Youth Concussion Programme Manager

Employment Type: Part time Fixed-term contract - 12 months

Hours:   0.3 FTE (12 hours weekly) Flexible -  set own timetable to fit around school terms and stakeholder availability, over at least 3 days.

Purpose of the Role

The Youth Concussion Programme Manager is a newly created part-time, fixed-term position responsible for establishing, delivering, and evaluating a youth-focused concussion programme over a 12-month pilot period.

Working closely with the Headway team, researchers, schools, sports clubs, and other stakeholders, the role will lead the development and implementation of the programme, ensuring it is evidence-based, effective, and sustainable.

The Programme Manager will be accountable for achieving project objectives, fostering stakeholder engagement, and supporting the successful evaluation of the pilot to inform future programme development.

Key Responsibilities

1. Project Leadership & Coordination

• Design and lead the pilot end-to-end — from initial planning through to delivery, follow-up, and review.
• Develop the resources needed to run the programme (workshop materials, referral pathways, tracking tools, and similar).
• Develop the processes needed to run the programme sustainably and consistently across schools and clubs.
• Meet regularly with Headway's Concussion Officer and core team to align direction, share progress, and escalate issues.
• Follow up consistently on actions arising from meetings, outreach, and events.

2. School & Club Outreach

• Promote and 'sell' the programme to schools and sports clubs to secure buy-in and participation.
• Build and maintain a network of school and sports club contacts with a youth focus.
• Represent the programme at school sports days, careers days, and expos to raise awareness and recruit participants.             

3. Education & Events Delivery

• Deliver wider school and community education sessions on youth concussion.
• Coordinate a roadshow, organising researchers and people with lived experience as speakers for school and community audiences.
• Deliver education sessions to service providers and community groups.

4. Communications & Digital Presence

• Produce quarterly newsletters to keep schools, clubs, and stakeholders informed of programme progress.
• Develop and maintain the programme's website presence, improving accessibility and keeping content up to date.
• Manage the programme's social media presence, including LinkedIn.

5. Reporting & Evaluation

• Track outreach, participation, and engagement across schools and clubs to demonstrate pilot progress.
• Provide regular updates to the Concussion Officer, core team, and CEO on progress against the project plan.
• Capture learnings from the pilot year to inform whether and how the programme continues or scales beyond the contract term.

6. Research Collaboration

• Work collaboratively with researchers to ensure the programme's content and messaging reflect current, accurate concussion evidence.
• Act as the day-to-day link between researchers and the programme, coordinating input on resources, workshop materials, and evaluation design.
• Coordinate researchers as speakers and contributors for the roadshow, school sessions, and community education events.

Skills & Experience

Essential

• Demonstrated experience leading a project from planning through to delivery and review — project management experience is core to this role.
• Experience in outreach, promotion, or business development, ideally within schools, sport, or education settings.
• Strong relationship-building and networking skills, comfortable initiating and 'selling' a new programme to new contacts.
• Experience organising events, workshops, or roadshows, including coordinating speakers.
• Strong written communication skills, with experience producing newsletters, web content, or social media.
•  Highly self-directed — comfortable owning a project independently and managing a flexible schedule.
• Confidence and credibility working with youth-focused organisations such as schools and sports clubs.

Desirable

• Understanding of concussion, brain injury, or youth health and wellbeing.
• Experience managing a website or social media channels.
• Experience engaging researchers or people with lived experience as programme contributors or speakers.
• Existing networks within Auckland schools or sports clubs.

Role Attributes

• An entrepreneurial, self-starting approach — comfortable building a programme from the ground up.
• Confident, personable, and persuasive — able to bring schools and clubs on board with a new initiative.
• Highly organised, able to juggle outreach, delivery, and communications within a part-time schedule.
• Passion for improving outcomes for young people affected by concussion.
• Committed to Headway's mission to make concussion and brain injury everyone's responsibility.

If you are passionate about making a positive impact, we invite you to apply. Please send us your CV and a cover letter outlining why you would be a great fit for this role and Headway. If you have any questions, please email work@headway.org.nz