Community Engagement Associate - Spanish

Community Engagement Associate - Spanish

Job Description

Revised 6/18/2025

About NYC Kids RISE:

NYC Kids RISE, through the Save for College Program, is building a universal community-driven wealth building platform for all New York City neighborhoods. Drawing from multi-disciplinary research and experience across fields, sectors and neighborhoods, the Program is groundbreaking and unequaled in its audacious vision and scope. The platform provides a way to expand access to mainstream financial products; build individual, family, and collective financial assets; provide financial education for families and students; and bring schools and communities together to support all their children’s futures. The platform opens creative opportunities for community-driven, progressive wealth building that can combat wealth disparities and legacies of exclusion from the financial mainstream, all while visibly engaging the institutions that impact neighborhood-level opportunity and supporting children’s expectations of success from an early age.

In NYC Kids RISE’s fourth year operating across the five boroughs, more than a quarter million elementary school students (nearly every kindergarten, first, second and third grader in public school) now have a financial asset for college and career training with funds that collectively amount to more than $42 million.

Read more about NYC Kids RISE and the Save for College Program and listen to stories from partners who helped build the platform during its pilot phase from 2017 to 2022. You can also view recent articles in the New York Times, Fast Company, the Wall Street Journal, and the NYCHA Journal; and read more about NYC Kids RISE theory of change in a report by the Urban Institute.

Learn more about NYC Kids RISE at nyckidsrise.org

Position Summary:

NYC Kids RISE seeks a highly organized, and detail-oriented Community Engagement Associate with strong communication skills to join our Parent Foundations team and support the execution of our direct parent engagement strategy. The ideal candidate will engage participating families, help them understand the Save for College Program and its benefits, and support families to complete the foundational steps, with a special focus on understanding savings account options and opening their own savings accounts. Community Engagement Associates will also educate parents about different opportunities to continue to engage with their savings accounts including different ways and moments to save and provide appropriate referrals to supportive services. Applicants should be bilingual in English and Spanish.

Key responsibilities include but are not limited to:

• Becoming fluent in Save for College Program and college savings account materials in order to be able to present this information in a variety of settings, answer parent questions and work 1:1 with parents
• Conducting direct outreach to participating parents in person, via phone, text and / or email in order to explain the program and engage them to complete the foundational steps and move down the scale of engagement with the Program
• Delivering presentations about the Save for College Program and facilitating informational workshops
• Providing one-on-one navigational and technical support for parents/guardians in viewing their scholarship accounts, opening and linking their own college savings accounts and making deposits
• Staffing the NYC Kids RISE Hotline in order to answer the questions of participating parents and other stakeholders as well as help them sign up for workshops and complete key program steps
• Staffing Save for College Program events including supporting the logistics of prep, execution and follow up
• Ensuring timely follow up and excellent customer service to participating parents including appropriate referrals to other services
• Working on administrative and logistical projects that support the execution of the direct parent engagement strategy, including sending text messages to Program families
• Providing feedback and generating new ideas for ways that NYC Kids RISE can support parents to understand the program and complete the foundational steps
• Representing NYC Kids RISE in interactions with a variety of community stakeholders such as school and community based organization partners
• Completing timely data entry to ensure all interactions with participating parents and other key data points such as workshop attendance and hotline calls are captured in NYC Kids RISE’s database
• Along with all NYC Kids RISE employees, maintaining, and supporting other staff and volunteers to maintain strict adherence to NYC Kids RISE data security and privacy policies; remaining vigilant on the ways in which NYC Kids RISE can continue to protect Confidential Information (including Student and Family Data); and
• Along with all NYC Kids RISE employees, participating and sharing in the organization’s work to advance racial equity and anti-oppression in the organization’s and program’s operations and practices; proactively identify opportunities to advance the development of an anti-racist organization; share and solicit ongoing feedback and conversations to advance this work.

Requirements:

• Bilingual in English and Spanish (Required)
• 2-4 years of related work experience
• Interest in or previous work experience in financial empowerment and / or college and career readiness, and / or community organizing
• Ability to lead presentations, and facilitate workshops or events in English and Spanish
• Strong oral and written communications skills
• Proficiency in MS/Google Suite
• Familiarity with Client Relationship Management databases
• Proficiency in Zoom / Google Meet / MS Teams or other video meeting or webinar technology
• Availability for some evening, early morning, and weekend events;

Preferred Skills:

• Ability to break down complex concepts in a way that is easy to understand in English and Spanish
• Ability to walk someone through the technical aspects of a registration, enrollment or application process in English and Spanish
• Previous experience with project management

NYC Kids RISE currently maintains a hybrid work environment where staff work both from home and in the office, as determined by the staff member's preferences as well as the needs of our organization and the specific responsibilities of individual roles and teams. Our offices are based in Long Island City (Queens, NY).

To apply, a cover letter and resume are required. Please list the name of the position, “Community Engagement Associate - Spanish" and the name of the organization in your cover letter. The salary is $75,000.

NYC Kids Rise is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We do not discriminate in employment on the basis of basis of gender, religion, race, creed, color, national origin, citizenship status, age, disability, marital status, caregiver status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, military status, unemployed status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

Benefits Summary

New York City Kids RISE seeks to create a work environment where all employees can thrive. To help meet this aim, we provide a robust wellness, paid time off, and retirement benefits package to all eligible employees.

Paid Time Off

All full-time, non-temporary NYCKR employees receive paid time off:

• Vacation days:
• Up to 15 vacation days per year based on start date in years 0-2
• 20 days per year in years 2-5
• 25 days per year in years 5+
• 5 personal days per year
• Up to 8 sick days per year based on start date
• 12 Recognized Holidays
• Winter break: the week between Christmas and New Year
• Summer break: The week that contains Independence Day

Sabbatical Leave: After five (5) years of consecutive employment, regular full-time employees may choose to take a fully paid sabbatical lasting consecutive twelve (12) weeks. After achieving this eligibility status, sabbatical may be taken every five (5) years.

Wellness

All eligible employees receive the following wellness benefits:

• Medical insurance is made available to all regular full-time NYCKR employees through Oxford Health Insurance. NYC Kids RISE currently offers two plans through Oxford: a Gold and a Platinum plan.
  • The Gold plan premium, for employee, spouse and/or dependents, is entirely covered by NYC Kids RISE.
  • The Platinum plan requires a 15% contribution, for its premium, from the employee that selects this option.
• Dental ($3K maximum), Vision, Life, and Long Term Disability for NYC Kids RISE employees is provided through Principal.
• Voluntary Life Insurance for additional coverage
• NYC Kids RISE offers two types of FSA accounts to allow pre-tax contribution toward healthcare and dependent care costs.
  • A Healthcare FSA. NYCKR contributes $500 toward Healthcare FSA accounts for participating employees.
  • A Dependent Care FSA.
• Commuter Benefits allow employees to use pre-tax dollars to pay for their commutes.
• NYC Kids RISE employees also have access to an Employee
• Assistance Program (EAP) to support with services including counseling, legal, financial, identity theft support, and more.

Retirement

NYCKR offers its employees the opportunity to open a 401(k) or ROTH account after one year of service; as well as an employer match of up to 4% (100% on the first 3%, +50% on next 2%).