Are you passionate about Young Adult Cancer Canada (YACC)? What about improving the attention, connection, resources, and quality of life of young adults with a cancer diagnosis? Do you recognize the power of your story to drive change? Are you looking to supercharge your advocacy?
You should be a YACCtivist! YACCtivists further the mission and impact of YACC through advocacy, communications, and fundraising. YACCtivists provide energy, influence, perspective, and leadership from their knowledge and experiences with being a young adult with a cancer diagnosis or by caring for another young adult with cancer. YACCtivism makes your story the medium and the message.
Developed by YACC to drive growth by developing their most valuable resource: the YACC community. Through empowering our community advocates and leaders, we hope to see YACC grow to serve the 95% of young adults with a cancer diagnosis that don’t connect to us. There are no better voices to build YACC than those that have already benefited from the power of the YACC community.
The 2021-23 team of YACCtivists will grow the organization’s capacity by leading fundraising and development efforts, bringing awareness of the young adult cancer experience and YACC programs to their regions, and serving as ambassadors of YACC to the media and our partners.
We are looking to onboard 12 YACCtivists this year, with voices from coast to coast representing the diversity of identities and experiences of young adults impacted by cancer in Canada
Who qualifies
To be eligible for this position, you must meet the following criteria:
- You’re a young adult aged 18-39, who received (or supports/supported someone who received) a cancer diagnosis between the ages of 0 and 39
- You live in Canada
- You are available to attend a specialized, virtual training weekend. Dates to be determined, but will happen in the fall of 2021.
Desired qualifications:
- Ideally, you would have attended at least one YACC event, such as Localife, Big Cancer Hookup, Retreat Yourself, Retreat Yourself Adventure, Survivor Conference or Primetown. If you haven’t had the opportunity to attend an event, but are still interested in the position, we still encourage you to apply.
- A Strong Communicator
- Excited about being a leader and a voice in the YACC community;
- Creative in your approach to advocacy and storytelling;
- Excellent written and oral communication skills;
- Bilingualism is not necessary but would be viewed as an asset;
- A Passionate Community Builder
- Natural relationship builder
- Outgoing, friendly, charismatic, and enthusiastic about building community;
- Passionate about helping others and a demonstrated commitment to volunteering;
- Empathetic, caring, and respectful;
- Have a positive attitude and approaches challenges with creativity and optimism;
- In a place of peace and acceptance with their personal cancer experience;
- A Commitment to Professionalism
- Demonstrates integrity and trustworthiness;
- A self-starter who is able to work independently and effectively manage time, and does not get easily overwhelmed;
- Demonstrated ability to see projects through from start to finish;
- Not over-committed with other responsibilities (work, volunteer, family);
Educational/professional background in one of the following areas is valued, but not necessary:
- Business
- Communications
- Creative Arts
- Education
- Health Care
- Marketing/Social Media
Major responsibilities
Communications & Content Creation: To maintain a social media presence for YACC on public platforms like FB, Twitter and Instagram, as well as contribute original content for YACC’s social media channels and website. Helping to build an active and deliberate YACCtivist voice to build YACC’s influence and brand.
Awareness & Advocacy: Share your story and the YACC program with media, donors, and partners to increase YACC’s impact and reach. To nurture existing relationships with health professionals and foster new ones, and to ensure local cancer centres, hospitals, and community-based cancer organizations are well-stocked with up-to-date YACC resource materials.
Partnerships & Development: To help build YACC’s capacity to provide programs to young adults with cancer by leading and participating in regional and national fundraising efforts. Also includes connecting with current funding partners to recognize their contributions, as well as help in building new connections for corporate collaboration.
Time commitment
We ask that all people accepting this role are confident that they can commit approximately 5-10 hours per month from fall 2021 until summer 2023. This time may be spent out in the community or volunteering from home.
This is a volunteer position, however, YACC will provide reimbursements to YACCtivists to ensure they do not incur personal costs through participation in the program.
How to apply
The first step in our YACCtivist recruitment process is to complete our Open Call for Volunteers Form. If you have already completed this form and indicated that you were interested in the YACCtivists position, you do not need to complete the form again. You must complete this form by August 29, 2021.
