This year Youthtown celebrates 93 years as one of New Zealand’s most iconic organisations dedicated to youth development. The vision to empower young New Zealanders to be the best they can be remains at the forefront of everything it does to enable it to influence young people’s lives for the better as the next generation of proud New Zealanders. Youthtown supports tamariki and rangatahi aged 5-24 years to build confidence, resilience and future ready skills through a variety of sustainable and inclusive programmes which deliver measurable change across New Zealand’s schools, whanau and communities. 

Following the appointment last year of a new CEO who has continued to take the organisation through transformational change to enable it to be fit for purpose for the future, a number of newly created leadership roles have been identified.   These roles will increase Youthtown’s capacity to extend its reach and continue to positively impact the lives of thousands of young people through providing opportunities for them to realise their potential and thrive.

Three new Regional Manager roles have been created which will report to the GM, Programme Delivery and Community. In addition to delivering regional specific responsibilities, each of these roles will hold a national portfolio for the organisation:

The Southern Regional Manager will be based in Christchurch and be responsible for Recreation – Outdoors, Sport, Play. This portfolio will co-ordinate outdoor programmes, event strategies and seasonal planning to ensure quality assurance and consistency across all recreation based activities to inspire tamariki and rangatahi to connect with nature, engage in play and build confidence through sport and outdoor education.

The Central Regional Manager will be based in Wellington and be responsible for Tamariki and OSCAR (Out of School Care and Recreation) and Government relationships. This role will focus on shaping national strategy and sector influence, leading Youthtown’s national Tamariki/OSCAR Steering Group and to represent the organisation in sector forums to build and maintain strategic partnerships with multiple stakeholders which include philanthropic entities and government agencies like MSD and MoE.  You will bring specialist knowledge of OSCAR operations and Government engagement to this role to build and lead national systemisation and consistency across all OSCAR operations.

The Northern Regional Manager will be based in Auckland and be responsible for the national Youth portfolio.  This role leads youth development in youth hubs, youth services and secondary school engagement and lead Youthtown’s national Youth Steering Group to ensure strong representation across New Zealand to capture the youth voice and align initiatives to champion the national Mana Taiohi framework. The role also supports the development, training and resources for youth based programmes to ensure consistency across all youth development programmes.

All the Regional Manager roles will provide strategic and operational leadership for the OSCAR and Youth Development programmes in their respective regions to ensure they are safe, of high quality and outcome focused.  In addition to this, these roles will be responsible for driving increased attendance and revenue growth through effective promotion and community engagement, leading the acquisition of regional funding to ensure sustainability of the programmes. Building strong and effective partnerships with regional stakeholders which include schools, councils, community organisations and funders will be key for success in the roles. Other responsibilities include:

●       Working collaboratively with the other Regional Managers to ensure consistency of programme delivery across New Zealand

●       Championing a culture of safety, wellbeing and inclusion aligned to national   legislation, principles and guidelines

●       Contributing to annual business planning, budget development and regional reporting to ensure financial sustainability and alignment with Youthtown’s strategy

●       Participating in national workstreams and projects to promote innovation to support organisational development and service expansion

●       Providing coaching and mentoring to Team Leaders and Programme Leads to ensure distributed leadership across the organisation and increase capability and consistency of delivery

●       Overseeing recruitment, induction, training and performance development of team members, working collaboratively with the People Lead.

●       Conducting programme audits and evaluations to identify improvement opportunities

You will be a youth leader with a minimum of five years’ experience and a passion for youth development and community impact. As a champion for young people you will enjoy inspiring teams, building trust with communities and delivering programmes that make a real difference to peoples’ lives.  A proactive connector and a strategic thinker who can be hands on, you will excel at building relationships and delivering measurable results to lead people well over multiple sites, drive growth and deliver operational excellence. Commercial acumen and well-developed communication skills will be essential for success in these roles. Cultural awareness with a commitment to the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and Mana Taiohi are at the heart of how you work. A full driver’s licence will be required .

If you would like to contribute to Youthtown’s next exciting chapter of growth and innovation as it continues to build on its heritage to add lasting value to the young people of New Zealand, we would love to hear from you.   Please contact Julia Stones on 0220 347 066 or email at hello@jsassociates.co.nz if you have any queries or require further information. Please email a cover letter and CV to the above email address. Applications close on Friday 9 January 2026  and please note that Youthtown is committed to child protection and the safeguarding of children and young people so appointment to these roles will be subject to an MOJ check and compliance with the 2014 Vulnerable Children Act.