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Director of Policy & Systemic Advocacy

SUMMARY:

Legal Counsel for Youth and Children (LCYC) seeks an experienced, passionate, collaborative, and innovative Director of Policy & Systemic Advocacy (“Director”), committed to social justice and anti-racism, to lead LCYC’s systemic advocacy work and champion the organization’s policy and budget priorities to advance our mission in support of Washington’s youth.

LCYC is uniquely situated to provide input on system-wide issues impacting young people because of our exclusive focus on the rights and legal interests of young people across multiple systems: child welfare, juvenile court, immigration, and homelessness.

The Director will not need deep existing expertise in all the substantive areas, but they do need to arrive at LCYC with a commitment to continual learning, flexibility, and teamwork. The Director will consult with internal teams of attorneys who have substantive expertise in the areas that LCYC engages in to collaboratively formulate LCYC’s policy priorities and positions.

LCYC’s systemic advocacy work is informed by the holistic, youth-centered direct representation our attorneys provide to over 800 young people annually across all our program areas. LCYC’s systemic work is also informed and advanced through collaboration with community partners and young people with lived experience, ensuring that those most impacted by systemic harms are centered in the policies, practices, and procedures. Youth of color and LGBTQIA+ youth are overrepresented within all the systems that LCYC navigates. The incoming Director must embed anti-racism and equity into LCYC’s systemic work.

Applicants with experience in policy development and state, county, or city lobbying are strongly preferred, especially if that work has been done in connection with youth/young adult issues and the public systems that LCYC clients navigate.

LCYC is a virtual non-profit. The Director will work from home and spend most of their time in virtual meetings. Travel will be required, primarily to King and Thurston Counties.

COMMITMENT TO INCLUSIVITY, EQUITY AND REPRESENTATION:

LCYC is an equal opportunity employer committed to having a diverse staff and board reflective of the communities we serve. We strongly encourage applications from people of color, those with lived experience, people with disabilities, members of the LGBTQIA+ community, and other underrepresented and historically marginalized groups. LCYC particularly values lived experience in our practice areas of child welfare, juvenile court, youth and family immigration, and youth and young adult homelessness.

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS:

This is a full-time, overtime exempt, salaried position that requires a willingness to work some evenings and weekends (especially during legislative session), as well as regular travel throughout King County and occasional travel within Washington State, especially to the Washington State Capitol in Olympia.

LCYC exempt employees have some flexibility in setting their schedules each week. This flexibility will allow the Director to adapt the timing of their work week with the scheduling needs of systemic policy advocacy.

The salary range for the position is $111,256 -$ 129,426. A new hire with 5 years’ experience will start at $111,256. A new hire with ten or more years’ experience will earn a salary of $ 129,426.

Supportive benefits include but are not limited to Flexible Time Away, medical, dental, life and disability insurance, 403(b) plan, and paid home office needs such as laptop computer, work cellphone, stand-up desk, and printer.

LCYC does not have shared office space. All staff work from home offices. Travel for work is compensated at the Federal reimbursement rate.

QUALIFICATIONS:

· At least five years of experience as a policy director, manager, and/or registered lobbyist. A track record of successful policy work that includes strong collaboration, relationship building, and development of staff.

· Juris Doctor or Master’s in Public Policy, Social Work, Public Administration, Human Services, Social Sciences, or related field preferred.

· Experience with state, county, and/or city legislative processes (ideally all three), and experience navigating budget and policy legislative sessions and timelines.

· Demonstrated commitment to LCYC’s mission of protecting the interests and safety of youth in Washington by advancing their legal rights.

· Commitment to and demonstrated interest and ability to engage in culturally competent relationships and apply anti-racist principles and values to program operations, internal and external relationships, and systemic advocacy.

· Strong public speaking, writing, and editing skills. The ability to communicate complex policy issues and potential solutions to a wide variety of audiences and communicate strategically in the systemic advocacy environment, including with young people with lived experience, non-legal community partners, lawmakers, and non-partisan and partisan legislative staff.

· Ability to zealously advocate for LCYC priority policy and budget issues in systemic advocacy spaces, including issue spotting, problem solving, providing policy/systemic learning opportunities to community partners and to LCYC staff, and negotiating complex systemic issues and relationships.

· Strong organizational skills. Ability to manage multiple competing priorities and timelines, ensuring tasks are completed in a timely manner and lower-priority items do not slip through the cracks.

· Ability to work independently and ask for support, when needed.

· Committed to continual learning and responsive to feedback.

· Ability to be flexible and adaptable, adjusting to the needs of the organization.

· Creativity and self-motivation are highly desirable.

· Experience in youth/young adult policy advocacy is highly valued, including experience with child welfare, the juvenile court, youth and young adult homelessness, and/or youth immigration systems.

· Ability to work in proximity to the Washington State Capitol in Olympia, but also able to attend in-person meetings in King and neighboring Counties. Must live within a two-hour, one-way drive of Olympia/Thurston County and King County.

· Understand the effects of vicarious trauma and the importance of work balance and boundaries to support personal well-being.

· Experience working with youth and/or children is highly preferred.

· All LCYC staff are required to provide proof of vaccination for COVID-19 and pass a background check.

JOB DUTIES:

LCYC’s systemic advocacy work is led by our Director of Policy & Systemic Advocacy. The initiatives LCYC works on and positions we take are informed by our direct service attorneys, young people, and community partners. Some of LCYC’s systemic advocacy initiatives are long-standing commitments or priorities identified through strategic planning. Other systemic advocacy initiatives are identified in response to initiatives that may threaten or harm the young people we work with.

The Director of Policy & Systemic Advocacy reports to the Executive Director and will undertake a range of duties including, but not limited to, the list below.

Manage LCYC’s Policy and Systemic Advocacy Work

The Director of Policy & Systemic Advocacy will manage and support LCYC’s team in navigating systemic advocacy in areas such as, but not limited to:

· Advocacy coalitions: Partner with community-based organizations—including those whose advocacy is driven by youth advocates with lived expertise—to identify, strategize, and advocate for systemic change to positively impact the lives of young people.

· State and local legislative advocacy: Lobby, send letters and emails to bill sponsors and committee members, testify in public hearings, draft and sign-on to advocacy letters, and engage in policy implementation work.

· Administrative advocacy: Advocate to ensure public agencies’ policies, practices, and implementation of legislative mandates appropriately meet the needs of young people.

· Appellate advocacy: Coordinate with legal services partners and LCYC attorneys on drafting and joining briefs in appellate courts, primarily as amicus.

Additional leadership and managerial responsibilities include:

· Ensure that LCYC’s systemic advocacy goals, priorities, and positions are grounded in anti-racism values and align with the agency’s strategic goal to incorporate LCYC’s anti-racism commitment into every decision and action.

· Develop and maintain policy expertise in areas that are consistent with the organization’s mission, vision, values, and programmatic plan.

· Collaborate to inform and improve public funding to meet the legal and nonlegal needs of Washington’s youth.

· Register as a lobbyist with the relevant State, County, and City entities, and report lobbying activities, as required.

· Timely track and calendar advocacy meetings, public hearings, and appointments.

· Provide supervisory supports to an LCYC Staff Attorney who spends half of their time in direct services/carrying a youth caseload and half supporting LCYC’s systemic advocacy initiatives. The Director may also support law student intern(s) on systemic advocacy projects.

Support LCYC’s Team, through Shared Leadership, to Identify Systemic Barriers, Solutions, and Navigate and Influence Systemic Change

The Director of Policy & Systemic Advocacy shares leadership with the Executive Director and internal systemic advocacy consultation teams: child welfare, juvenile court, youth homelessness, immigration, LGBTQIA+, and civil legal aid (statewide). The Director consults with the relevant team(s) to determine LCYC’s positions and priorities. The Executive Director is looped into systemic issues that may have a broader political, organizational wide, or financial impact. LCYC’s values and principles, as well as our strategic plan, inform decision-making and priority setting.

The Director supports and collaborates with LCYC staff in a variety of ways such as:

· Partner with LCYC staff to identify systemic problems, solutions, strategies, positions, and priorities.

· Prepare and support LCYC staff engagement in systemic advocacy meetings, hearings, and public testimony (written and oral).

· Develop and maintain general familiarity of systemic advocacy work, timelines, and processes, and communicate timelines and deadlines to relevant LCYC team members who engage in the work.

· Participate in weekly meetings with the Executive Director, regular management and substantive legal team meetings with LCYC staff, general staff monthly meetings, and bi-annual retreats with all LCYC staff.

· Serve as a member of the organization’s management team. Work with management team to help shepherd cross-system and cross-program development of multiyear strategies to advance agencywide, program and systemic advocacy goals. Help the agency progress on the commitments made in its strategic plan and support the inevitable pivots in strategy that comes with nonprofit leadership work.

Collaborate with External Partners and Young People to Advance Systemic Change

· Track and analyze proposed and prospective legislation and regulations that LCYC or our partners have identified as priorities or that arise and may be in opposition to identified priorities or result in harm to young people. Communicate their progress with LCYC staff and provide policy and legal feedback to internal and external stakeholders.

· Partner with the LCYC team, young people, advocacy coalitions, community-based providers (for example, homeless youth shelter staff and Youth Action Boards), and other stakeholders to identify and work to remedy systemic issues that harm young people. Identify and advise on potential avenues to address the systemic harms.

· Serve as a liaison to community-based partners regarding LCYC’s systemic advocacy work and knowledge of legal issues impacting young people across the systems we work in.

Elevate and Grow LCYC’s Policy and Systemic Advocacy Work

· Serve as an organizational spokesperson on policy issues consistent with the organization’s mission vision, values, and programmatic plans, in consultation with the Executive Director.

· Develop and present trainings and presentations to internal and external stakeholders to increase awareness of the systemic challenges youth face and LCYC’s tools and actions used to address them.

· Collaborate with LCYC’s Director of Development & Communications to identify and advance LCYC’s policy advocacy, to both share calls to action with the community, but which may also increase awareness of and support for LCYC’s systemic advocacy program.

· Alongside a Director of Legal Services, co-lead LCYC’s new initiative to engage and support attorneys across Washington State who represent dependent children and youth through the Office of Civil Legal Aid’s Children’s Representation Program (CRP).

o Aid in building an active online community of youth dependency attorneys across Washington.

o Engage with youth attorneys within and outside LCYC to identify systemic challenges and to brainstorm and advance solutions.

· Participate in trainings to continually improve policy analysis and advocacy skills.

· Provide annual legislative updates for the Washington State Homeless Youth Handbook.

All LCYC staff are required to timely track their hours and expenses utilizing LCYC’s online tools, including Clio and Ramp. Additionally, all staff are expected to participate in ongoing professional development trainings, anti-racism trainings, identity group conversations, and project specific workgroups on equity and systemic racism.

ABOUT LCYC:

LCYC protects the interests and safety of youth in Washington by advancing their legal rights. We accomplish our mission through direct legal representation, strong community partnerships, and systemic advocacy. We have four program areas: child welfare, juvenile court, youth and family immigration, and youth homelessness.

LCYC provides community-based, holistic legal advocacy to expand access to justice for young people in Washington. LCYC was created and continues to evolve in response to the needs of Washington’s youth. We collaborate with community partners and young people to elevate and improve both direct and systemic advocacy work.

LCYC is a team of supportive, creative, risk-taking, and flexible people seeking to disrupt the status quo. We are committed to continual learning. An essential part of that learning must be centered on anti-racism within ourselves, our organization, and the systems we encounter as advocates for young people. We are willing to fail forward, make mistakes and learn, and embrace change. We believe humor and teamwork are critical to doing this sometimes incredibly difficult work.

TO APPLY:
Please submit a letter of interest, resume, brief writing sample, and list of three references to Rhea Yo (she/her) at rhea@lcycwa.org.

For your application to be considered, please include a response to the following question in your cover letter:

· How do you think your personal background or experiences, professional or otherwise, have prepared you to contribute to our commitment to anti-racism and equity internally and externally?

Applications will be reviewed upon receipt. We hope to hire as soon as possible. New hires can start as early as August 2024. This position will be left open until filled.

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