School Network Staff Director of Advocacy
Job Description
Position: Director of Advocacy
Reports to: Chief External Affairs Officer
Location: Central Office – Denver, CO
Salary Range: $60,000-$75,000* based on years of experience
Start Date: Flexible
STRIVE Prep is a Denver-based community of public charter schools that challenges every student to strive for college and thrive throughout life by helping them to discover and develop the knowledge, skills, and confidence necessary to succeed in college and beyond. We encourage you to read our 2020 Impact Report and learn more about what a career at STRIVE Prep is like here.
We seek dedicated educators that live STRIVE Prep’s core values of achievement, justice, & perseverance every day and are committed to growing as an anti-racist educator.
THE CHALLENGE
We are looking for a strategic and dynamic leader to co-create opportunities for staff, families, and students to build collective voice and power for their children, schools, and the wider community. We need to create pathways to opportunity for our students while building transformative relationships in order to eliminate educational inequities to advance social justice.
OVERVIEW OF ROLE
The Director of Advocacy plays a critical role in this by setting the strategy for our network’s advocacy efforts, grounded in a vision for and commitment to equity, innovation, and community. This dynamic leader manages advocacy efforts that most impact our community across STRIVE Prep’s 10-school (K-12) network. The position will require our new Director of Advocacy to work equally well with school and central leaders, families, district personnel, and community members and leaders to build a powerful voice to advocate on behalf of our students, schools, and community.
THE MUST-HAVES
Do the following must-haves resonate with how you are wired and demonstrable in your unique talents and experiences? If so, we invite you to apply and can’t wait to learn more about you!
- You believe in educational equity and social justice: As an organization, STRIVE Prep centers itself around three core beliefs: Achievement, Justice, and Perseverance. It is our belief in Justice that anchors our work, and our responsibility, to disrupt systems of oppression in our schools. You have a passion for social justice and educational equity.
- You are a community organizer at heart: You have a background in organizing and wake up each day fueled by a passion to organize people towards an outcome; staying focused on improving educational outcomes and access to opportunity for every STRIVE Prep student. You believe in the collective power of community. You have the ability to work effectively and inclusively with a diverse group of families, students, partners, and communities.
- You are a people whisperer: You proactively build meaningful and authentic relationships with all stakeholders (internally, externally, and throughout the community) to live out your vision for equity. You seek to understand the communities we serve and incorporate their perspective at the root of everything you do.
- You are a data-driven problem solver: You can identify a problem and see how it impacts the organization as a whole. You set the vision for your proposed solution and establish goals and milestones to achieve the necessary results. You are relentless in your efforts and, along each step of the way, you frequently analyze information to track progress towards the goal. You use data to identify when an adjustment to the course of action is needed in order to solve the problem.
- You are a creative contributor and proactive leader: You balance the ability to execute tasks independently while also managing others indirectly (including school leaders, school staff, and central office). You have outstanding organizational and time management skills and can multitask and prioritize your daily workload. You are a skilled people trainer.
ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS
With the must-haves driving your daily approach to the work, the successful Director of Advocacy will perform the following essential functions of the role:
Developing and executing a comprehensive advocacy strategy
- Developing a strategic plan incorporating organizing and political know-how, data and analytics, and strategic communications
- Implementing strategy in order to improve family engagement across network & improve our political standing in Denver
- Collaborate with the Chief External Affairs Officer to act as the primary point of contact and strategic thought partner on all advocacy efforts for the network
- Directly manage the new Outreach coordinator, and support their development and growth, in order to advance our advocacy strategy. Identify policy and legislative issues (local and state) that will impact STRIVE Prep and advocate for policies that will address these critical issues
- Build strong relationships with local and state education advocates, policymakers, and organizations to work on behalf of STRIVE Prep
- Collaborate with other high performing charter management organizations and education-focused nonprofits to align efforts and maximize impact on policy, when applicable
- Work closely with the Communications team to develop and implement an effective communication plan that amplifies positive and diverse narratives through op-eds, and other materials to broadly share STRIVE Prep’s story, impact, and stance on key issues impacting our community
Community Engagement
- Provide ongoing training to continue to expand capacity – giving families tools and methods for voicing their collective priorities to policymakers and connecting them to community resources
- Identify and develop strong community organization leads to fill network gaps in services
- Build regional family leadership teams, connecting families to each other, supporting them as they grow their leadership
- Incorporating families’ interests into the electoral process, in a non-partisan way, including education on school boards, involvement on committees, and large scale turnout operations
- Building advocacy & political capital in neighborhoods we serve
School-Based Organizing
- Identifying, training, and organizing school-based teams made up of families, staff, and students
- Ensure the school-based teams you organized and built, feel supported, connected and are making headway on issues that matter for their children like access to equitable resources and community improvements including, but not limited to:
- Conduct monthly coaching calls/meetings
- Organize and execute specific campaigns with specific goals
- Effectively work across our 10 schools to support their efforts to involve and engage students, families, and staff in advocacy efforts
- Meet with families and staff one on one to develop strong, authentic relationships built on trust
- Promote a greater understanding of the political landscape that impacts our community and the wider charter school movement in Denver
- Use data to drive decision making to shape strategy, improve efficiency, and achieve success
- Engaging and informing families and staff about the impact of the district and state policy on their students – educate them on advocacy initiatives to solicit support, and to empower parents and family members to advocate
MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS (OR PREFERENCES WHERE NOTED)
- Minimum of 3 years of previous experience in community organizing and advocacy
- Access to reliable transportation daily for frequent travel throughout Denver and attend occasional evening and weekend meetings
- Speaks fluently in Spanish and English
- Passion for educational equity and social justice, belief in the collective power of community and families
- Passion to work on and understand education policy and politics
TOTAL REWARDS
- Competitive Compensation and benefits including paying 100% of individual benefits.
- On average, our network provides a 4% annual salary increase which is one of the highest in the Denver education market.
- STRIVE Prep 5 Year Club: After 5 years of continual employment, all employees are eligible for your choice of a 3 week paid Sabbatical or a payout.
- Available stipend opportunities include:
EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY AND DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION
STRIVE Prep is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, disability, or any other status protected by law or regulation. STRIVE Prep works to make a college preparatory education for all students in our community the norm, rather than the exception. To achieve this we are committed to building and sustaining a diverse team by maintaining hiring and recruiting processes that are free from bias.
Not interested but know someone who would be a great fit? Refer them here and earn $200 for each successful hire! You can also sign up to speak with a member of our team about this role here: calendly.com/amanda-jackson-striveprep
