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 3 open positions:
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.
Health Policy Director
Position Summary
Children First plays a leadership role in setting and advancing local and state policy priorities that improve children’s health, by advocating for policies that ensure every low income child qualifies for and enrolls in publicly supported health insurance, including immigrant children; end lead paint poisoning by getting lead out of homes and schools; and improve behavioral health services for Black, Hispanic, and low income children. The Health Policy Director builds and facilitates coalitions, manages outreach campaigns, briefs local, state and national policymakers, researches and writes reports and funding proposals.
Key Duties:
• Lead the development and implementation of advocacy strategies to advance state and local health policy priorities
• Craft compelling messaging documents including reports, briefs, commentaries, and fact sheets and regularly make public speeches/presentations to increase the public discourse to support the policy reforms
• Draft and present testimony to legislative bodies on health policy issues.
• Recruit and inform community leaders, parents and youth and engage them to build support for our policy priorities
• Create, expand, and lead broad-based coalitions focused on health policy goals
• Mobilize people in Children First’s health networks and parents/caregivers to shape health policy through public testimony, letter writing
Position Description:
• Regularly hold effective meetings with key policymakers regarding health priorities
• Monitor trends and collect and analyze data on health policy in order to identify unmet needs and persistent challenges, and establish priority issues
• Create and execute plans for writing reports and ensuring their dissemination and popularizing of their findings on social media and news platforms
• Work in partnership with the Development Team to craft proposals and reports that increase the resources supporting our education policy/advocacy efforts
• Supervise the health team in including the Behavioral Health Policy Coordinator and Health Advocacy Associate
Qualifications, Education, Experience & Skills:
• Knowledge of major children’s health policy issues
• Experience understanding and advancing legislative goals
• Advanced skills leading coalitions
• Ability to organize, mobilize and facilitate community engagement
• 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 health team with a spirit of collaboration and empowering a team to achieve big goals
Other Duties:
• Attend and present information at the Children First Board meetings and subcommittee meetings
• Assist when asked in Children First outreach events which may be during evening or weekend hours
• Attend and participate in staff meetings
Important Skills:
• Ability to work independently and with others
• Fast learner and fast writer
• Works well under pressure
• Detail oriented
• Ability to prioritize and manage multiple projects
• Ability to collect, interpret and simplify data
• 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 and $110,000 depending on experience
Apply: Resume and cover letter to info@childrenfirstpa.org
Early Childhood Education Policy Associate
Position Summary
Children First is looking to expand the early childhood education team by adding a special projects associate who will work closely with the ECE director and the rest of the ECE team on advocacy to increase access to and quality of early childhood education programs in Pennsylvania. The special projects associate will have the opportunity to work on projects that advance the racial equity agenda of the ECE team, which include but are not limited to working on a racial equity provider council, research projects, meetings with key legislators, and more. This is a great entry-level job for someone who is interested in learning more about policy and advocacy.
Key Duties:
- Organize the logistics of advocacy campaigns and research projects related to the ECE policy agenda.
- Conduct background research, including literature reviews to support the development of research products.
- Schedule meetings with key community stakeholders as well as state and congressional lawmakers.
- Facilitate communications, write up agendas and meeting minutes.
- Collect data and track measurable outcomes for grant reporting.
- Reach out to early childhood providers and parents to recruit for advocacy projects.
- Assist with the organizing of events, including but not limited to STAR move up and expansion ceremonies, kindergarten graduations, and other provider events.
- Assist in writing reports for funders and advocacy efforts.
- Attend weekly ECE team meetings with the ECE director.
Qualifications, Education, Experience & Skills:
- Strong commitment to racial justice and desire to create safe inclusive conversations on how to close racial equity gaps in early childhood education.
- A track record of successful and positive engagements with community members.
- Excellent communication and writing skills.
- Team player, able to coordinate, negotiate, manage, and work with coworkers of all levels.
- Strong verbal and written communications skills and a deep working knowledge of data analysis software applications and tools, such as Excel or a similar software.
- Program management skills including process management, data tracking and reporting.
- Minimum 1 years 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 relate field required.
- Ability to work occasional weekend or evening events.
- Willingness to travel throughout Southeast Pennsylvania and Harrisburg.
Reports To: Early Childhood Education Director
Salary: $45,000
Apply: Resume and cover letter to info@childrenfirstpa.org.
Children First has 0 Upcoming Positions
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.