Pathways to Higher Education Advocate

Position Summary

The Youth Law Center (YLC) is excited to announce that we’re hiring a new team member to support our higher education access work. The Pathways to Higher Education Advocate will advance the Youth Law Center’s California statewide technical assistance and field-building work to strengthen pathways into and through higher education for juvenile-justice-impacted students. This position directly supports implementation of YLC’s California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office (CCCCO) contract for the Juvenile Justice Rising Scholars Network and contributes to broader advocacy efforts on behalf of system-impacted young people.

As part of YLC’s Higher Education Project team and under the supervision of the Directing Advocate, the Advocate will provide critical administrative, technical, outreach, and communications support to expand project capacity, with an emphasis on project coordination, writing, and relationship-building responsibilities. In particular, this position will lead the development of high-quality resources for California community college practitioners, prepare training and outreach materials, and collaborate with a range of professional and student stakeholders to meet contract deliverables and advance the Pathways project.

In partnership with the Higher Education Project team, the Advocate’s work will be integrated into YLC’s broader strategic efforts to end the incarceration of youth in California county facilities and ensure that California legal services programs support youth who are exiting the juvenile justice system. To these ends, the Advocate may also lend their perspective and experience to support a variety of different efforts and advocacy strategies, including legislative, budget, and local administrative advocacy; training and education; media and narrative change; technical assistance; coalition-building; and support for directly-impacted young people to develop leadership in the field of post-secondary education opportunities for young people impacted by the juvenile justice system.

This is a fully remote position that must be performed from within California—ideally from the San Francisco, Sacramento, or Los Angeles metro area—and occasional travel within the state will be required.

About the Youth Law Center’s Advocacy

The Youth Law Center’s mission is to transform foster care and juvenile justice systems across the nation so every child and youth can thrive. Attorneys and advocates at YLC use a wide variety of advocacy strategies, including policy advocacy; litigation; legislative and administrative work; collaborative systems-reform campaigns; public education and media advocacy; legal and non-legal writing; training; and technical assistance. YLC’s approach is grounded in the knowledge that those most directly impacted by systems are best positioned to transform them. We believe change comes from listening deeply to young people and the organizations that support them, helping them translate their ideas into practice and policy change, and working together to advance a new narrative about how we should transform our systems.

YLC’s broad advocacy goals include:

• Ending the incarceration of youth in the juvenile justice system and imagining new approaches to youth justice;
• Ending the use of congregate care for youth in foster care and juvenile justice and ensuring youth receive excellent parenting in families in their own communities;
• Improving access to education, including postsecondary ed, for system-impacted youth;
• Ensuring healthy transitions to adulthood for system-impacted youth and access to the services needed to make that transition; and
• Improving conditions in foster care and juvenile justice systems as supported by child and adolescent development research.

Find out more about us at ylc.org and qpi4kids.org.

Position Responsibilities

Resource & Materials Development (Core Responsibility)

• Lead drafting, development, and refinement of written materials, including guidance documents, for community college practitioners who serve youth impacted by the juvenile justice system.
• Produce materials such as toolkits, implementation guides, templates, checklists, and process maps for community colleges and cross-system partners.
• Develop community of practice (CoP) materials, including agendas, facilitation guides, session resources, summaries, and follow-up tools.
• Translate legal, policy, and research information into clear, actionable practitioner resources.
• Conduct field scans, gather examples, and integrate promising practices into written materials.

CCCCO Rising Scholars Network Technical Assistance

• Support delivery of technical assistance, training, and statewide resources to the California Community College Chancellor’s Office and field practitioners in Rising Scholars Network programs.
• Create written materials for Rising Scholars Network communications, updates, briefs, and training packets.
• Help design and prepare materials for statewide and regional convenings, webinars, and professional learning sessions.
• Track project timelines, deliverables, and documentation to ensure programmatic milestones are met.

Cross-System Collaboration & Partner Engagement

• Participate in ongoing meetings with YLC’s legal advocacy team, research partners, state agency collaborators, and advocacy organizations.
• Maintain regular communication with Rising Scholars Network program leads and gather field input to inform resource creation.
• Contribute to relationship-building with community colleges, county offices of education, probation departments, and other partners who support justice-impacted students.

Internal Coordination & Project Support

• Organize, track, and maintain documentation of drafts, resource versions, templates, and publication timelines.
• Support planning and execution of communities of practice, statewide convenings, and virtual learning sessions.
• Synthesize meeting notes, key takeaways, and actionable next steps for internal and external stakeholders.
• Coordinate with YLC communications staff on the editing, design, and dissemination of communications-related materials.

Qualifications

Below is a list of the skills and experience we believe are needed for success in this role. We also recognize that women, people of color, LGBTQIA+ folks, and other historically marginalized people are more likely to self-select out of applying for jobs if they don’t meet 100% of the listed criteria. We encourage you to apply if you’re enthusiastic about this role, even if you can’t check off every single item on the list.

YLC believes that people who have lived experience in the systems we seek to change are best positioned to understand what meaningful solutions would look like and to drive change efforts. We strongly encourage people with experience in the foster care, juvenile justice, and/or youth homelessness systems, and those from communities overrepresented in these systems, to apply.

Required/Most Important Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree (any field)
• Experience attending a community college—bonus points for California community college background
• California residency, either current or by the time the position starts
• Prior experience working successfully in a fully or primarily remote setting
• Background working in at least one of the following areas: community college systems, college access, youth justice, foster care, or a closely-related field
• Familiarity and comfort using common office and communication tools, including Windows, Microsoft Office, Google Workspace, and Zoom
• Strong commitment to educational equity, youth justice transformation, and expanding opportunities for system-impacted youth
• Exceptional writing and editing skills, including the ability to adapt language to a variety of formats and audiences, with special emphasis on writing guidance documents or provider/practitioner-focused material
• Ability to read, understand, and analyze complex legal, policy, and/or procedural information to translate it into simple, relevant, accessible terms
• A high level of organization, with the ability to take initiative on identified goals, successfully manage multiple projects at once, collaborate effectively, work independently, and meet deadlines
• Flexibility and willingness to adapt quickly as circumstances, work needs, and goals change
• Comfort with presenting information and ideas in meetings and speaking in front of small and large groups
• Excellent interpersonal, listening, and communication skills, including the ability to communicate effectively with diverse populations and support building strong partnerships and coalitions
• Ability and willingness to meet the ethical and advocacy obligations involved with working in a legal advocacy organization and to collaborate effectively with lawyer and non-lawyer colleagues
• Creativity, passion, and a desire to challenge the status quo
• Deep commitment to elevating the voices of system-impacted young people and of the organizations that work on their behalf
• Commitment to non-discrimination and to diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace
• Ability to travel regularly for a variety of meetings, events, and other activities

Bonus Qualifications

These items are things you should mention in your cover letter or on your resume if you have them, but they aren’t requirements.

• Personal lived experience in the juvenile justice or foster care systems
• Participation in Rising Scholars, Underground Scholars, NextUp, or another program for young people who have lived experience in the juvenile justice and/or foster care systems
• Experience facilitating groups, supporting communities of practice, and/or preparing training materials
• Familiarity with newsletter/email marketing apps (e.g., MailChimp, Constant Contact), Canva, and WordPress or other CMS/blogging tools
• Work or volunteer experience supporting current or former system-involved young people
• Prior experience working at a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, particularly in a legal or other advocacy setting
• Spanish bilingual speaking and/or writing proficiency (advanced/fluent)

Equal Opportunity Employer

YLC values a diverse, inclusive workforce and we provide equal employment opportunity for all applicants and employees. All qualified applicants for employment will be considered without regard to race, color, sex, gender identity, gender expression, religion, age, body size, natural hair style, national origin or ancestry, citizenship, physical or mental disability, medical condition, family care status, marital status, domestic partner status, sexual orientation, genetic information, military or veteran status, or any other non-qualification-related basis protected by federal, state or local law.

Fair Chance Ordinance

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Read our full DEI statement here.

• Paid Time Off: YLC offers flexible, unlimited paid vacation to its employees as well as 13 accrued Sick days and 11+ paid holidays annually.
• Benefits: Comprehensive health benefits package (medical, dental, vision, long-term disability, life, EAP), plus FSA options and a 401k with employer match. Health plan premiums are currently 100% employer-paid for employees and all dependents.
• Remote work: We provide all remote employees with a cell and home internet expense reimbursement and all items necessary to set up a comfortable remote workspace.

Advanced English proficiency (writing and speaking) is required. Spanish language proficiency is desirable but not necessary for this role.