Are you a self-motivated and driven person who is organized and enthusiastic about supporting youth and educators in making a difference in the world?

Free The Children empowers youth to fulfill their potential to be agents of change. Through our organization's unique youth-driven approach, more than one million young people have been involved in our innovative programs in more than 45 countries. Founded by international child rights activist Craig Kielburger, Free The Children has an established track-record of success, with three nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize and partnerships with the United Nations, and Oprah's Angel Network. In 2011 Free The Children, was awarded Canada’s Top Employer for Young People for our amazing opportunities for young employees!

Free The Children seeks a driven and experienced Associate Director of PR and Publicity for Free The Children’s youth empowerment event, We Day, who will report to the Director of PR and Publicity. The candidate should have approximately three - five years of experience working in public relations and demonstrate an ability to manage programs, clients, partnerships, relationships and a team.

Responsibilities:

• Manage and mentor the We Day public relations team
• Oversee Canadian, U.S. and international media strategies in relation to We Day
• Manage PR plans and activations for We Day partnerships
• Acquire new media sponsorship opportunities in markets across Canada, U.S. and internationally, while acting as day-to-day contact for existing media sponsorships
• Liaise directly with publicists and management of speakers and performers attending We Day events for all press related requests and inquiries
• Oversee all media relations activities and ensure goals and targets are being met per event and market
• Event management and execution for both small and large scale events including press conference, red carpets, youth-focused events, and sponsor announcements
• Coordinate, prepare and facilitate interviews with Free The Children spokespeople and ambassadors
• Administer the highest level of quality control
• Available for travel across Canada and internationally, work evenings and weekends where necessary

Requirements:

• Approximately 3 – 5 years of experience working in public relations
• Experience in and proven understanding of successes in media relations
• Strong relationships with media across Canada (U.S. and UK would be an asset)
• Capable of demonstrating strong diplomatic and critical listening skills
• Extremely organized with the ability to multi-task in a fast-paced environment with tight deadlines
• Superior verbal and written communication skills with the ability to articulate in a clear, concise and compelling manner
• Experience with team management
• Intuition for interpersonal relationships and relationship building
• Extremely proactive with the ability to provide prompt follow through on projects
• An organized self-starter, with the ability to work well both independently and as a team
• Ability to accept specific direction, with an outstanding work ethic
• Positive, enthusiastic, presentable and comfortable speaking in front of large groups
• Bachelor’s degree preferred in Communications, Journalism, English or PR-related discipline and/or relevant experience in the field
• Proficiency with electronic communication, computing, and other systems that comprise the modern working environment

What makes Free The Children unique…

A Top Employer for Young People, Free The Children is filled with passionate, driven, hardworking, entrepreneurial, shameless idealists, this means we work late, set high goals and exceed them, and then push hard the following year to beat and exceed last year’s goals of empowering youth to change the world.

If you are looking for a predictable 9-5 work environment, this won’t be the right fit.

If you are inspired and excited by collaboration, making friendships with the most incredible people, unique additional responsibilities like working on our We Days and your personal values align with our core values, we would love to hear from you.

Free The Children sincerely thanks all those who apply, however only those considered for an interview will be contacted.