Community Engagement Associate

Child-Centered Governance puts children at the heart of local decision-making. By taking children’s needs and perspectives into account from the start, leaders are better positioned to understand the impact of their choices, invest in long-term community success, and use limited public resources more effectively. In support of this approach and UNICEF’s mission to advance child rights, the Community Engagement Associate mobilizes and empowers youth and club volunteers at scale to conduct civic engagement activities, including advocacy, fundraising, community service, and awareness-raising initiatives.

The Associate recruits, trains, manages, and activates youth volunteers and leaders through engagement in campaigns, workshops, calls to action, and local activities in support of UNICEF USA’s priorities and goals.

Leveraging strong relationship management skills, the Associate stewards a portfolio of UNICEF USA youth clubs at the high school and college levels, as well as affiliated child-focused organizations, to support the municipal strategy, “Communities for Every Child,” advocacy on local, state, and federal issues, and signature events such as Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF (TOT). The Associate strategically engages in local markets and is required to travel to key markets to represent UNICEF USA for recruitment, partnership-building, volunteer management, and stewardship.

• Bachelor's degree and a minimum of one year related experience with community organizing, advocacy, volunteer constituent management, and/or youth engagement or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• General knowledge and interest in child rights, advocacy, and youth engagement
• General understanding of mass communications strategies, digital engagement, and campaigns 
• Experience in youth development, civic engagement or education with high school and college age students. 
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills are essential, both written and verbal 
• Proven ability to train and empower others to organize at scale 
• Strong project management skills with the ability to prioritize, work independently, handle multiple complex tasks simultaneously, and to generate pragmatic solutions to challenges 
• Strong customer service approach to interactions with colleagues and partners
• Ability to navigate complex environments and help build relationships with a variety of diverse stakeholders 
• Strong organizational and administrative skills, including proficiency in Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Canva and Outlook 
• Ability to track, conduct follow-up and document outcomes of volunteers and campaigns in a centralized constituent relationship database
• Experience contributing to and promoting diversity, equity, access, inclusion, and belonging in a team setting
• Ability to work a flexible schedule that includes weekend and evening commitments and travel 
• Ability to travel within the assigned region and to key markets to support volunteers and build community as needed 

• →Recruit volunteers to start or join UNICEF Clubs and/or other youth engagement and advocacy opportunities aligned with UNICEF USA priorities.
• →Cultivate, train, support, and manage a portfolio of highly engaged youth volunteers in assigned regional markets in support of child rights to advance child wellbeing.
• →Engage volunteers in civic engagement efforts to advocate, fundraise, raise awareness, and serve communities in support of UNICEF and child wellbeing.
• →Provide specialized support in one of two key areas:
  • →Developing youth-centric content in support of priority actions including campaigns, fundraisers, days of actions, and educational resources.
  • →Support the development and execution of strategic recruitment and retention tactics and activities across all regions.
• →In key markets, activate volunteers in support of strategic initiatives with Municipal Partners.
• →Train and support volunteers and clubs to ensure brand alignment, child safeguarding, data privacy, and other volunteer business rules are adhered to.
• →Conduct trainings and workshops with a variety of audiences (with a focus on youth) to expand UNICEF's reach within the United States in support of children’s rights to advance child wellbeing and priority issues.
• →Lead development and provide input for promotion of toolkits and resources produced for volunteers.
• →Collect volunteer impact stories for social media channels, website, media, and internal reporting.
• →Work in collaboration with internal teams to maintain relationships with local, state, and federal elected officials to push for policy change.
• →Work in partnership with internal teams to support Congressional engagements with volunteers throughout the year, which will include federal, state-specific and local advocacy actions.
• →Champion youth engagement and support meaningful youth collaboration on webinars, trainings, advocacy, and youth voice.
• →Support UNICEF USA national campaigns such as Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF, World Children’s Day, International Day of Play, and other awareness building events, and priority issues.
• →Adhere to child safeguarding requirements to ensure the best interests of children in everything we do.
• →Routinely document volunteer information, interactions, and events in the constituent management database of record.
• →Provide insights and feedback on process and tool improvements to maximize team performance and accelerate and advance towards goals.

Perform other duties as assigned