awareness, understanding, mindfulness.
VOLUNTEER WITH US
- Fall Applications Open: September 13 - September 27
- Winter Applications: TBD
- Summer Applications: TBD
Mental health is a universal topic that deserves a level of awareness we have yet to achieve.
We at Free Your Mind want to promote mindful lifestyles that focus on well-being and happiness. We deliver meaningful education to the Canadian public while amplifying genuine youth voice. We urge you to join us on this journey – we can’t do it without the voices of youth like you.
Director of Events
This is a senior position. Please note, you may hold up to 1 senior position at a time (see FAQ).
Apply here: Fall 2024 Director of Events Application Form
Information about this role:
We are recruiting a Director of Events, who will lead a small team of youth to plan, organize, and executive public-facing engagements. FYM’s Events Team hosts public-facing webinars once every two months. We shed light on mental health struggles from a youth perspective, and we address social justice topics (e.g., housing insecurity, LGBTQ+ rights, responsible leadership) using an evidence-based approach and with nuance.
As the Director of Events, your role is to support Events Team volunteers in their daily tasks. You will take the lead in scheduling, organizing, and facilitating weekly meetings, when general volunteers brainstorm events, share progress updates, and receive feedback on their work. In-between meetings, Events Team volunteers learn to conduct research and synthesize information into easily comprehensible discussions. They may require mentorship to complete these tasks, in which case they will share their challenges with you. Events Team members enjoy the opportunity to participate in workshops, which cover topics like academic integrity, research skills, and equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI). At times, Directors will be asked to write, facilitate, or debrief on these workshops, depending on their personal skillsets and interests.
As a team Director, you will work closely with FYM’s executive leadership. You are responsible for attending monthly meetings with other FYM directors and providing updates on your team’s progress. You should regularly check in with Events Team members, gauge their needs, and bring asks for support to the executive leadership as necessary. You may connect with other team leads, with the potential of initiating cross-team collaboration. Please recognize that this role description is not a comprehensive list of everything the Director of Events is meant to oversee — this is a framework, which may change over time, and as the needs of the Events Team evolve.
Recommended skills:
The Director of Events role is complex. A volunteer successful in this role will show solid communication and leadership skills, a keen motivation to be creative and take risks, and show personal initiative. A strong research background or experience with handling academic, public, and other sources of information is highly recommended.
Estimated Time Commitment: 6 hours per week.
Mode: Virtual.
Events Planner
This is a junior position. Please note, you may hold up to 2 junior positions at a time (see FAQ).
Apply here: Fall 2024 Events Team Application Form
Recommended Skills:
- Experience with event organization and logistics is a strong asset, but not a necessity.
- Excellent public speaking skills is a strong asset, but not a necessity.
- Excellent time management skills.
- Excellent communicative skills.
- Comfortable with collaboration.
- Creativity and innovative thinking.
Responsibilities:
- In collaboration with 2-3 other volunteers, create bimonthly webinars (live but virtual) on topics centering youth and mental health. Webinars involve reaching out to guest speakers, researching, script-writing, and hosting webinars.
- In collaboration with the rest of the team, brainstorm and execute an in-person, annual community event, to spread awareness of mental health in the community by engaging like-minded organizations and connecting to the general public.
- Remain in close contact with the Director of Events and respond to all messages within 48 hours.
- Actively participate in weekly team meetings, and attend bimonthly general FYM meetings.
- Proactively communicate any questions, concerns, or accommodation requests to the appropriate Free Your Mind personnel.
- Complete orientation sessions, basic mental health literacy training, and periodic workshops relevant to your role.
Estimated Time Commitment: 4 hours per week.
Mode: Virtual.
Video Creator
This is a junior position. Please note, you may hold up to 2 junior positions at a time (see FAQ).
Apply here: Fall 2024 Video Creation Team Application Form
Recommended Skills:
- Familiarity with Adobe AE, PR, PS and/ or Harmony is a strong asset, but not a necessity.
- Ability to create original and eye-catching digital art.
- Proficiency with basic animations and/ or editing stock footage.
- Excellent time management.
- Proactive communication with team members.
- Familiarity with and willingness to follow relevant copyright regulations.
Responsibilities:
- Create short (3-6 minutes] videos for YouTube related to a mental health and youth related topic. This involves animation or stock footage creation/ compilation, video editing, and sound editing, as well as concept, scripts, and voice acting. .
- Create short (10-30 seconds) clips for use on FYM social media in the form of Instagram Reels, TikToks, etc. in conjunction with the relevant FYM team. Similarly to YouTube video creation, this involves either animation or stock footage creation/ compilation, editing, and sound editing.
- Remain in close contact with the Director of Video Creation and respond to all messages within 48 hours.
- Actively participate in biweekly team meetings, and attend bimonthly general FYM meetings.
- Proactively communicate any questions, concerns, or accommodation requests to the appropriate Free Your Mind personnel.
- Complete orientation sessions, basic mental health literacy training, and periodic workshops relevant to your role.
Estimated Time Commitment: 3-4 hours per week.
Mode: Virtual.
Digital Marketer
This is a junior position. Please note, you may hold up to 2 junior positions at a time (see FAQ).
Apply here: Fall 2024 Marketing Team Application Form
Recommended Skills:
- Strong design skills and an eye for detail.
- Highly motivated and self-driven.
- Willingness to take initiative and contribute creatively.
- Excellent time management.
- Experience with managing social media is a strong asset, but not a necessity.
- Familiarity with and willingness to follow relevant copyright regulations.
Responsibilities:
- Help maintain Free Your Mind’s 2 main Instagram accounts: @freeyourmindyyc (FYM’s general page) and @speakyourmindyyc (Speak Your Mind’s own page).
- Promote upcoming webinars on the FYM account, and newly released blogs on the SYM account by creating, designing, and captioning posts and stories.
- Engage our youth audience, and connect with like-minded organizations using various strategies.
- Remain in close contact with the Director of Video Creation and respond to all messages within 48 hours.
- Actively participate in weekly team meetings, and attend bimonthly general FYM meetings.
- Proactively communicate any questions, concerns, or accommodation requests to the appropriate Free Your Mind personnel.
- Complete orientation sessions, basic mental health literacy training, and periodic workshops relevant to your role.
Estimated Time Commitment: 3 hours per week.
Mode: Virtual.
Faq
Free Your Mind consists of different teams, and each team is made up of around 3-10 General Volunteers and a team Director. There are also Director positions that do not oversee a specific team, like the Director of Accessibility, and Director positions that oversee multiple teams, like the Director of Communications. General Volunteer is a junior position, and Director is a senior position. Senior positions carry more responsibilities, are expected to commit more hours, and may be expected to lead a team of volunteers.
Junior volunteers are welcome to take on a second role, if they wish, after at least four months with us and if they can demonstrate the capacity and ability to adequately meet the higher demands of a dual role. We do not allow senior volunteers to take on more than role at a time due to the high demands of senior roles.
All of our volunteer opportunities are virtual: they can be done online! We use a combination of different online platforms and tools to communicate with each other and carry out our activities, including but not limited to: Google Suite (Meets, Gmail, Drive, etc.), Discord, Zoom, and WordPress.
Some of our activities are synchronous, which means volunteers need to interact with each other in real time (examples: attending team meetings, hosting events). Other activities are asynchronous, which means that they can be done individually at the volunteer’s own pace (examples: writing a blog, designing a social media post). All of our volunteer positions include both synchronous and asynchronous activities.
If you have more questions about the virtual aspect of our programming, please feel free to contact us.
Free Your Mind was founded in Calgary, Alberta, but now we are proud to have youth volunteers across Canada! (And a few outside of Canada, too.) All of our positions are virtual, which means volunteers have the flexibility to stay in their role regardless of where life takes them. Volunteers joining us from time zones that are farther away may face some challenges with attending our meetings and events, but we attempt to accommodate everyone to the best of our abilities and we encourage you to reach out if you have any questions.
Free Your Mind operates using Mountain Time (MT). This time zone is observed mainly in the Western part of North America. All interviews, team meetings, and events are scheduled and communicated using MT. If you are not in this time zone, please keep in mind that some platforms such as Google Calendar may automatically convert and display meeting times to your local time zone, while some may not. Always review meeting details carefully.
We strive to accommodate volunteers who are in other time zones, including attempting to schedule meetings at times that work for everyone or discussing alternate ways to accomplish a task. If you are concerned that time zones may be an issue for you, please let us know and we will do our best to try and find a solution.
We are currently exploring ways to engage our volunteers with in-person activities and meetings, but our planning is in its preliminary stages. You will not be required to attend an in-person meeting or event.
We’re delighted that you’re wanting to get involved with us! Please keep in mind that a successful applicant to each of our teams will have some level of specialized skills, unique to that team, prior to entry. While our organization is a space to grow and improve those skills, it may be more challenging without some of this pre-existing knowledge. We strongly encourage you to review the Recommended Skills and Responsibilities of each role to make sure that you are considering only roles for which you are best suited for, in terms of both interests and skills.
Once you have done so, please see the FAQ below for information on how to apply for more than one role and what to expect if you are accepted.
A final note: we embrace that our organization is primarily youth-led and youth-run, which means that it’s okay if you don’t hit every recommended criteria! We encourage you to apply, or contact us with questions you have about applying!
If you are interested in and have the skills for more than one position, that’s great! There are a few things to keep in mind before applying and following a successful application.
When applying, you may do so in one of the following ways:
1. If you are interested in more than one role, please submit only ONE APPLICATION to the team that you are most interested in, and note your interest in other teams at the end of the form, such as saying “I would most like to join Team A, but I would also like to be considered for Team B if I am not accepted to Team A.”
2. If you remain equally interested in more than one role, please pick any form to submit only ONE APPLICATION, and note your interests at the end of the form.
Most of our volunteers are youth aged 12-25 years as part of our mandate to platform youth voices. You may apply at any age as long as you can demonstrate your ability to address the needs of contemporary Canadian youth.
All of our volunteer positions are ongoing, with no set end date. Each year you volunteer with us, we will hold a review meeting between you and your team Director. Depending on you and your Directors’ opinions, you may either leave the position, change positions or continue on in the same position. This is something we do to help make sure everyone is in a position that still feels like a good fit for them.
Contact us
If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to us at info@freeyourmindinitiative.com
Connect with us on Instagram to stay updated on our application cycles and more! @freeyourmindyyc
Land Acknowledgement
In the spirit of reconciliation, we acknowledge that we live, work and play on the traditional territories of the Blackfoot Confederacy (Siksika, Kainai, Piikani), the Tsuut’ina, the Îyâxe Nakoda Nations, the Métis Nation (Region 3), and all people who make their homes in the Treaty 7 region of Southern Alberta.