Chinatown Foundation - Organization Mission

The Vancouver Chinatown Foundation is a registered charity founded in 2011 to honor a culture and community established in Vancouver more than 100 years ago. This organization is characterized by a spirit of entrepreneurship, innovation and a passion to help the revitalization of Chinatown, one of Canada’s most iconic neighborhoods and the historic heart of Vancouver. This team has a vision of a prosperous, vibrant, and inclusive Chinatown, where people want to live, work and play. The Vancouver Chinatown Foundation is dedicated to building a more resilient and inclusive community by promoting the wellbeing of those in need while preserving Chinatown’s irreplaceable cultural heritage.

The Revitalization Strategy

The Foundation has created a 5-pillar strategy that represents how we will have impact across the dimensions of business, community and heritage. It is across these 5 pillars that we will identify specific initiatives/projects and action plans to achieve our goals and aspirations for the evolution and revitalization of Chinatown.

We are currently activating Pillar 1, the Stone Soup Project: Beautification, Safety and Security.

Stone Soup Project Summary

The name of this project stems from an Asian story in which monks are on a long journey looking for help from the people of a town asking for food and shelter. The moral of the story is it takes a village to build an “amazing pot of stone soup”. The Idea behind this program is to ask stakeholders to work in coordination with one another to create a lasting positive impact such as affordable housing, seniors housing, and cultural and economic development.

This in-flight project contains 4 sub-projects, each of which has a leader who will be responsible to deliver the objectives and monitor/ control action items while planning, executing till completion.

We need a Project Manager that can now drive the entire group in this stage of execution.  There is plan, people, passion, but we need the Project Manager to bring structure, commitment, and discipline to execute. And if need be able to dive down to one of the sub projects to help any short comings on deliverables.

The project is currently broken down into the following sub projects:

-Project 1 > Beautification Project: Visual transformation of Chinatown by September 2022:

1. Develop and implement immediate initiatives to transform visual appearance and enhance the historical beauty.

2. Coordinate volunteers into categories to support the needs of merchants in Chinatown / be the liaison between volunteers and merchants.

3. Have residents and merchants take ownership of program so it’s sustainable.

Sub-Project 2 > Safety & Security Project:

1. Create specific programs to increase the safety of residents, merchants and visitors.

2. Implement Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) recommendations and initiatives.

3. Document program from start to finish

Sub-Project 3 > Communication & Advocacy: Main Goal

1. Establish effective and timely communication between groups and members – coordinated approach / supporting one another – everyone on same page.

2. Effective communication of program initiative to merchants and residents so they want to help and get involved to eventually own the program – create a sense of pride of neighborhood.

3. Create a media strategy.

Sub-Project 4 > Funding and Corporate Sponsorship: Main Goal

1. Work with Government and Corporate entities for funding

2. Create a sponsorship package that highlights all initiatives in Chinatown to secure corporate interest

3. Resource planning – heavy reliance on volunteers for resource management

Project Objectives

1. Increase community safety and well-being especially for seniors.
2. Promote harmony among the Chinese community and their neighbors.
3. Beautification of community
4. Merchants partnering with volunteers to take ownership of community.

Required Qualifications

1. Demonstrated education and experience in Project Management.
2. Experience with non-profits.
3. Well-organized, detail-oriented and a creative thinker with problem-solving skills.
4. Strong people skills with experience leading and motivating teams.
5. Adaptable in a changing environment and works well under pressure.
6. Fluent in English, and an understanding the Cantonese language would be an asset.
7. Local BC Lower Mainland candidates are preferred as there are requirements for on-site meetings.
8. Experience working with and having support of a Project Coordinator.
9. Solid Microsoft suite knowledge and experience, used for Executive presentations.

Estimated Time Commitment

Expected effort is 4-5 hours/week which will fluctuate depending on the phase of the project.

Remote/On-site Work

Majority of work can be done remotely but occasional on-site meetings in Vancouver Chinatown area may prove necessary for team meetings and planning.

Scope of Work

1. Create and implement immediate sustainable neighborhood actionable programs that will:
   • Transform the visual appearance of Chinatown.
   • Deliver a safe and secured neighborhood program for Chinatown.
   • Create a sense of ownership in Chinatown community & merchants; and build a sustainable resource pool that will restore Chinatown for years to come.
2. Proactively create an aligned & effective communication plan for different stakeholders.

Deliverables

1. Coordinate all current project plans
2. Implementation of project reporting and governance structure.
3. Holding Project Leads accountable.
4. Steering Committee Presentations.
5. Project Document Management structure.
6. A Project Management template (documents, processes, communications etc.) as the standard for future Revitalization Strategy Pillar projects.

Accountability
The PM volunteer will have end-end accountability on project deliverables, reporting directly to the Executive Advisor and the Pillar 1 Steering Committee.  

Benefits

1. The Executive Advisor will provide a letter of recommendation to the PM volunteer at the successful conclusion of the project and serve as a reference if appropriate.
2. Opportunity to work with community leaders, C-suite individuals and other senior executives that will broaden personal networks.

 Additional Information

• The organization may proceed with interviewing and engaging applicants before the application deadline.
• We may consider a team approach of a senior/junior project manager. We encourage junior project managers who are interested in acquiring experience to apply. Any such arrangement will be contingent on agreement by the client and the applicants.