About Children First
Children First, formerly Public Citizens for Children and Youth (PCCY), is a dynamic child advocacy organization focused on improving the lives of children by building support and momentum to improve local, state and/or federal policies that can promote racial and economic equity for children as they grow up in southeastern Pennsylvania. Our small staff is a group of highly motivated individuals who are passionate about improving the lives of children and youth. Through bipartisan advocacy, we have a record of winning scale level changes that do just that. To be successful at Children First you must enjoy 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.
Children First has 6 open positions:
Digital Contact Creator (contract)
Mental Health Campaign Associate Director of Clinical Strategy and Partnerships
Mental Health Campaign Associate Director for Communications
K-12 Policy Associate
Finance Director
Early Childhood Education Policy Director
Digital Contact Creator (contract)
Scope of Work
Social media is an essential tool for Children First to engage the general public to advance public policy that benefits children and teens. We are seeking to enter into a contract with a digital content creator(s) who will develop video and text for social media channels (Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok) in order to amplify our advocacy efforts.
The digital content creator will be responsible for the idea, execution, and posting of effective social media content at the direction of Children First. This includes travel throughout southeastern Pennsylvania and Harrisburg to capture footage of Children First events, legislative meetings, and in-person interviews.
Children First covers a range of child policy topics including early education, K-12 education, juvenile justice, health, mental health, and parent and youth engagement. The ideal vendor would have the capacity to generate social media content on these topics and have a proven track record in 1) digital storytelling, 2) hard-hitting political messages, and 3) fun/entertaining content that presents complicated issues in a relatable way.
This scope of work can be broken down in multiple contracts with vendors depending on technical/creative capabilities (digital storytelling, hard-hitting political messages, fun/entertaining content) or issue expertise.
Contract Deliverables
- Develop a clear strategy to increase advocacy engagements, post likes and shares, and social media channel followers.
- Implement the strategy after soliciting feedback from staff.
- Meet weekly for editorial direction.
- Develop storyboards, design, and key messaging before production.
- Optimize posts by using available analytics to continually improve the reach.
Minimum Qualifications
- A person or firm with an established track record of followers and visibility (minimum on 7,000) on Facebook, Instagram, X, and/or TikTok.
- Qualified vendors should be able to demonstrate management of social media accounts with a minimum of 7,000 followers.
- Established social media portfolio.
- Excellent editing, organizational, and time management skills.
- Ability to work independently and collaboratively.
- Ability to work quickly without compromising quality or accuracy.
- Ability to travel throughout southeastern Pennsylvania and
- Spanish fluency language a plus.
Reports To: Communications Director
To apply: Send a letter of interest which indicates your area(s) of expertise – digital storytelling, hard-hitting political messages, fun/entertaining content – and link(s) to a related social media portfolio to info@childrenfirstpa.org.
Compensation: commensurate with experience.
Mental Health Campaign Associate Director of Clinical Strategy and Partnerships
About the Mental Health Campaign
Children First is undertaking the audacious goal of reforming Pennsylvania’s mental health system for children. The vision is to ensure that every child has access to a robust continuum of high-quality prevention, early intervention, and intensive mental health services that reduce the risk of suicide, decrease the use of inpatient psychiatric or crisis care, and support mental health and wellbeing so that all children can thrive. The Mental Health Campaign will work across the state to build coalitions, raise awareness, and advocate for policy reform in both the administration and the legislature. Please read more about our five essential strategies for mental health reform here.
Position Summary
We are seeking a dynamic mental health professional with an understanding of systems-level change that can integrate policy reform with clinical practice. The right candidate will be able to build and maintain relationships across the mental health and educational fields, including with payers, state and county mental health administrators, mental health care providers and practitioners, intermediate units, educators, and school district administrators.
Key Duties
- Leverage clinical expertise to build relationships across key targeted sectors: education, pediatric practices, health systems, and managed care.
- Work in tandem with the Policy and Research Director to translate policy into practice that will make the proposed mental health reforms tangible for targeted sectors.
- Develop messaging strategies to generate support for the reforms in partnership with the Communications Director.
- Recruit coalition members within the sectors and maintain key relationships.
- Hold meetings and public events with sector leaders to demonstrate support and buy-in and when appropriate include key state lawmakers in meetings/public events held with/by the sector leaders.
- Present at key meetings with officials/executives in the sectors.
- Orchestrate key convenings that demonstrate the buy-in of sector leaders.
- Draft the key details for statutory and regulatory changes needed to effect the changes proposed by the campaign goals and secure the support of sector leaders.
Qualifications, Education, and Experience
- Master’s degree in social work, clinical psychology, community psychology, social services, special education or a related field.
- Experience in mental health system administration, operations, or policy or similar experience with the K-12 sector.
- Understanding of implementation and administration of services in an integrated care model.
- Experience delivering mental health supports to children in various settings.
- Advanced written and oral communication skills.
Important Skills
- Experience and comfort with facilitating meetings of clinical and education professionals.
- Experience and comfort with facilitating meetings of people with lived experience.
- Experience with public speaking to a large audience.
- Ability to synthesize data points into public facing information.
- Ability to work collaboratively and form positive relationships with team members representing various stakeholders.
Location: Candidates should be local to Pennsylvania or willing to relocate. This position could be a remote position with extensive travel in Pennsylvania required. Mondays at the office are ideal.
Reports To: Health Policy Director
Salary: $90,000 – $120,000 commensurate with experience plus a full benefit package
Apply: Resume and cover letter, to info@childrenfirstpa.org with the job title in your email subject line.
Mental Health Campaign Associate Director for Communications
About the Mental Health Campaign
Children First is undertaking the audacious goal of reforming Pennsylvania’s mental health system for children. The vision is to ensure that every child has access to a robust continuum of high-quality prevention, early intervention, and intensive mental health services that reduce the risk of suicide, decrease the use of inpatient psychiatric or crisis care, and support mental health and wellbeing so that all children can thrive. The Mental Health Campaign will work across the state to build coalitions, raise awareness, and advocate for policy reform in both the administration and the legislature. Please read more about our five essential strategies for mental health reform here.
Position Summary
We are seeking a talented communications professional with experience in creating and deploying strategies that penetrate social and traditional media outlets, effecting change via public narrative, writing persuasively and incisively, conceptualizing graphic images of data and messaging, and a burning passion for advocacy to improve the lives of children. Our work is dynamic and requires a communications professional who understands the need to be responsive to external events and effectively juggle communications projects and tasks in ways that boost impact and build support.
Key Duties:
- Create a 24-month communications plan and identify research/publications and events needed to support the plan that will successfully ensure the key messages reach communities and constituencies associated with legislative leaders and other key state lawmakers, and the secondary audiences that will build buy-in from those lawmakers.
- Orchestrate the plan working with team members to produce assets and events that push out the key messages that reach the key primary and secondary audiences.
- Build and maintain relationships with journalists, including reporters, digital platform managers, producers, columnists, and on-air talent, who are assigned to mental health, health care, and children’s beats and stay abreast of current news across the state to connect our work with emerging or breaking news at the county or state level.
- Translate research on children’s mental health policy and practice into digestible, simple public messaging.
- Write effective media advisories, pitch messages, and press releases that attract media coverage of our events.
- Write and disseminate all media relations documents including press advisories, press releases, press pitches, commentaries and letters to the editor.
- Engage regularly with key reporters, digital platform managers, producers, columnists and on-air talent and development stories/appearances that increase the visibility of the key messages in the target communities/audiences.
- Provide direction in the development of briefs, publications, fact sheets developed to support the key messages and engage constructively in the editing process to ensure quality final products.
Qualifications, Education, and Experience
- Experience understanding state/local media landscape.
- Understanding of how to use a media strategy to build support among public officials for policy change.
- Expert written and oral communication skills.
- Ability to write, speak, and generate content for a broad range of audiences, including state lawmakers, mental health professionals, educators, advocates, children, and families.
Important Skills
- Strong persuasive writing skills and effective oral communication skills for pitching stories and sharing key advocacy points.
- Detail oriented with the ability to prioritize and manage multiple projects and meet deadlines.
- Ability to work independently and with others.
- Self-starter that works proficiently and collaboratively.
- Proficiency with Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Social Media Platforms, Canva, Zoom, and other design platforms.
- Capacity to take photographs and videos to generate content.
- Demonstrated ability to create compelling stories using visual and written content.
- Willingness to travel to communities across the region, access to a car and valid driver’s license.
Location: Candidates should be local to Pennsylvania or willing to relocate. This position could be a remote position with extensive travel in Pennsylvania required. Mondays at the office are ideal.
Reports To: Health Policy Director
Salary: $90,000 – $110,000 commensurate with experience plus a full benefit package
Apply: Resume, cover letter, and writing sample to info@childrenfirstpa.org with the job title in your email subject line.
Position Summary
We are seeking an outgoing individual to join the K-12 team to provide operational support for its advocacy, policy, and programmatic initiatives.
Key Duties:
- Manage the day-to-day operations for special projects on K-12 initiatives.
- Schedule legislative/community organization meetings on K-12 priorities.
- Assist in organizing K-12 policy-related events, such as rallies, press conferences, advocacy trainings, forums, report launch events, etc.
- Build our list of supporters and supporting organizations by attending local events, pre-organized meetings, and mobilizing others to attend within school district boundaries.
- Grow and update the active database of education stakeholders throughout the region.
- Increase the visibility of our work by documenting support and field activities via social media.
- Provide communications support for potential and current participants in student-focused advocacy projects (i.e. Justice in Education, securing student participants for events).
- Conduct outreach to elected officials, community partners, stakeholders, etc. regarding K-12 policies and initiatives.
- Work with the K-12 team to create presentations and materials for outreach.
- Maintain data entry of supporters into the K-12 spreadsheets and Every Action lists by school districts, counties, and key sectors.
- Represent Children First at community and coalition meetings/events.
- Track progress of grant deliverables.
- Assist with K-12 report research.
- Track outreach, local media coverage, and populate shared campaign calendar with field events.
- Participate and take notes in state-wide campaign, mobilization, or other K-12 calls.
- Work with K-12 education policy interns/fellows and volunteers to further K-12 policies and initiatives.
Important Skills:
- A passion for supporting the engagement of education stakeholders, including school administrators and students to garner support for more resources and funding for education.
- Experience working on a team as an advocate with a positive history of impact, able to coordinate, negotiate, manage, and work with coworkers of all levels.
- Highly organized, able to multi-task and manage multiple projects.
- Knowledge of the key policy challenges in the education sector preferred.
- Strong verbal and written communication skills and a deep working knowledge of data analysis software applications and tools.
- Ability to use Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Google Docs.
- Minimum one year of experience working in a non-profit/advocacy/community service field, can be an unpaid internship experience.
- Bachelor’s degree in human services, social work, public policy, or related field required.
- Ability to work occasional weekend or evening events.
- Willingness to travel throughout southeastern Pennsylvania and Harrisburg.
Reports To: K-12 Education Policy Director
Salary: $45,000 plus benefits and generous paid time off.
Apply: Resume and cover letter to info@childrenfirstpa.org.
Position Summary
We are seeking a talented non-profit financial professional to work part-time and support the activities of our growing and dynamic organization.
Key Duties:
- Prepare all financial reports, including but not limited to income statements, balance sheets, bank reconciliations, and tax payments.
- Prepare monthly financial reports for the Executive Director and Board.
- Regularly review all financial processes necessary to ensure accurate reporting. Oversee, evaluate and improve Children First’s financial functions/systems and financial performance.
- Monitor the cash flow projection process and reporting.
- Complete financial reports for grant applications and grant reports.
- Prepare regular reports to the Executive Director that analyze financial activities, tracking revenues and expenses to the budget, and provide strategic financial leadership so that operations remain within budget, avoid deficits, and use opportunistic revenues appropriately, in tandem with the Executive Director, Treasurer, and members of the Finance Committee of the Board of Directors.
- Coordinate the annual budgeting process in collaboration with the Executive Director, Leadership Team, and Finance Committee of the Board. Continually improve the budgeting process by educating staff on financial issues impacting their budgets.
- Participate in developing new programs as a strategic partner by working with program staff to develop effective budgets for grant proposals.
- Oversee the Finance and Human Resources Administrator’s accounting functions, including but not limited to general ledger, accounts payable, and payroll.
- Coordinate with Deputy Director on contract management, budget monitoring, accounts payable, and related financial tasks.
- Where necessary, develop and update financial policies and procedures that improve Children First’s overall operation and effectiveness.
- Monitor the investment of reserves and restricted revenues.
- Mange the annual audit and ensure its completion, and that the 990 is filed on a timely basis.
- Ensure the maintenance of high quality, comprehensive levels of liability, and other required insurance in the most cost-efficient manner possible. Conduct yearly analyses of insurance levels and coverage to ensure adequacy and cost containment.
Qualifications, Education, Experience & Skills:
- Bachelor’s degree in Accounting.
- Ten years of experience in fiscal management, some of which is in the non-profit sector for organizations with a budget of at least $5 million.
- Experience with the financial management of multi-year grants and other restricted revenues.
- At least five years of supervisory experience.
Important Skills:
- Excellent analytical and problem solving skills.
- Detail oriented.
- Ability to prioritize and manage multiple projects.
- Ability to work independently and with others and be a team player.
- Self-starter that checks in and collaborates.
- Works well under pressure.
- Proficiency with Excel, QuickBooks and institutional financial management platforms.
Reports To: Executive Director
Salary: commensurate with experience
Apply: Resume and cover letter to info@childrenfirstpa.org.
Early Childhood Education Policy Director
Position Summary
Children First plays a leadership role in setting and advancing local and state policy priorities to create a high quality of system of supports for children under the age of five in Philadelphia and the surrounding Pennsylvania counties. We are seeking to add a leader to our team with a proven track record of effectively leading stakeholder processes and coalitions to effect public will to improve public policy.
Key Duties:
- Lead the development and implementation of advocacy strategies to advance state and local policy priorities that meet the needs of infants, toddlers, and pre-school aged children by developing messaging documents, recruiting community leaders to participate in our advocacy, and creating and expanding broad based coalitions.
- Mobilize people in Children First’s early childhood networks and parents/caregivers to shape health policy through civic engagement
- Communicate with key policymakers about early childhood priorities
- Monitor trends and collect and analyze data on early childhood policy in order to identify unmet needs and persistent challenges, and establish priority issues
- Write and execute plans for dissemination of compelling reports that advance our early childhood policy goals
- Supervise the early childhood team including the Racial Equity Coordinator, Provider Council Coordinator, and Advocacy Associate
Qualifications, Education, Experience & Skills:
- Knowledge of major PA state early childhood policy issues including Keystone Stars, Pre-K affordability and access, wages in the childcare sector, paid family leave, and racial equity
- Experience understanding and advancing legislative goals and leading coalitions
- Ability to organize, mobilize and facilitate widespread community participation
- Proficiency in data analysis associated with health statistics, demographic analysis and related data-related research
- Advanced written and oral communication skills
- At least three years management experience with supervisory responsibilities
- Experience using social media tools to boost advocacy impact
- Strong desire to lead the early childhood team with a spirit of collaboration and empowering your team to help achieve team goals
Important Skills:
- Ability to work independently and with others in a hybrid work environment
- Works well under pressure while prioritizing and managing multiple projects
- Detail oriented with the ability to collect, interpret, and simplify large datasets
- Very strong written and oral communication skills
- Ability to travel to communities across the region – must have driver’s license and access to a reliable vehicle
- Proficient in excel, word, google and social media platforms
Reports To: Executive Director
Salary: Between $100,000-110,000 depending on experience
Apply: Resume and cover letter to info@childrenfirstpa.org.
Internships
Children First interns gain knowledge and experience in child advocacy and public policy. Interns participate in all aspects of our work including attending rallies, conducting research on children’s issues and creating materials to support our mission of providing better lives and life chances for children in southeastern Pennsylvania. At this time, we are only able to offer unpaid internships that are needed as part of college course requirements. For more information, contact: info at childrenfirstpa.org
Children First is an inclusive, equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate in hiring.