Youth Advocacy Coordinator

About Children First

Children First is a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the lives and chances of children in Pennsylvania through thoughtful and informed advocacy. Children First is a fast-paced child advocacy organization that uses research, people power, and coalition building to create the momentum for reform of public policies that enable more children to grow up healthy, well-educated, and ready to take the reins of their communities.

Position Summary

The Youth Advocacy Coordinator functions as the main internal point person on the K-12 team for organizing youth to advocate for improved public education in Pennsylvania. The Youth Advocacy Coordinator will work closely with our Suburban Outreach Manager and K-12 Policy Director to grow the base of education stakeholders throughout the region who support our public education funding campaign and educational equity initiatives. This role offers the opportunity to advance the organization’s racial equity agenda, including research projects, engagement with key legislators, event coordination, and other strategic advocacy efforts.

In addition to the K-12 work, the Youth Advocacy Coordinator will also help coordinate and support the implementation of the Pennsylvania Youth Policy Lab, a one-day structured convening, to bring together youth leaders from across the state—along with state-level leaders, researchers, community partners, and funders—to identify shared priorities and co-create policy and funding solutions grounded in the lived experience of youth, research, and an understanding of adolescent development.

Key Duties

• Provide training to and build personal relationships with youth to facilitate their engagement in advocacy, policymaking, leadership development, and systems change initiatives.
• Develop and maintain relationships with youth-serving organizations, elected officials, policymakers, researchers, and community stakeholders across Pennsylvania to support youth advocacy initiatives and the Pennsylvania Youth Policy Lab; organize meetings, coordinate communications, monitor RSVPs, and prepare meeting materials.
• Coordinate logistics for youth advocacy events, trainings, convenings, rallies, press conferences, forums, and Youth Policy Lab activities, including venue coordination, transportation, staffing, registration, catering, equipment, and communications.
• Work with the K-12 team to develop presentations, curriculum, training materials, and related content for youth engagement and advocacy activities.
• Increase visibility of our work by engaging youth on social media to elevate their experiences, perspectives, and hopes for public education.
• Support the planning and implementation of the Pennsylvania Youth Policy Lab, including coordinating timelines, meetings, benchmarks, curriculum development, guest speakers, project deliverables, and youth engagement activities.
• Assist in writing reports for funders and advocacy efforts by fact-checking, preparing footnotes, conducting stakeholder interviews, tracking grant deliverables, documenting project outcomes, and supporting development of public-facing materials and summary reports.
• Collect survey data for research projects and track campaign and youth engagement activities.

Competencies

• Action Oriented - Full of energy for the things he/she sees as challenging; not fearful of acting with a minimum of planning; seizes more opportunities than others.
• Adaptability - Ability to work independently and with others in a hybrid, dynamic environment.
• Cultural Humility - Engages in continuous exploration of cultural identities and beliefs, is aware of one’s own biases and background; treats others with respect, openness, and empathy.
• Creativity - Comes up with a lot of new and unique ideas; easily makes connections among previously unrelated notions; tends to be seen as original and value-added in brainstorming settings.
• Interpersonal Savvy - Relates well to all kinds of people – up, down and sideways inside and outside of the organization; uses diplomacy and tact; builds constructive and effective relationships; can diffuse even high-tension situations comfortably.
• Organizing - Can marshal resources to get things done; can orchestrate multiple activities at once to accomplish a goal; uses resources effectively and efficiently; arranges information in a useful manner.
• Problem Solving - Uses rigorous logic and methods to solve difficult problems with effective solutions; probes all fruitful sources for answers; can see hidden problems; is excellent at honest analysis; looks beyond the obvious and doesn’t stop at the first answers.
• Technological Proficiency - Facility with Excel and Word, web-based research, social media platforms.

Qualifications, Education, Experience & Skills

• A track record of, and passion for, working with youth and building relationships with youth serving leaders. Experience working with youth in underfunded schools preferred.
• Strong commitment to racial justice and desire to create safe inclusive conversations on how to close racial equity gaps in K-12 education.
• A track record of successful and positive engagements with community members.
• Excellent communication and writing skills, able to summarize discussions/meetings clearly and concisely and capture/report out the most critical information to stakeholders.
• Team player, able to coordinate, negotiate, manage, and work with coworkers of all levels.
• Project management skills including process management, data tracking and reporting.
• Event coordination and management skills, including events with youth, preferred.
• Minimum 2-3 years of experience working in a non-profit/advocacy/community service field, can be an unpaid internship experience.
• Degree preferred in human services, social work, public policy, or related field required.
• Ability to work occasional weekend or evening events.
• Willingness to travel throughout Southeast Pennsylvania and Harrisburg, must own a car. We do reimburse for mileage.

Location: Candidates should be local to the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania area or willing to relocate and travel for work-related events, including but not limited to trips to Harrisburg and the collar counties around Philadelphia. Children First does reimburse for mileage/travel expenses.

Time Period: This is a one year grant funded position.

Reports To: Chief of Strategy

Salary & Benefits: $60,000 with a generous benefits package including health coverage with vision and dental, 403B contributions, generous vacation and paid time off holidays, and paid family leave.

Apply: Resume and cover letter to info@childrenfirst.org.

A generous benefits package including health coverage with vision and dental, 403B contributions, generous vacation and paid time off holidays, and paid family leave.