Programs and Advocacy Coordinator

MUST SUBMIT THROUGH Application Link:

ABOUT ALAS

We believe that all students deserve educational access, career options and freedom. The U.S. is the mass incarceration capital of the world. ALAS removes barriers to education, career and freedom for and with youth affected by immigration and legal courts. We organize youth to train educators with trauma-informed approaches to support their students by connecting undocumented students with legal representation, and advocating for students to remain in schools instead of being in jail during the pre-trial period. Together with educators, students and families, we advocate for policy change, reimagining systems to center the gifts, talents, leadership, and brilliance of our youth.

ROLE OVERVIEW

ALAS' Programs & Advocacy Coordinator will provide organization, coordination, and execution for all ALAS programming including educator trainings, youth leadership development and community partner collaboration. As a founding teammate, the PAC will ensure all programs are delivered with high quality, fidelity and differentiation, to support youth and educators with nuance. The PAC will create scalable guides that allow us to reproduce these programs with excellence in new cities, adjusting to respect, value and celebrate differing values and contexts. The PAC will bring a team mentality, collaborating closely with colleagues to ensure alignment, shared learning, and collective success. As schools demand more services, our number of youth requiring legal representation rises and we need someone to manage the quantity and quality of our attorney pipeline. This includes maintaining excellent relationships with the attorneys we have, building new partnerships, updating and streamlining our referral processes per semester, and proactively innovating and piloting long term strategies and legal aid processes with precision and expertise for ALAS to expand services to more sites nationally.

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS

The salary for this full-time, in-person role in New Orleans is $50,000–$55,000, non-negotiable with an annual cost-of-living raise. Compensation is based on experience:

• $50,000 for 2–5 years in education and youth programming
• $55,000 for 5+ years in education and youth programming

This is a 90-day contract-to-hire role. This full-time role is based in New Orleans, requiring onsite work only, with a commitment of 40-50 hours weekly depending on the season of the year and needs of each week.

• 6 weeks paid time off. of those 17 days are designated, 2 of those weeks fall around the New Year (dates vary per year based on school partners), and 13 days are chosen by each teammate
• $500 monthly per teammate towards health, dental, and vision insurance options
• Ongoing professional development
• Work computer

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

School & Community Partnerships (30%)

• Manage growing school partnerships including prospecting, preparing talking points, writing and enforcing contracts, invoicing and executing all details of training and measurement
• Oversees and supports the lifecycle of our programming and acts as the interface between the school liaisons, school partners, and the ALAS team
• Oversee and refine the attorney pairing process, ensuring continuous improvement, accessibility, and effectiveness in connecting students with legal representation
• Develop and implement systems to document program best practices, creating a sustainable and scalable model for growth and replication

Youth Programming (30%)

• Develop an intentional, loving, passionate and welcoming youth culture that centers and uplifts youth in leadership and advocacy, acts quickly on feedback, incorporates loving and liberatory practice research, and proposes sound processes and policies that center ALAS foundations
• Design the scope and sequence, measurements for assessment and thresholds for thriving
• Identify and cultivate opportunities for ALAS youth to share their voices, opinions, gifts and talents across various internal and community leadership and advocacy platforms
• Implement a leadership pipeline that nurtures youth talent, offering mentorship, training, and progressive leadership opportunities.

Advocacy (20%) Organize youth to develop advocacy strategies that eliminate barriers to education, career, and freedom.

• Develop and execute advocacy strategies that builds strong relationships with key policymakers, coalitions, and movement leaders to drive systemic change
• Establish public speaking and advocacy training opportunities, ensuring youth have the skills and confidence to engage in policy discussions.
• Identify education, immigration and criminal legal policy initiatives in motion or in collaboration and lead them if necessary on school, local, state, national and international levels
• Strengthen ALAS' leadership role in coalitions with organizations that remove barriers presented by education, immigration, and/or criminal legal systems

Attorney Partnerships (15%) Build, support & maintain attorney pipeline.

• Maintain and expand attorney pipeline, develop relationships with new attorneys, law firms, and public interest law groups to increase legal representation for undocumented youth
• Maintain close relationships with OPD, LACCR & other defense attorneys to coordinate support for arrested youth
• Innovate solutions to representation scarcity by creating accredited representation opportunities

Empowerment Narrative (5%) Create an empowerment narrative in response to media and political changes.

• Quickly demystify changes and make process updates for programs team/liaisons/youth as well as staff and general public to increase clarity on content, context and impact as well as reduce fear, center locus of control, outline clear and actionable next steps with empathy and love

APPLICATION & HIRING INFORMATION

• The hiring process will include an application, hiring tasks, multiple interviews, and reference checks
• Additional conversations, meetings or event attendance may be part of the interview process
• To minimize bias, the written application will be a blind process, anonymizing names of applicants
• Interviewers always include youth, and at times educators, attorneys and other community partners

Applications will be accepted until a hire is made. Earlier applications will be prioritized. Once a hire has been made, this link will no longer be active. The volume of applications received will determine how quickly we are able to move between phases, as we are a very small team with a high volume of high-stakes work. All applicants will be notified of candidacy status at each stage.

Application Directions: Fully read the job description and application. Complete and submit all requested materials.

Application Link:

Job Type: Full-time

Pay: $50,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• Health insurance
• Paid time off
• Professional development assistance

People with a criminal record are encouraged to apply

Work Location: In person