K-12 Education Mobilization Associate

Position Summary

The K-12 Education Mobilization Associate will report to and work closely with the K-12 Education Policy director and the rest of the K-12 team to recruit and activate students to advocate for increased access to high-quality K-12 education programs in Pennsylvania.

The Associate carries out administrative and logistical tasks to ensure Children First runs high-quality and impactful youth mobilization campaigns. This position requires facilitating learning activities that empower, develop, and mobilize youth in Southeastern Pennsylvania to urge policymakers to invest in public schools. This role offers the opportunity to contribute to initiatives that advance the team’s policy agenda, including research projects, engagement with key legislators, event coordination, and other strategic advocacy efforts.

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 and youth-serving leaders to support education advocacy initiatives; plan for and execute effective in-person and virtual training sessions, maintain consistent communications, monitor attendance, and motivate and prepare students to use their voices in advocacy actions.
• Support the K-12 team by updating and customizing presentations, curriculum, training materials, and related content for youth engagement and advocacyactivities.
• Increase the visibility of our work by engaging youth on social media to elevate their experiences, perspectives, and hopes for public education.
• Coordinate logistics for youth advocacy events, trainings, convenings, rallies, press conferences, and forums in partnership with other members of the K-12 team by monitoring venue needs, transportation, equipment needs, catering, staffing, registration and communication.
• Attend weekly K-12 team meetings with the K-12 education policy director; work as a collaborative team member and make meaningful contributions to the decisions and discussions at the team meetings.
• Track student engagement activities to ensure accurate record keeping for timely stipend disbursement, organization tracking and reporting on grant deliverables. Collect survey data for research projects, and additional tracking campaign activities.
• Conduct outreach to and meet with stakeholders, lawmakers, and government officials.
• Attend community events to represent Children First, collect signatures.

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.
• 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 low-wealth communities in the Philadelphia region is preferred.
• Strong commitment to racial justice and desire to create safe inclusive conversations on how to close racial equity gaps in K-12 education.
• Excellent and accurate spoken and written communication and writing skills.
• Event coordination skills, including events with youth, preferred.
• Project management skills including process management, data tracking and reporting.
• Minimum 1-2 years of experience working in a non-profit/advocacy/community service/ education field, can be an unpaid internship experience.
• Degree preferred in human services, education, social work, public policy, or related field.
• Ability to work occasional weekend or evening events.
• Must have reliable access to a car. Travel costs are reimbursable.

Location

Candidates should be local to the Philadelphia region or willing to relocate and be willing to travel for work-related events, including engagements in the collar counties 1-2 times per week and travel to Harrisburg 5-10 times per year.

A generous benefits package, including health care insurance coverage for the employee and their children and paid family leave.