Franklin County, MA
Are you someone who leads with a kind heart, is thoughtful and diligent, and brings out the best in others?
Do you want to foster healthy, resilient, just, and inclusive communities, and are you ready to dig in deeply to put those values to work in one place?
Do you crave a position that is personally rewarding and makes a positive difference in people’s lives?
If so, please read on to learn more about the position of Executive Director of the Brick House Community Resource Center.
THE POSITION
As our Executive Director, you will make a meaningful impact on the lives of youth and adults in Turners Falls, a small New England mill town with a changing tapestry of community life.
Western Massachusetts is famous for its scenic natural beauty, its nearby colleges, and its freedom of expression, but many who live here face the same challenges found in small towns across America: struggling public schools; too few ladders to career opportunity; shortages of housing and transportation; the difficult knots of addiction, disenfranchisement, and anger; a sense of intergenerational loss.
At the Brick House we believe that this can change. By providing a space where people young and old feel valued, supported in meeting their needs, and encouraged to pursue their interests, we believe we are helping our community become a more welcoming, affordable, safe, and healthy place to live.
We aren’t alone in this – social change is always coalition work – and we are still learning lessons of our own. But we know that meeting our neighbors in their everyday lives is the first step toward building anything bigger together, and that sometimes the most valuable resource we can offer is simply an open front door.
At the culmination of a recent period of growth, we are seeking an Executive Director who will bring our ideas, our staff, our programs, and our volunteers into focus.
This position is newly expanding to full-time, allowing you to be an active part of the work under our roof while also exploring opportunities to address the community’s emerging needs, pursue new funding, and deepen collaboration with our local and regional partners.
You will manage a budget of roughly $450,000, supervise a team of six full- and part-time staff members, and oversee several grant-funded social service programs aimed at the root causes of violence, abuse and neglect, and poor health.
You’ll be a neighbor, and a listener, and a leader.
ABOUT US
The Brick House is more than just a local community center.
We pursue our mission of supporting youth and family well-being by providing a place in Turners Falls for creativity and learning, for growth and leadership, and for strengthening community connection.
Our converted 19th-century firehouse is a welcoming, creative, and adaptive gathering place for people who live in Turners Falls, the other four villages of Montague – Lake Pleasant, Millers Falls, Montague Center, Montague City – the neighboring city of Greenfield, and surrounding farm and hill towns.
Creativity, connection, positivity, and support flow from the Brick House, and draw diverse community members in.
Here, on a typical day, you will find teens hanging out, creating, making music, and finding the supports they need to become leaders. Parents gather for support groups and referrals for resources. Preschoolers giggle during creative dance classes. Neighbors can rent the performance space at night – the Brick House is known locally as an all-ages music venue, too.
The Brick House has been an important part of the evolving Turners Falls community for over 30 years, connecting thousands of residents with counseling programs, education, job training, employment resources, and opportunities for building community. And now we, ourselves, are growing.
For more about us see our most recent newsletter.
What you will have accomplished after one year in this role:
- You will have built strong and trusting relationships with the staff, the Board, volunteers, and many community members.
- You will have found an appreciation and fondness for the mission and work of the Brick House, and for our local community.
- You will have sat down 50 times with staff to talk through the plan for the week, and twelve times with the Board to work on the big picture.
- You will have learned a number of teenagers’ favorite pizza toppings, as well as their biggest worries.
- You will have felt connections with caregivers – with mothers and fathers, with grandparents and nieces. You will have consoled and celebrated, shared joys and sorrows.
- You will have a good handle on the Brick House’s financials and grant cycles, and you will have systems to maintain them. You will be applying for new grants.
- Your leadership and vision will inspire new volunteers, new donors, and new potential board members.
- You will have built meaningful connections throughout the region with current and potential partners and funders.
- You will begin to document the operational and long-term maintenance needs of the Brick House.
- You will start engaging the board and the community over a shared future vision for the Brick House, and how it might continue to evolve to meet emerging needs.
- You’ll look back and reflect with pride on your own growth and learning.
Are you ready to apply?
Read on for the full job description.
Email us at: edsearch@brickhousecommunity.org. You’ll need a resume and a letter of interest introducing yourself and letting us know what draws you to this position. Feel free to send along anything else that might help us get to know you.
Thanks for reading this far! If you might know someone else who should hear about this position, please help us in our search by sharing this invitation with them.
The Brick House Executive Director
Job Description, January 2023
The Brick House is seeking a full-time Executive Director. We appreciate you taking the time to review these lists of responsibilities and qualifications.
RESPONSIBILITIES
Program Oversight
- Guiding the overall design, implementation, and evaluation of our programs.
- Infusing programmatic leadership with trauma-informed, positive youth development, and healthy family initiatives approaches.
- Ensuring that all grant objectives are met. Working with staff to effectively collect program data, measure our impact, and write narratives for funding agencies.
- Exploring new opportunities to assess, discover, and meet emerging community needs.
Operations
- Overseeing the smooth operation of the Brick House on many levels, including problem-solving, identifying needs, and sometimes stepping up to fill in gaps. This may include keeping good working relationships with building contractors, delegating repair projects and general maintenance, administering computer and cell phone operations, and keeping an eye on the Brick House’s social media presence.
- Thinking through the workflow of a multi-use space collaboratively with staff and community members, and making decisions about its use, maintenance, and upkeep.
Staff Supervision
- Supervising a Youth Programs Director, Parent & Family Program Director, Business Assistant, and several other staff members, and coordinating with a volunteer-led Space Use committee.
- Conducting regular staff meetings, and promoting healthy communication and effective collaboration among programs.
- Supporting staff to feel empowered in their positions by a commitment to regular supervision meetings and professional development.
Fiscal
- Taking responsibility for the fiscal health and well-being of the Brick House.
- Writing grants: including finding, applying for, and reporting on new and ongoing grant opportunities that fit within the Brick House’s mission and capabilities.
- Supporting the Business Assistant and an outside bookkeeping firm in keeping the organization’s accounts up-to-date, in allocating revenue and expenses properly among cost centers, and in sending out monthly and quarterly billing and annual recontracting paperwork in a timely manner.
- Ensuring that program and operational spending is according to grant guidelines.
- Drafting the annual operating budget, with support and input from the finance committee, and working with the committee, Business Assistant, and bookkeeping firm to keep our finances on track throughout the year.
Community Involvement
- Seeking out ways for the Brick House to help lead community development through networks, collaboration, and advocacy.
- Consistently advocating for the needs of local families and youth while engaging the broader community.
- Building community involvement at the Brick House through neighborhood events and other opportunities to participate in, and give input about, our programming.
- Participating in our Community Connections Coalition, and other local committees and networks such as the Communities That Care Coalition. Maintaining close connections with our partner agencies and other organizations that serve our community.
Equity
- Lifting up multiple voices when representing the Brick House’s mission and programs, and empowering community members to become advocates for positive change.
- Advocating for and demonstrating a culture of equity and diversity in our workplace as well as in our community.
- Fostering positive youth development, trauma-informed practices, and healthy family initiatives in all aspects of our work.
- Supporting systems change.
Development
- Raising the visibility, reputation, and impact of the Brick House locally and regionally.
- Nurturing existing funding partnerships.
- Finding new partnerships, new grant opportunities, and new donors.
- Inspiring donors with individual asks and twice-yearly appeals, ensuring that they are warmly and personally thanked and understand the impact of their contribution on our work.
- Creating and implementing an annual fundraising plan, and engaging the Board and volunteers in fundraising.
Board Relationship
- Reporting regularly to the Board, including program, grant, personnel, and operational updates.
- Coordinating with the president and secretary of the Board to set monthly meeting agendas.
- Acting as a liaison, keeping staff informed of the Board’s decisions and inviting their participation when needed.
- Guiding the Board in strong governance, including helping it recruit and orient new members, delegate work to the organization’s Finance, Development, Program, Building, and Space Use committees, develop long-range strategic plans, and become fundraisers and public ambassadors for the Brick House.
- Working with the Board and staff to implement strategic plans.
QUALIFICATIONS
- Passion for community empowerment, social change, and working with families and youth in a rural setting.
- Two years’ experience as a senior manager leading staff and programs within a non-profit or equivalent organization.
- Demonstrated organizational abilities, including budgeting and finance, planning, delegation, operational leadership, writing, grant writing, and program development.
- Ability to support a positive, fun, productive, collaborative, and equity-framed work culture.
- Skills to work with a Board of Directors.
- Ability to effectively envision and communicate the organization’s mission and strategic future to members of the community, donors and funders, staff, Board members, and volunteers.
If you don’t fill all of these qualifications, you may still be considered depending on your level of
experience.
We are an equal-opportunity employer, and value diversity at our organization. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.
COMPENSATION PACKAGE – FIRST YEAR
Compensation will increase as funding is secured.
- Annual salary starts at $56,160.
- Flexible 40-hour workweek, including occasional evening and weekend hours.
- Opportunity for some remote work.
- Health reimbursement account currently valued at $4,800/year.
- 18 holidays (10 fixed and 8 floating).
- 10 paid vacation / PTO days.
- Up to 12 paid sick days.
TO APPLY
Please send your resume and a letter of interest introducing yourself and letting us know what draws you to this position to: Email us at: edsearch@brickhousecommunity.org.
Feel free to send along anything else that might help us get to know you.