Are you a strategic senior leader who believes every young person deserves the chance to reach their potential?
OnSide believe that every young person has the right to discover their passion and purpose. They’re a national charity that fund and build state-of the art, multimillion-pound Youth Zones in the country’s most disadvantaged areas. Crewe Youth Zone has been awarded a £6.4 million Youth Investment Fund grant to build a brand-new facility, which is expected to open in Spring 2025.
Are you the empowering CEO we are looking for to lead Crewe’s new Youth Zone, as it develops local youth and play provision through an exciting new capital development?
Crewe is famed for its rich industrial heritage. A proud railway town nestled in the south of Cheshire. The town contains six of the seven most deprived wards in Cheshire East borough and the council is a valued project partner, committed to delivering the best for local communities. Once open, Crewe Youth Zone will provide thousands of young people with opportunities to engage in activities and access support from skilled youth workers, helping them to develop their skills and reach their potential.
Youth Zones operate in vibrant and diverse communities, so we would especially welcome and encourage applications from individuals from ethnic minority backgrounds. It would be incredibly powerful for Crewe Youth Zone’s young people to see a leader from one of its diverse communities heading up the organisation.
Salary: £55-60k, depending on experience
Location: Crewe, initially homebased but mostly onsite once open. Visibility is needed from a Youth Zone CEO, especially during the initial stages.
Benefits: 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays; free gym access (once the Youth Zone has opened); access to OnSide’s Talent Academy; bespoke training and mentoring.
About the opportunity:
You’ll work closely with the Trustee Board and Senior Leadership Team towards the ongoing development and evolution of the Youth Zone’s strategy and services. By delivering a robust funding plan, you’ll enable the Youth Zone to thrive through good governance, healthy reserves and exceptional leadership skills.
You’ll inspire and motivate the team, helping them to be effective as individuals and a collective; supporting them to develop and deliver a wide range of innovative activities for the young people of Crewe and surrounding areas.
As Chief Executive, you’ll be responsible for a revenue budget of £1.5m per annum. Pre-opening, you’ll have a unique opportunity to take part in a four-month placement, touring and observing other Chief Executives, their teams and the wider Youth Zone network.
About you:
This is an extraordinary, career-defining opportunity for someone taking their first step into a CEO role, or an experienced Chief Executive ready for the challenge of building a charity from the ground up.
We’re looking to you to provide motivational and inspiring leadership, with a unique opportunity to recruit fresh talent across the organisation, all coming into brand-new roles.
The job of a Youth Zone CEO defies definition in standard terms. You’ll need to be strategic and engage confidently at the most senior levels externally, as well as being hands-on with operational responsibility for a busy facility with complex safeguarding needs.
Here’s an overview of the skills and experience we’re looking for:
- Ability to effectively lead services that are young-person centred.
- Robust oversight of governance and finance.
- Interpersonal skills to support income generation and confidently engage with influential stakeholders.
- Empowering and enabling leadership style, with the ability to foster clear development pathways.
- An understanding and commitment to ED&I and the value of lived experience.
Most importantly you’ll have a genuine passion for improving the lives of young people and for unlocking their potential.
To apply, please send a copy of your profile or CV in the first instance to Amelia Lee at Charity People.
Deadline: 9am on Friday 15th December
First stage interviews: w/c 8th January TBC
Second stage interviews: w/c 15th January TBC
Charity People actively promotes equality, diversity, and inclusion. We match charity needs with the skills and experience of candidates, irrespective of age, disability (including hidden disabilities), gender, gender identity or gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, or sexual orientation. We do this because we know greater diversity will lead to even greater results for the charities we work with.
