Associate Director, Membership and Mobilization for Opportunity Youth United

DEPARTMENTS: Executive Office and Advocacy

Introduction: Opportunity Youth United (OYU) is being launched as a dynamic new national movement mobilizing low-income youth and young adults to ensure that elected officials and policy-makers take their issues and recommendations for change seriously and build them into public policy and public investments. It will provide a pathway into civic leadership for low-income young people dedicated to social justice and opportunity for all and will generate respect for the enormous untapped intelligence and talent of our nation’s young people. It will produce higher levels of voting among low income young adults as part of increasing their influence.

OYU will be staffed by YouthBuild USA, and led by The National Council of Young Leaders, a diverse body of young leaders from across the United States that has been convened since 2012 by YouthBuild USA. This Council has developed a set of Recommendations for Increasing Opportunity and Decreasing Poverty in America that they have used to advise policy makers on issues affecting low-income youth and their communities. An expanding group of over a dozen national organizations sponsor the members of the Council. The Council also serves as the voice of low-income youth for the Opportunity Youth Network, a group of government, corporate, philanthropic, and non-profit partners convened by Aspen Institute; and for Citizen University.

POSITION SUMMARY

The Associate Director, Membership and Mobilization for OYU will be charged with leading the recruitment, orientation, training, on-going organization, and mobilization of thousands of young people across the country, in partnership with a set of national and local organizations and coalitions. The broad goal will be to create as large a membership as possible, with core and active leadership groups in at least 15 strategically selected local cities/counties, with a membership that is ready to show up and speak up with an approach based on common principles, in every venue where their issues are being addressed and where youth voice is needed. This will include key states in the Presidential campaign.

He or she will also be in charge of training, coaching, supervising, and coordinating regional youth leadership consultants and local leaders who will be coaching or leading Community Action Teams and leadership councils. S/he will plan for and guide the facilitation and role of the OYU Community Leaders, a subset of the membership who have already been identified as leaders by their organizations and will play a leadership role locally as well as be trained nationally. S/he will support the dynamic development of Opportunity Youth United by engaging partner organizations in local communities to recruit their students and graduates, connect with influential local leaders, uplift their voices advocating for the Recommendations, and mobilize for voter engagement.

SPECIFIC RESPONSIBILITIES

Manage Local Membership Development and Mobilization

• Steadily improve the systems for membership and membership communication
• Develop the model(s) for local Community Action Teams and engagement
• Work with local affiliates of national partner organizations to recruit and mobilize their members and graduates in OYU
• Identify additional local partners with access to young people for membership development
• Train, coach, supervise, and coordinate regional consultants and local staff leaders who will mobilize local Community Action Teams (CATs)
• Coordinate dynamic and ongoing participation of the Community Action Teams in all relevant campaigns such as Franklin Project, Cities of Service, My Brothers’ Keeper, OYIF, opportunities relating to police-community relations, and others.
• Plan for and mobilize engagement in presidential campaign events and relationships
• Train and mobilize local CATs to build on-going relationships with Mayors and other elected officials toward priority goals
• Train local members to build relationships, internalize values of the Movement, and use the recommendations as a key tool for social change.

Manage Voter Engagement Campaign at the Local Level

• Prepare materials and trainings for CATs on voter registration and engagement
• Work with voter registration partners as appropriate
• Work with partners on social media communications related to voter engagement
• Manage messaging and coordination of local voter registration campaigns
• Coordinate voter engagement campaign for 2016

Management and Communications:

• Work with team to build database for and systems for regular communication with members and partners
• Guide development and coordinate distribution of visual and media materials such as membership cards, tee-shirts, jackets, pins, posters, decals, and even murals, to be used locally.
• Contribute steadily to social media and website communications
• Build relationships with organizers of other national youth constituencies and coalitions along with team
• Support participation in the 2016 Presidential election opportunities in partnership with Director of OYU and YouthBuild USA’s Chief Public Policy Officer.
• Create local town halls if appropriate at local level (we may choose to just participate in other organizations’ town halls, but if needed we will convene them),
• Work collaboratively with the OY Team to seize unexpected opportunities, leverage all strengths, and maximize impact on public policy affecting low income young people.
• Do whatever we discover is needed as this campaign evolves and play a leadership role in shaping and creating it at every step.

2016 Summit in Pennsylvania:

• Work with team to produce a major summit for opportunity youth with presidential campaigns in 2016 in Pennsylvania

Skills and Experience:

The position requires a strong commitment to leadership development, community organizing, and social change through uplifting the voices of young people.

• Bachelor’s degree or the equivalent with a minimum of 5 years’ experience as a city-level or national leader building effective networks, relating to elected officials, facilitating meetings, identifying issues, communicating important ideas, building relationships, mobilizing young people
• Management and program experience, working within intermediate to large non-profit or community-based organizations serving low-income communities
• Awareness of current issues and research related to: opportunity youth, poverty, criminal justice, alternative education, higher education and workforce access for low-income youth, national service, police-community relations, and mass incarceration
• Direct experience working with low-income young adults to motivate and support their aspirations
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• A diplomatic personality able to work with people of all positions and backgrounds and persuasions
• Fluency in multi-cultural settings and a deep understanding of the issues of low-income communities
• Ability to multi-task and work efficiently under pressure with careful attention to detail
• Self-motivated, organized and accountable
• Partnership building skills that include the ability to influence others, get buy-in/action from them, and build credibility to lead matters related to the work within the organization.
• The ability to analyze long-range impact of decisions and plans. Ensures the most effective operations of the department through program development, process improvement, and coordination/integration of processes with other departments
• Strong communication skills, both written and oral
• Willingness to travel approximately at least twice monthly

Applying:

If you are interested in learning more about YouthBuild USA, please visit our website at www.youthbuild.org. If you are interested in applying for this position, please send your cover letter and resume to: Job Search, YouthBuild USA, 58 Day Street, Somerville, MA 02144 or you may apply on-line @ http://www.youthbuild.org/apply. Please apply by September 15th, 2015. YouthBuild USA is an Equal Opportunity Employer M/F/Disabled/Veteran.