Senior Director, Community Affairs
Positions Report to: Managing Director, Operations
Start Date: Immediate
Hours: 9:00am-5:30pm with some work after business hours and some weekend work
Compensation: The salary range for this role is $113,300-$135,286. (We believe in compensating staff members fairly in relation to each other. We take into consideration qualifications, credentials, years of experience, and one's impact on behalf of the organization - internal and external equity is taken seriously. East Harlem Tutorial Program also offers a comprehensive benefits package.)
FLSA Status: Exempt
Who We Are
East Harlem Tutorial Program (EHTP) began in 1958 as a children's reading group and has since grown into a multi-site after-school program for traditional public school students and a network of public charter schools focused on significantly increasing the college graduation rate in East Harlem. We are on track to serve at least 25% of East Harlem students by 2025, with enrollment for this year at approximately 2200 students in our schools and after school programs. In 2020, 99% of our seniors were accepted to college, and our current scholars in college are on-track to graduate at eight times the national average of their peers.
At EHTP we also aim to serve as an agent of change and thoughtfully contribute to the national fight for racial equity. Through our organization-wide commitment to anti-racism work, we prepare our scholars to effect change, challenge the status quo, and thrive in the world around them. As staff members, we face our own racial identities and conscious and unconscious biases. With this in mind, all of our professional development, curriculum, organizational materials, and processes are designed with a goal of racial justice. Read our racial equity statement here.
We ground all of our work in racial equity, in our core values, and in our four guiding pursuits: the Revolutionary Pursuit of Love, the Radical Pursuit of Knowledge, the Responsive Pursuit of Healing, and in the Relentless Pursuit of Results. These pursuits inform and are reflected in our current four key strategic priorities: to increase high-impact, high-quality academic curriculum, programming content, staff capacity, and coaching; to embrace and advance our use of technology; to deepen our embodiment of ethical and equitable radical humanity; and to efficiently operationalize teaching, learning, community, and care.
About The Opportunity
We are seeking a Director, Community Affairs to lead a team dedicated to expanding EHTP’s external-facing initiatives and public engagement work in the communities our programs and schools serve. Reporting to the Managing Director of Operations, the Senior Director, Community Affairs manages a team of two and oversees our public engagement strategy, including corporate, volunteer, and intern engagement, families/community stakeholder engagement, and student recruitment and enrollment. The Senior Director will build and expand our coalition with local community stakeholders and utilize these partnerships to further advocacy efforts around issues that are important to education and families in East Harlem. The Senior Director will ensure that student recruitment and enrollment efforts align with our broader work in the community and create a sustainable pipeline of new and returning families.
The Senior Director, Community Affairs will develop an engagement strategy to leverage EHTP’s social capital to share knowledge and amplify the voices of those in our community. This strategy will include EHTP accomplishing the following:
- Addressing the issues that most affect our communities and create spaces for conversation
- Serving as a hub of partnership for community members and partners
- Activating public support through our volunteers and interns to address our community’s needs, on-site with our students, and through advocacy
- Involving scholars in our civic engagement work
- Generating interest and enthusiasm around enrolling and remaining enrolled in our schools and OST programs.
What Qualifies You
Please note that no one meets 100% of the desired qualifications. If much of this describes you, we encourage you to still apply.
- You have at least 3 years of experience in education, youth development and/or community organizing
- You have at least 3 years managing others
- You have passion for and knowledge of economic, housing, food, or other and community development issues and practices, with an emphasis on the local level
- You are familiar with the characteristics and distinct needs of East Harlem or are prepared and enthusiastic to learn
- You are a strong written and verbal communicator
- You pay exceptional attention to detail, proactively approach your work, and possess a strong customer service orientation
- You have strong relationship-building skills and a proven record of fostering authentic relationships with a variety of stakeholders
- You have a strong track record of carrying projects/initiatives from vision setting through completion
- You understand the landscape of charter school recruitment and enrollment in New York City.
- You are able to set and hold yourself accountable to ambitious, meaningful goals, rooted in data.
- You are entrepreneurial, flexible, creative, and resourceful, with the ability to deliver results in a rapidly growing, deadline-driven, fast-paced, dynamic environment
- You are a Spanish language speaker (strongly preferred but not required)
- You believe deeply in EHTP’s mission, core values, and racial equity statement
- You have a Bachelor’s degree
Areas of Leadership
Overall strategy and management
- Develops long-term vision and strategy, aligned with strategic goals, to increase EHTP’s public engagement on topics that affect the communities we serve
- Strategize and advocate top family and community issues to inform senior leadership
- Develop long-term strategy for sustainable student recruitment and enrollment across all EHTP programs, including Scholars Academies charter school.
Partnership and Public Relationships
- Develop a centralized partner strategy for engagement and tracking of institutional relationships across the organization
- Collaborate with development and communication team to maintain EHTP’s presence in community publications and online media
- Build alliances with social justice, labor, food insecurity, small business, faith-based, consumer advocates, and other public stakeholders to identify common priorities
- Serve as EHTP’s representative at community meetings
- Develop and leverage partnerships with community organizations to increase pipelines for student enrollment.
Stakeholder Engagement
- Develop student and family engagement strategy for addressing expected and unexpected needs (i.e Emergency Fund, legal resources, etc)
- Ensure that resources are accessible and families are supported through the process
- Build out reporting tools to capture information about community needs to match them as well as report out status of our current initiatives
- Develop and utilize family feedback mechanisms to drive student recruitment and retention efforts.
- Conduct public opinion research to identify target audiences and shape messaging for policy advocacy campaigns
Special Projects
- As assigned, lead on special initiatives related to organizational expansion or areas of potential new growth (i.e. new building projects, potential political opportunities, etc.)
A Breakdown of the Role
How the person in this role will split their time between their various responsibilities
- 60% Community Engagement, which could include:
- Participation in community meetings and events as an ambassador for East Harlem Tutorial Program and our families.
- Identifying, establishing and maintaining partnerships with peer CBOs, schools, and local government representatives.
- 20% Team Management, which could include:
- Setting goals and benchmarks for student recruitment and volunteer engagement.
- Regular coaching and management meetings with manager of student recruitment and manager of volunteers and interns
- 20% Direct Family Support, which could include:
- Partnering with social workers and Directors of School Culture and Family Engagement to identify and support family needs, including legal, financial, housing, and nutritional assistance.
- Individual case work with Scholars Academies and EHTP families and staff in need of urgent assistance
Thank you for taking the time to submit your application.
