About the Role
ACIA is a small organization with ambitious goals and a desire to contribute to improving the food system by educating young people. Our goals include the existence in the school curriculum of a subject on Nutritional Ethics that includes the impact of food on the environment and animals.
Thus, we are looking for a talented, dedicated person, knowledgeable about the vegan movement in Romania, with a commitment to strategic and pragmatic thinking, to take over the coordination of the “Behind the Plates” program. The role involves two activities: supporting events in educational institutions in your city and coordinating the program team: the second Humane Educator and the Volunteer Manager.
Role
The selection criteria for the role of “Humane Educator” are:
- Resonance with the vision and values of ACIA.
- Degree of familiarity with veganism and its benefits (on health and on the environment).
- A sense of humor and a positive attitude.
- Experience in an education organization (working with teachers, pupils, students) or animal, environmental, or sustainability advocacy.
What Does a Project Manager Bring in Addition to a Humane Educator?
In addition to all the duties of a Humane Educator (organizing and supporting events, co-training ambassadors, follow-up events), you will take over the coordination of the program by:
- Maintaining operational liaison with the second Humane Educator of the program: joint planning, problem solving, correlation of event calendars.
- Monitoring and evaluating the team of two Humane Educators against the objectives in their contracts: tracking progress on the three targets, early reporting of deviations, feedback discussions, and recovery plan when needed.
- Ambassador Manager Coordination: handing over registered candidates after cooking workshops, tracking their onboarding and activation.
- Promoting and organizing the program’s cooking workshops. The location and chef are provided by ACIA; you take care of promotion, registration, logistics, and the smooth running of the event.
- Co-organizing and supporting, together with the Ambassador Manager, training sessions for ambassadors.
- Providing food sampling and props for each ambassador, prior to each event they support. Materials are provided by ACIA through the program’s product sponsors.
- Assisting ambassadors at the events they support.
- Self-monitoring of your own objectives and periodic reporting to the General Manager, for both sets of objectives (yours and the second Humane Educator’s).
- Training new members of the program team, based on ACIA materials and procedures.
If we like each other, after you are selected, you will have the opportunity to hold this role within the team.
At ACIA, each member has the freedom to choose one or more roles within the team and to propose and make decisions for the organization.
Required Skills and Abilities
- Communication — public speaking, giving a presentation and a discussion in front of a young audience.
- Language adaptability to the audience.
- Moderating a discussion with multiple people from an objective perspective.
- Research, event organization: transmitting organizational details, logistical needs, acquisitions, maintaining contact with teachers and follow-up.
- Project planning and tracking: building a calendar of activities for a school year and maintaining it.
- Training: the ability to transmit a competency to volunteers, not just to support an event (presentation and group discussion). You will also receive training from the General Manager in the first weeks of collaboration.
- Monitoring and feedback: tracking the team’s (one person) results against assumed goals and having a direct feedback discussion.
- Structured written reporting, within established deadlines.
Experience Required
The ideal candidate has:
- Demonstrable experience in delivering to youth audiences, in any context, including corporate or volunteering in student organizations.
- Experience in holding training sessions with young people, high school students, and students.
Advantages (not conditions):
- Experience in contact with teachers and school management.
- Experience in organizing cooking workshops with an external chef or coordinating an external vendor in an event with an audience.
- Experience in recruiting volunteers and handing them over to a person who coordinates them further.
Exclusive project management experience, without delivery in front of a youth audience, is not sufficient for this role.
Contract Objectives
Your contract has three objectives, during the 9 months of collaboration:
- Organizing and supporting physical “Behind the Plates” events in front of a minimum of 1,500 new participants (pupils/students), with the serving of food samples. The objective includes the mandatory provision of raw photo/video materials from each event, for dissemination on the organization’s online communication channels, with the project’s messages. An event without photo/video materials handed over is not considered fully delivered.
- Organizing and supporting follow-up events (cooking workshops and documentary film screenings) with a total of at least 90 participating students.
- Training a minimum of 3 program ambassadors, through 3 two-hour training sessions, providing food samples and props before each of their events, and assisting them in hosting “Behind the Plates” events in front of a minimum of 100 new participants each.
The same objectives are also assumed by your future Humane Educator colleague of the program, whom you will monitor.
Targeted Locations
Bucharest and Cluj-Napoca.
When Does the Collaboration Start?
As soon as possible, no later than October 1, 2026.
A Word About Inclusion
ACIA welcomes applications from LGBTQIA+ people, people from ethnic minorities, people with disabilities, and anyone who has ever been discouraged from applying for reasons unrelated to competency. If you need an accommodation in the selection process, please mention it in your application.
