted.