Children First has open positions:

Mental Health Campaign Director

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Overview

The Campaign Director will lead the groundbreaking Strong Minds Bright Futures Partnership for Child Mental Wellbeing. The Partnership is a broad-based ambitious statewide coalition focused on the policy reforms that will give low-income children across the state access to a full continuum of mental health services. We are looking for a visionary leader with strong organizational skills who can motivate policymakers to adopt changes by leading this newly formed coalition forward. Our leader must be a creative problem solver who can take new work into uncharted territory and take the risks necessary to generate large scale systems change. The ideal candidate will be a leader who enjoys collaborating and helping coworkers do their best and contribute to a respectful workplace that values a commitment to racial diversity, having fun, and making an impact. You must also have the capacity to be a self-starter, work independently and with others in a hybrid, dynamic work environment.

Skills and Knowledge, We Are Looking For:
1. Policy Knowledge: Knowledge of state Medicaid administrative powers, payment systems and regulatory requirements. Knowledge of the structure of the mental health system preferred a plus.

2. Advocacy Experience: A minimum of five years advocating for a significant policy change via legislation or administrative reforms. Inclusive in this experience must be a track record of leading a united effort of grassroots and grasstops organizations and passionate individuals and orchestrating their advocacy to achieve a policy win.

3. Strategic and Critical Thinking: Ability to see the big picture and develop strategy and aligned tactics to achieve policy outcomes. Ability to critically assess a situation, and (re)calibrate strategy accordingly.

4. Stakeholder Relationship Management Skills: Ability to cultivate, manage, and grow relationships with state agency decision makers, organizational leaders, parents/caregivers, and other networks, coalitions and policymakers.

5. Communication Skills: Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to communicate policy issues and priorities clearly and persuasively in writing as well as in meeting and in media appearances

6. Data and Analysis Skills: Strategic and detail-oriented ability to collect, interpret, and simplify large datasets, and analyze laws and regulations, in support of policy priorities and advocacy goals.

7. Management/Supervision and Project Management Experience: Minimum 7 years of experience managing and supervising a team with a spirit of collaboration and empowerment to help achieve team goals. Attention to detail is a priority so that staff, partners, and policymakers can engage and help move the work forward. This effort requires a leader with strong project management and strategy development skills.

8. Proficiency with Technology: Facility with Excel and Word, web-based research, social media platforms.

Key Duties:

• Spearhead the development of a new initiative aimed at improving children’s mental health by developing and implementing advocacy strategies to advance state and local level mental health policy priorities which include:
  • Manage relationships with coalition members and state policymakers and recruit more key stakeholders
  • Guide the implementation of carefully crafted communications, mobilization and government relations strategies to get the policy reforms adopted
  • Supervise campaign staff (three staff members and multiple consultants)
  • Developing messaging documents, official correspondence testimony or public speeches, and manage a process to publish, disseminate and draw attention to compelling reports
  • Draft grant applications to secure additional resources and ensure expenditures do not exceed available funds
• Be the public face of the Campaign successfully recruiting and informing community leaders, parents and youth and engaging them to build support and regularly communicate with key policymakers about mental health campaign priorities
• Monitor trends and collect and analyze data on Medicaid policy to consider their impact on the campaig

Other Duties as Assigned

• Attend and present information at Children First board and board subcommittee meetings as requested
• Be available to plan, orchestrate and assist with outreach events which occur in the evening and/or weekends
• Attend and participate in staff meetings and staff committees
• Actively support Children First fundraising efforts

Additional Information:

• This is a full-time hybrid position requiring approximately 60 days a year in Harrisburg; in addition, to approximately 45 days on the road engaging with leaders across the state and a weekly in-office staff meetings in Philadelphia. Must have a valid driver’s license and a reliable vehicle.

Reports To: Executive Director
Salary: Salary starts at $150,000 and will be commensurate with experience, plus benefits, including health care for you and your child(ren) and generous paid time off
Apply: Resume and cover letter to info@childrenfirstpa.org.

Hispanic Child Policy Project Director

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Overview

Children First ambitiously works to remove the obstacles in the way of a great childhood for every child.  We think big, creating new programs or systems at scale that offer children what they need, especially children of color and those growing in families with limited financial means.  For instance, when working class families could not afford health insurance for their children, we led the grassroots campaign to create the PA Children’s Health Insurance Program that now makes it possible for nearly every child to be insured.  Locally, we galvanized Philadelphians to support the sweetened beverage tax that gives 5,000 children free access to great pre-k programs. We are looking to add a leader to our team to work within the Hispanic community to create a shared vision for making the lives of Hispanic children better and uniting behind game changing policies that ensure Philadelphia’s Hispanic children are prepared for a lifetime of success.  While the project we are undertaking is expected to take one year to complete, it will make a lasting contribution to the lives of these children. 

Why you do this

The Hispanic Child Policy Project Director will lead a 12-month community input, data gathering and planning project to construct a preliminary policy and advocacy agenda focused on big system changes that improve the lives of Hispanic children. This is a unique opportunity if you are passionate about our children’s future, experienced in policy and advocacy, and adept at leading teams to get results for these children and pave the way for years of sustained and powerful advocacy to achieve the vision and system changes outline in the agenda.

Candidate profile

The right candidate is a leader with strong strategic thinking skills able to design and lead a 12-month community input, data gathering and planning project to construct a preliminary policy and advocacy agenda and proposed structure for supporting the agenda all aimed at moving Philadelphia closer to meeting the needs of Hispanic children in Philadelphia. We are looking for a leader with keen start-up instincts with a tested set of technical and interpersonal skills that can unify stakeholders.

Professional Characteristics

• Engagement Process Management – Create and facilitate effective processes that identify and recruit key stakeholders, engage individuals in deliberations, track engagement, and pro-actively build sub-networks among those engaged.
• Writing/Presentation Development that Promotes Collaboration – Use technical writing and information presentation skills to create documents that support collaboration and decision-making including clear meeting agendas, meeting summaries, decision-making memos, and briefing documents that effectively present data, context and solutions.
• Strategic Judgement and Action – Understand and manage the nuances associated with unifying disparate stakeholders for the purpose of policy and advocacy, be nimble and respond to needs of those with particular interests, identify and optimize opportunities associated with particularly stakeholder interests or resources, and pro-actively solve substantive conflicts using effective collaboration/mediation techniques.
• Start-up Instincts – Be a risk taker that is comfortable with launching ambiguous processes/ goals, and via effective and thoughtful processes achieve clarity with respect to purpose, goals, objectives, structure and accountability mechanisms.
• Managing Group Processes to Make Decisions – Experience designing effective meeting processes that gather useful data and enable a broad cross section of individuals to reach agreement on processes, problems and solutions.
• Patience and Persistence – Eagerness to spend time in one-to-one conversations with stakeholders to build engagement in policy/advocacy discussions, experience making effective cases for engagement and for policies, capacity to crystalize key points so that engagement is productive and leads to action.

Responsibilities

• Outreach and Engagement – Engage a broad cross section of Hispanic grasstops and emerging leaders and community residents in ongoing discussions about the data in the Pa’lante report with the goal of gathering qualitative data that comports or differs from the known data, identify areas where additional research is needed to inform effective policy solutions.
• Promotion – Inform reporters, columnists and other key media stakeholders about the findings in the Pa’Lante report and work with them to create highly visible venues to increase public discussion of the report findings and need for action. Key outlets include Spanish speaking media, traditional media outlets and social media influencers.
• Relationship Development and Management – Build and maintain ongoing connections with peer organizations, individuals and collaborations conducting research about the Hispanic communities in Philadelphia and those examining the needs of children to discuss areas where more research is needed to either better understand challenges and/or inform policy solutions with the goal of meeting the full range of needs of Hispanic children.
• Organization Building – Develop a proposed structure(s) for consideration among key stakeholders for guiding and advising the processes and approaches for steps 1-3 and manage the operation of the agreed to structure.
• Project Planning – Create and manage a 12-month timeline that supports the relationship management, information sharing and decision-making processes necessary to reach agreement on a preliminary policy agenda and organizational structure to launch the agenda.
  

Location:  Candidates should be local to the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania area or willing to relocate. This is a hybrid position requiring one full day in the office per week in addition to periodic in-person meetings.

Reports to: Executive Director

Salary: $90,000 to $110,000 with full benefits depending on experience

Apply: Resume and cover letter to info@childrenfirstpa.org.