Community Stewards Lead

Chicago Public Media•Chicago, IL

7h•$69,000 - $86,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Chicago Public Media is seeking a Community Stewards Lead to build and lead the stewardship program for its new digital platform, Chicago.com. This platform aims to strengthen the connection between Chicagoans and their local communities by creating online spaces for residents to discover local happenings, share information, and engage with civic life. Each community on the platform is supported by a paid Community Steward who facilitates conversation, maintains norms, and connects residents to opportunities. The Community Stewards Lead will oversee the initial cohort of Community Stewards, develop the necessary systems, training, coaching, and support infrastructure for the program's success and growth. This role involves managing, coaching, and motivating stewards, helping them develop local strategies, establish effective moderation practices, and achieve community engagement goals. Additionally, the lead will be instrumental in building the overall stewardship program by creating a playbook, training materials, peer-learning structures, performance expectations, and feedback systems.

Requirements

Experience managing, coaching, or developing people, particularly individuals working independently or across multiple locations or communities.
Experience building or operating community programs, membership programs, ambassador networks, field organizations, or similar distributed models.
Strong facilitation and training skills, with the ability to help people learn from one another as well as from formal guidance.
Experience developing playbooks, documentation, training programs, workflows, or other systems that make an emerging program more consistent and scalable.
A strong understanding of online community management, including moderation, community standards, engagement, and the dynamics of disagreement and misinformation.
Experience using quantitative and qualitative information to assess performance, identify problems, and adjust strategy.
Ability to coach individuals toward clear goals while adapting support to different neighborhoods, personalities, and community contexts.
Strong cross-functional collaboration skills and the ability to work effectively with product, marketing, editorial, and external partners.
Comfort working in an early-stage environment where processes, tools, and responsibilities will continue to evolve.
Strong judgment, particularly when navigating sensitive community issues or balancing consistency across the program with the needs of individual neighborhoods.

Nice To Haves

Familiarity with Chicago's neighborhoods, civic ecosystem, and community organizations is strongly preferred.

Responsibilities

Recruit, onboard, and manage Community Stewards, including leading interviews, selection, and ongoing management.
Build on initial recruitment and training efforts to ensure stewards complete onboarding and training successfully.
Establish clear expectations for steward performance, responsibilities, and deliverables.
Conduct regular 1:1 coaching and performance conversations with each steward.
Identify and address performance or support gaps with clear plans.
Manage performance issues, including steward transitions or offboarding when expectations are not met.
Help build a strong cohort culture where stewards can learn from and support each other.
Develop and maintain a Chicago Public Media stewardship playbook covering onboarding, community building, content, moderation, events, growth, editorial standards, and platform use.
Create practical resources for stewards, such as onboarding guides, FAQs, content calendar templates, and platform guidance.
Establish a visible calendar of key dates, milestones, and deliverables for the steward cohort.
Design and facilitate regular workshops and training sessions for skill development, peer learning, product updates, and best practices.
Create an asynchronous peer-support space for stewards to ask questions and share approaches.
Organize in-person opportunities to strengthen relationships within the cohort.
Continuously refine training and documentation based on practical learnings.
Work with each steward to develop an individualized strategy for their neighborhood.
Help stewards develop approaches for attracting residents, establishing community culture, generating conversation, and building participation.
Coach stewards on creating content that sparks conversation and reflects neighborhood life.
Help stewards connect online dialogue with in-person opportunities.
Support stewards in helping residents navigate trusted neighborhood information.
Help stewards develop newsletters or other approaches for curating and sharing information.
Provide guidance on site-specific moderation decisions.
Reinforce consistent moderation and editorial practices while allowing authentic local voices.
Help establish and communicate clear performance expectations for the steward program.
Track community health and steward performance against agreed-upon measures.
Help stewards understand their performance data and use it to inform priorities.
Assess which steward activities contribute to community outcomes and adjust strategy.
Work with partners to establish dashboards and reporting tools.
Compile regular assessments of community and program performance.
Use quantitative and qualitative evidence to inform program evolution and expansion decisions.
Serve as a primary connection point between Community Stewards and the broader Chicago.com team.
Surface recurring steward feedback about platform tools, workflows, community needs, and barriers.
Partner with the product team to identify areas for platform improvement.
Coordinate with external product partners on steward tools and resources.
Clarify roles, responsibilities, and support pathways across teams.
Establish regular cross-functional communication rhythms.
Help stewards access marketing materials and other organizational resources.
Establish pathways for stewards to surface potential story ideas and community insights to the newsroom.
Document lessons learned to incorporate into a repeatable stewardship model.
Develop a comprehensive reference playbook for launching and stewarding a community.
Evaluate the effectiveness of the initial stewardship model.
Help lead planning for potential expansion into additional Chicago neighborhoods.
Lead recruitment and onboarding of additional stewards if expansion is approved.
Help determine the staffing and management structure for a larger steward network.
Create opportunities for experienced stewards to share knowledge and contribute to best practices.