Executive Director; NYS

Forty-three years ago, a social worker, teacher, and police officer founded Northwest Youth Services to help young people experiencing homelessness. Today we are one of the largest non-profits in Whatcom County, with a smaller program in Skagit County. We are a vital part of the community response to the needs of young people experiencing homelessness. Annually, we serve more than 1,000youth between the ages of 13 – 25.

We have a $3.5 million budget, 55 staff (40 full-time, 15 part-time), 100 volunteers, and an 8-member board of directors. We accomplish our work by collaborating and partnering with donors, volunteers, and community organizations in all sectors – nonprofit organizations, public entities, and for-profit businesses.

… is how we do what we do. At the core of our work are heart and relationships. Known for our strengths-based and trauma-informed approach, including a commitment to harm reduction, we meet youth where they are, with open minds and open hearts. As much an advocate for social justice as a direct service provider, we have a strong track record of serving LGBTQ youth and youth of color.

Rather than dictate what youth should or must do to access services and remain in our programs, we offer options and a safety net to support them in achieving their own goals. We want what’s best for each individual and see the best in them.

Northwest Youth Services seeks a visionary and strategic Executive Director who is well-prepared to provide the inspired external and internal leadership required of this role. The successful candidate must have a background in proven, significant, and successful nonprofit leadership, including the ability to oversee fundraising, programs, overall management, and financial performance. The Executive Director works effectively with the board and staff leadership team to build on and strengthen our track record of innovation, collaboration, and mission success.

Northwest Youth Services is a remarkable organization backed by the incredible goodwill and support of a community passionate about finding solutions to pressing challenges through nonprofit partnerships. We are well-positioned to increase our mission impact through collective action. As our strategic leader, the Executive Director works closely with the board, staff, and stakeholders to define what that additional impact should be and how it will be delivered.

Collaboration, relationship management, and community engagement are essential to the Executive Director’s success. The qualified candidate will bring a history of accomplishment working within community systems as well as an ability to forge effective working relationships with organizations and people, including the board, staff, donors, community partners, people impacted by the issues we seek to address, and other potential allies.

The Executive Director is an articulate, inspiring communicator who has a way of engaging others in a conversation about homeless youth so that people feel they are and want to be, involved. They possess an ability to authentically relate to and connect with people of diverse identities, perspectives, and experience. They have a strong commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, and determination to guide the agency to further embody these values.

Our growth over the last several years has been exciting. Now we’re ready to strengthen processes and systems agency-wide, with an emphasis on infrastructure. This is a rich opportunity for a candidate who loves to bring their experience and expertise to this kind of organizational evolution while preserving the ethos of care and commitment that supports our work.

The Executive Director will focus on the following priorities in the first 18-24 months:

• Stabilize the agency and grow into current opportunities ensuring increasingly efficient, effective, and equitable operations. Simultaneously and collaboratively with staff, attend to the implementation of our new initiatives: 22 North, The Ground Floor, and the integration of behavioral health protocols across all of our programs.
• Establish alignment, a solid partnership,…