Chief Program Officer (Volunteer)

Chief Program & Youth Impact Officer (CPYIO) (Volunteer)

PromisePrograms | Program Strategy, Quality, Youth Experience & Impact

Organization: Mentor A Promise (MAP)

Division: PromisePrograms

Location: Fully Remote — United States, with NYC-based collaboration and program oversight as needed

Type: Volunteer Executive Leadership

Commitment: Approximately 5–10 hours per week

Minimum Commitment: 6 months

Reports To: Chief Executive Officer

Leads: PromisePrograms

Primary Program Models: PromiseRooted and PromiseConnects

Works Closely With: PromiseLearning, PromiseRise, PromiseMeasure, PromisePeople, PromiseShield, PromiseTrust, PromiseOperations, and Executive Leadership

About Mentor A Promise

Mentor A Promise (MAP) is a New York City–based nonprofit serving children and youth ages 5–18 experiencing housing instability through mentorship, education, literacy, social-emotional learning, creative expression, career development, advocacy, and community-centered opportunity.

At the center of MAP's work is a fundamental responsibility: when we create an opportunity for a young person, it should be safe, meaningful, consistent, and worthy of their trust.

About PromisePrograms

PromisePrograms leads MAP's direct youth programming and mentorship.

Its two primary program models are:

PromiseRooted — MAP's in-person mentorship, enrichment, and youth programming model.

PromiseConnects — MAP's virtual mentorship, learning, and connection model.

PromisePrograms ensures these experiences are thoughtfully designed, responsibly delivered, continuously improved, and centered on the dignity, strengths, and potential of every young person.

Role Overview

The Chief Program & Youth Impact Officer is MAP's senior executive responsible for program strategy, program quality, youth experience, delivery, safeguarding integration, and continuous program improvement.

Reporting directly to the CEO, the Chief builds the people, systems, standards, and strategy necessary to translate MAP's mission into consistently strong experiences for children and youth.

The central question is:

Are we consistently creating experiences for young people that are safe, meaningful, engaging, well-designed, and worthy of their trust?

The Chief connects:

Mission → Community Need → Program Design → People → Delivery → Youth Experience → Outcomes → Learning → Improvement

This is not simply a program-management position.

The Chief builds MAP's organizational capacity to deliver excellent programs consistently.

Program Strategy & Portfolio Leadership

Develop and lead the organization-wide strategy for PromisePrograms.

Establish clear goals, standards, priorities, and expectations for PromiseRooted and PromiseConnects.

Guide program development through:

Need → Youth & Family Input → Program Concept → Design → Safeguarding Review → Resource Assessment → Pilot → Measurement → Learning → Improvement → Scale / Continue / Modify / Close

Programs should exist because they create meaningful value for young people—not simply because MAP has the ability to create them.

PromiseRooted Leadership

Provide executive leadership for MAP's in-person programming model.

Strengthen mentorship, literacy, arts, music and movement, educational enrichment, social-emotional learning, workshops, youth engagement, volunteer preparation, and site coordination.

Establish reliable execution:

Schedule → Site Confirmation → Team Assignment → Volunteer Readiness → Materials → Safeguarding Check → Program Delivery → Documentation → Follow-Up

Excellent programming should not depend on last-minute heroics.

The promise is not simply that MAP will provide an activity.

The promise is that we will show up.

PromiseConnects Leadership

Provide executive leadership for MAP's virtual programming model.

Ensure virtual mentorship and learning experiences are engaging, accessible, developmentally appropriate, well-supervised, and consistent with MAP's safeguarding and privacy standards.

Strengthen mentor readiness, youth participation, session structure, authorized communication, engagement, documentation, escalation, and continuous improvement.

Virtual should describe where an experience happens—not the quality of the relationship.

Program Quality & Youth Experience

Define what excellent MAP programming looks and feels like.

Establish standards across:

• Safety
• Consistency
• Youth engagement
• Developmental appropriateness
• Educational value
• Accessibility
• Mentorship quality
• Cultural responsiveness
• Family experience
• Program readiness
• Operational reliability

Program quality should be designed intentionally rather than discovered accidentally.

Youth-Centered Leadership

Ensure children and youth are treated as participants in their own development rather than passive recipients of services.

Create meaningful and developmentally appropriate opportunities for youth voice, choice, creativity, feedback, and leadership.

Housing instability is a circumstance in a young person's life.

It is not their identity, their potential, or the limit of what they can become.

MAP programs should recognize strengths alongside needs.

Mentorship Quality

Strengthen MAP's mentorship model across PromiseRooted and PromiseConnects.

A MAP mentor should communicate through consistent action:

I see you.

I am interested in what you think.

I believe you are capable.

I said I would return, and I did.

Build systems supporting mentor preparation, supervision, feedback, development, retention, and accountability.

Safeguarding & Program Integrity

Partner with PromiseShield, PromiseTrust, PromisePeople, and program leadership to embed safeguarding throughout program design and delivery.

Strengthen systems involving screening, training, confidentiality, boundaries, authorized communication, youth access, privacy, incident reporting, and escalation.

When children's safety is involved, uncertainty should be escalated rather than improvised.

Program urgency never outweighs youth safety.

Youth Impact & Continuous Improvement

Partner closely with PromiseMeasure to understand whether programs are producing their intended outcomes.

Use a continuous learning cycle:

Deliver → Observe → Measure → Understand → Learn → Improve → Deliver Again

Look beyond participation counts.

Ask:

Are young people engaged?

Are they returning?

What are they learning?

Are relationships strengthening?

What experiences matter most?

Where are barriers emerging?

What should MAP change?

PromisePrograms owns program quality and improvement.

PromiseMeasure provides independent leadership for monitoring, evaluation, learning, evidence, and organizational impact measurement.

This distinction protects both program ownership and measurement integrity.

Family & Community Experience

Ensure MAP approaches families as partners.

Build appropriate systems for communication, feedback, participation, concerns, and relationship-building.

MAP should never assume organizational expertise replaces the knowledge families have about their own children.

Listen before designing.

Communicate before changing.

Follow through after asking for feedback.

Program Portfolio Decisions

Regularly assess whether MAP has the capacity and evidence necessary to deliver each program well.

Use a disciplined framework:

Mission Alignment → Youth Need → Program Quality → Capacity → Resources → Outcomes → Sustainability → Decision

The Chief should be prepared to recommend that MAP strengthen, redesign, expand, pause, consolidate, or conclude initiatives.

Growth should never come at the expense of quality.

Cross-Divisional Leadership

Partner with PromiseLearning on educational strategy and learning quality.

Partner with PromiseRise as older youth progress toward leadership, career readiness, and pathways to adulthood.

Partner with PromiseMeasure on outcomes and continuous improvement.

Partner with PromisePeople on volunteer recruitment, onboarding, development, and retention.

Partner with PromiseShield on safeguarding, privacy, cybersecurity, and responsible information practices.

Partner with PromiseTrust on legal, compliance, and risk matters.

Partner with PromiseOperations on reliable program operations and organizational systems.

Strong programs require shared expertise without unclear ownership.

Team Leadership

Build and develop PromisePrograms leadership.

Recruit, mentor, supervise, and retain Program Directors, Managers, Site Leads, Coordinators, mentors, and other volunteers.

Create clear reporting relationships, responsibilities, expectations, and accountability.

The Chief should not become MAP's most overworked Program Director.

The Chief should build a program organization capable of delivering excellent experiences without depending on one person.

Executive Leadership Expectations

As a MAP Chief, the Chief Program & Youth Impact Officer will:

• Participate consistently in weekly Chiefs meetings.
• Maintain regular communication with the CEO.
• Establish quarterly program priorities and measurable commitments.
• Maintain regular communication with program leadership.
• Provide visibility into program performance, capacity, risks, and needs.
• Recruit, develop, and retain strong program leaders and volunteers.
• Address program challenges early.
• Collaborate across divisions.
• Follow through on commitments.
• Model accountability, empathy, judgment, consistency, and integrity.

Decision Authority

Within approved organizational strategy, policy, budget, and delegated authority, the Chief may establish PromisePrograms priorities, develop program standards, oversee program delivery, assign program responsibilities, hold program leaders accountable, and recommend program expansion, modification, or closure.

The Chief does not independently override safeguarding requirements, legal requirements, financial controls, privacy standards, or organizational policies owned by the appropriate functions.

Authority over programs carries responsibility for the experiences young people have within them.

First-Year Priorities

The Chief should help MAP:

• Establish a unified PromisePrograms strategy.
• Strengthen PromiseRooted and PromiseConnects.
• Define organization-wide program-quality standards.
• Strengthen mentorship quality and consistency.
• Improve volunteer readiness and supervision.
• Strengthen safeguarding integration.
• Develop clear program operating standards.
• Improve program documentation and visibility.
• Establish outcome and learning systems with PromiseMeasure.
• Strengthen youth and family feedback.
• Clarify program leadership responsibilities.
• Build and develop the PromisePrograms team.
• Evaluate the quality and sustainability of MAP's program portfolio.

Qualifications

Strong candidates may bring senior experience in youth development, education, mentorship, nonprofit programming, community-based programs, social services, after-school programming, program strategy, or related fields.

Candidates should demonstrate:

• Significant program leadership experience.
• Experience working with children, youth, families, or community-based programs.
• Strong understanding of youth development.
• Experience designing, implementing, and improving programs.
• Experience developing teams and program leaders.
• Strong understanding of safeguarding and professional boundaries.
• Ability to translate strategy into consistent program delivery.
• Experience using evidence and feedback to improve programs.
• Strong cross-functional leadership.
• Excellent judgment and communication.
• Commitment to dignity-centered, trauma-informed, culturally responsive practice.
• Alignment with MAP's mission and values.
• Residence in the United States.

Experience supporting children and families experiencing housing instability, poverty, educational inequity, or other systemic barriers is strongly valued.

What Success Looks Like

PromiseRooted and PromiseConnects operate with clear standards and strong leadership.

Young people experience programming that is safe, consistent, engaging, and meaningful.

Mentors understand what is expected of them.

Program leaders have clear ownership.

Families experience MAP as reliable and respectful.

Safeguarding is embedded into program operations.

Youth and family perspectives inform improvement.

MAP understands whether its programs are producing meaningful outcomes.

Programs improve because MAP learns from experience.

And organizational growth never comes at the expense of program quality or youth dignity.

Why This Role Matters

A mission becomes real when someone experiences it.

For MAP, that happens when a child meets a mentor who remembers their name. When a young person discovers something they are good at. When someone listens seriously to what they think. When a family sees that MAP returned when it said it would.

Programs are where organizational promises become lived experiences.

The Chief Program & Youth Impact Officer carries responsibility for ensuring those experiences deserve the trust placed in MAP.

The goal is not simply to run more programs.

It is to build programs worth returning to.

Volunteer Commitment

This is an unpaid executive volunteer position requiring approximately 5–10 hours per week with a minimum six-month commitment.

Consistent executive participation, regular communication with the CEO and PromisePrograms leadership, cross-divisional collaboration, and reliable follow-through are essential.

Volunteers should provide at least two weeks' notice when ending their service whenever possible.

How to Apply

Please apply through Idealist only and submit:

• A current résumé
• A cover letter explaining your interest in Mentor A Promise and youth program leadership

Please highlight relevant experience in youth development, education, mentorship, nonprofit programming, program strategy, community-based services, safeguarding, or executive program leadership.

At this time, MAP volunteer opportunities are limited to individuals based in the United States due to legal, safeguarding, data-privacy, compliance, and programmatic requirements.

Build programs. Develop leaders. Protect young people. Listen to families. Learn from evidence. Strengthen what works. Change what does not. And make sure that when Mentor A Promise makes a promise to a young person, our programs are prepared to keep it.