Arts and Recreation Manager

Lifting Hands International is looking for a Arts & Recreation Manager to start in September 2024 in Greece with a minimum six-month commitment.

About Us

Lifting Hands International operates a community center in Serres, a small city about an hour away from Thessaloniki in Northern Greece. We work with a population of 1000+ refugees at the local camps, providing regular aid distributions and a range of psychosocial support programs.

Role Profile

The Arts & Recreation program provides recreational activities and classes with a trauma-informed and culturally sensitive community-led approach, for and with camp residents. The program is divided into an open space for recreational activities and socialization and a schedule of sports, yoga, fitness, art, and music classes. The main participants of the program are adult men and teenage boys, with a high involvement of community volunteers.

Main Responsibilities

• Managing the day-to-day running of the space and activities;
• Confidently leading and supporting a team of visiting and community volunteers and ensuring respectful collaboration and communication within the team;
• Leading weekly Arts & Rec meetings and preparing each week’s activities;
• Providing program introductions, training, and bi-weekly individual check-ins for visiting and community volunteers;
• Supporting the professional and personal development of community volunteers and encouraging their leadership in classes and activities;
• Working closely with the Community Engagement Manager to develop training and strategies to better support the team of community volunteers;
• Assessing the needs of program participants and community members and involving them in the planning of activities;
• Ensuring the team of visiting and community volunteers have access to teaching resources and supporting them to generate new ideas and find inspiration in their work;
• Working closely with other program’s managers to ensure intersectional needs of different age groups and genders are being met;
• Attending and contributing to weekly coordination and team meetings;
• Monitoring and Evaluation of the Arts & Rec program; overseeing the overall development while following the vision plan of LHI and adjusting structures to the current situational needs and requests;
• Tracking of attendance, budget, necessary investments, and changes needed to ensure the quality of the program; work with other LHI leadership to monitor and evaluate program impact;
• Referring safeguarding concerns and occasionally collaborating with external actors.
• Supporting the behavior management of teenage participants.

Essential Criteria

• Min. commitment of 6 months
• Quick thinker, proactive, motivated, open minded, easily adaptable to a fast paced working environment
• Previous experience in teaching yoga, fitness, art, music or sports
• Confident and strong leadership skills
• Familiarity with trauma-informed principles and experience working with vulnerable groups and/or trauma survivors
• Have excellent communication skills, experience working in a team with members of different backgrounds and across language barriers

Desirable Criteria

• Knowledge of Arabic, Farsi, French and/or Kurdish
• Potential to stay on the team for 6-12 months

We Offer

• Free shared accommodation
• Five day work week + full week break after every 6 weeks of work
• Mental health support with a counsellor
• Monthly reimbursement (starting from 550 euros per month)

To apply, please fill out this application.
Please note that as a small NGO we are not able to offer assistance for visa applications

To find out more about Lifting Hands International in Greece and around the globe, you can visit our site at https://www.liftinghandsinternational.org/.

Please send any questions you may have to our HR Director, Harvey, at volunteers@lhi.org