Director, State & Local Advocacy

Overview

Since 1972, Covenant House has served and advocated for youth and young families experiencing homelessness, human trafficking, and exploitation. Our overarching goal is to end homelessness among youth and young families by helping them achieve housing stability, heal from trauma, tap into their innate resilience, and hone their interests and skills to forge new pathways to independence. This work is carried out across Covenant House sites in 34 cities in the US, Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras.

About the Role

The Director of State and Local Advocacy is responsible for strengthening advocacy capability across our domestic sites in the United States to help advance policy solutions that prevent and end youth homelessness, combat human trafficking, and address the social determinants of health that impact young people’s access to a bright, healthy, safe future.

This role is designed for an emerging mid-career policy leader who combines strong cross-cutting legislative and regulatory knowledge with a practical, implementation-oriented approach. The director will serve as a hands-on contributor who develops tools, analyzes policy landscapes, supports advocacy campaigns, builds partnerships, and translates policy opportunities into action; as well as a trusted advisor and coach to site leaders as staff.

The ideal candidate is someone who can independently lead projects, build trust across diverse stakeholders, cultivate strategic partnerships, navigate complex political environments, and help local leaders become more powerful and successful advocates. They are motivated by effectiveness rather than ideology, comfortable working across political perspectives, and committed to building durable bipartisan support for policies that improve outcomes for America’s most vulnerable young people.

In this role, you will report directly to the Senior Vice President of Advocacy and Strategic Partnerships. There are no direct reports to this role at this time. This is a unique opportunity to help shape the future of youth homelessness advocacy across the United States within an international federation of sites. In this role, you won't just analyze policy. You will help turn it into action, working across state and local systems in partnership with leaders, public officials, community providers, and young people. You'll have the autonomy to lead meaningful projects, the mentorship and visibility that come with partnering directly with senior leadership, and the opportunity to build a national reputation as an emerging public policy leader. If you are energized by solving complex problems, thrive in collaborative environments, enjoy translating strategy into execution, and want your work to have a tangible impact on the lives of vulnerable young people, this role offers a rare blend of mission, influence, growth, and purpose for a policy professional looking to take the next step in their career.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Policy Analysis and Strategy Development (45%)

• Monitor state and local legislative, regulatory, and administrative developments affecting youth homelessness, housing, child welfare, trafficking, education, workforce development, behavioral health, and related social determinants of health

• Conduct policy landscape analyses and identify opportunities for systems change in partnership with site leadership, frontline staff, community partners, and young people with lived experience and expertise

• Produce policy briefs, issue papers, legislative summaries, talking points, fact sheets, and other advocacy materials

• Translate complex policy developments into actionable guidance for nonprofit leaders, program staff with frontline experience and expertise, and youth with lived experience and expertise

• Support the development of CHI's broader domestic advocacy agenda in partnership with the SVP of Advocacy & Strategic Partnerships

State and Local Advocacy Capacity Building (25%)

• Design and implement capacity- and capability building strategies across CHI's sites in the United States

• Partner with site leaders and key staff to develop, execute, and enhance state and local advocacy plans through continuous quality improvement

• Develop practical advocacy tools, guidance documents, training curricula, and implementation resources for CH sites and partners

• Provide technical assistance on legislative, regulatory, budget, and administrative advocacy strategies at the state and local levels in coordination with federal / national advocacy priorities and strategies

• Build systems and processes that enable sites to engage effectively with policymakers, partners, and community stakeholders

Systems Change and Implementation Support (15%)

• Help sites navigate state and local implementation of federal funding and policy initiatives in partnership with SVP of advocacy and strategic partnerships

• Support sites in understanding how federal, state, and local systems interact and influence outcomes for young people

• Identify best practices and emerging models that can be adapted across the federation

• Assist in scaling effective advocacy approaches, disseminating lessons learned publicly, and cross-pollinating innovations and best practices across the federation

Internal Leadership and Collaboration (10%)

• Serve as a thought partner to the SVP while exercising significant independent judgment and ownership at the project / workstream level

• Collaborate closely with colleagues in strategy office and across CHI departments, U.S. site leaders, and external partners

• Contribute to cross-functional initiatives that advance CHI's prevention, advocacy, and partnership priorities

• Support organizational efforts to strengthen data-informed advocacy and policy storytelling

Coalition and Partnership Development (5%)

• Cultivate relationships with nonprofit partners, advocacy organizations, research institutions, government agencies, and philanthropy

• Represent CHI in coalitions, working groups, and policy collaboratives as assigned

• Identify opportunities for collective impact and cross-sector collaboration

• Support implementation of CHI's strategic partnerships framework at the site and community levels

Required Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Project management excellence — ability to manage multiple initiatives simultaneously and consistently deliver high quality outputs on deadlines

• Political judgment — knows how to effectively assess risk, timing, and stakeholder interests to provide discerning recommendations to SVP of advocacy and strategic partnerships

• Change management — experience helping organizations, teams, and individual contributors adopt and sustain new practices and approaches

• Relationship management across levels — comfortable engaging CEOs, frontline staff, youth leaders, government officials, and community partners

• Facilitation and convening expertise — capable of leading workshops, strategy sessions, peer-learning cohorts, and planning processes

• Data literacy — ability to interpret and communicate data for advocacy, policy analysis, and decision-making

• Resource development and grant knowledge — familiarity with public funding systems and how policy influences nonprofit financing

• Cultural humility and intergenerational leadership — experience working effectively with youth, emerging leaders, and senior executives alike

• Comfort with ambiguity and entrepreneurial environments — able to build systems, iterate for improvement, rapidly apply learning, pivot rapidly, and effectively prioritize

• Proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite, Teams, Zoom, and project management tools

Required Qualifications

• Minimum 7 years of progressively responsible experience in public policy, advocacy, systems change, government affairs, coalition leadership, technical assistance, consulting, or related fields

• Demonstrated experience supporting policy implementation and/or advocacy initiatives at state and local levels

• Significant knowledge of at least one major social determinant of health policy domain, such as housing, behavioral health, workforce development, education, child welfare, poverty reduction, public benefits, violence prevention, or juvenile justice

• Familiarity with federal legislative and regulatory processes and their interaction with state and local systems

• Experience working with nonprofit organizations, public agencies, coalitions, or cross-sector partnerships

• Experience navigating politically diverse environments and building bipartisan relationships

Preferred Knowledge, Skills, Abilities and Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in public policy, social work, public administration, public health, political science, law, or related field

• Proficiency with Asana, Smartsheet and Quorum

• Capacity building and adult learning expertise

• Coaching and facilitation skills

• Exceptional policy writing and communication abilities

• Landscape analysis and environmental scanning experience

• Systems-thinking and systems-change orientation

• Coalition-building and stakeholder engagement expertise

• Ability to translate strategy into operational plans and deliverables

Travel Requirements

• Ability to travel once per year to New York City in early October for our annual in-person traditions

• Travel nationally up to 25% for direct technical assistance, meetings with the Advocacy Team or Strategy Office, and conferences/ meetings

• Outside of above travel, this position is 100% remote

Our Community

Our critical mission demands that we have all voices at the table. A team of diverse people, perspectives, and experiences is smarter, stronger, and more effective for our young people. At Covenant House, every team member is valued, respected, heard, and supported, and we welcome honest and courageous self-reflection on any aspects of our work that are based on biased or outdated viewpoints. We deliberately create opportunities for our staff to grow and thrive.

Covenant House International is an Equal Opportunity Employer and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any kind: CHI is committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all employees and to providing employees with a work environment free of discrimination and harassment. All employment decisions at CHI are based on business needs, job requirements, and individual qualifications, without regard to race, color, religion, belief, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran status, family or parental status, disability status, or any other status protected by the laws or regulations in the locations where we operate. CHI will not tolerate discrimination or harassment based on any of these characteristics and encourages all qualified applicants to apply.

If you have a disability or medical condition and need a reasonable accommodation, such as an ASL interpreter or a different interview format, or if you have physical accessibility needs, let us know. Contact us at 1-929-502-2521, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Eastern Time or email us at [email protected].