Director, State & Local Advocacy

Covenant House International•New York, NY

4d•Remote

About The Position

The Director of State and Local Advocacy strengthens advocacy capability across Covenant House International’s domestic sites in the United States. The role advances policy solutions to prevent and end youth homelessness, combat human trafficking, and address social determinants of health affecting young people. It combines legislative and regulatory knowledge with practical implementation work, including developing tools, analyzing policy landscapes, supporting campaigns, building partnerships, and advising and coaching site leaders and staff. The director independently leads projects, works across diverse stakeholders and political perspectives, and helps local leaders build durable, bipartisan support for effective policies. The director reports directly to the Senior Vice President of Advocacy and Strategic Partnerships and has no direct reports at this time. The role collaborates with site leaders, frontline staff, young people with lived experience and expertise, public officials, community providers, and colleagues across Covenant House. It is 100% remote except for travel, with national travel of up to 25% and one annual trip to New York City in early October.

Requirements

At least 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 how they interact 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.
Ability to manage multiple initiatives simultaneously and deliver high-quality work on deadlines.
Political judgment and ability to assess risk, timing, and stakeholder interests and provide discerning recommendations.
Change-management experience helping organizations, teams, or individuals adopt and sustain new practices and approaches.
Relationship-management skills across senior executives, frontline staff, youth leaders, government officials, and community partners.
Ability to facilitate workshops, strategy sessions, peer-learning cohorts, and planning processes.
Ability to interpret and communicate data for advocacy, policy analysis, and decision-making.
Familiarity with public funding systems and how policy influences nonprofit financing.
Experience working with youth, emerging leaders, and senior executives with cultural humility and intergenerational leadership.
Comfort with ambiguity and entrepreneurial environments, including building systems, iterating, applying learning, pivoting, and prioritizing.
Proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite, Teams, Zoom, and project management tools.
Ability to travel nationally up to 25% and travel to New York City once per year in early October.

Nice To Haves

Bachelor’s or master’s degree in public policy, social work, public administration, public health, political science, law, or a 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.

Responsibilities

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 systems-change opportunities 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, frontline program staff, and young people.
Support development of Covenant House International’s domestic advocacy agenda with the Senior Vice President of Advocacy and Strategic Partnerships.
Design and implement advocacy capacity- and capability-building strategies across U.S. sites.
Partner with site leaders and key staff to develop, execute, and improve state and local advocacy plans through continuous quality improvement.
Develop practical advocacy tools, guidance documents, training curricula, and implementation resources for sites and partners.
Provide technical assistance on state and local legislative, regulatory, budget, and administrative advocacy in coordination with federal and national advocacy priorities.
Build systems and processes that enable sites to engage effectively with policymakers, partners, and community stakeholders.
Help sites navigate state and local implementation of federal funding and policy initiatives with the Senior Vice President of Advocacy and Strategic Partnerships.
Help sites understand how federal, state, and local systems interact and affect outcomes for young people.
Identify best practices and emerging models that can be adapted across the federation.
Help scale effective advocacy approaches, publicly share lessons learned, and promote cross-federation learning and innovation.
Serve as a thought partner to the Senior Vice President while exercising independent judgment and ownership of projects and workstreams.
Collaborate with the strategy office, CHI departments, U.S. site leaders, and external partners.
Contribute to cross-functional initiatives advancing prevention, advocacy, and partnership priorities.
Support data-informed advocacy and policy storytelling.
Cultivate relationships with nonprofit partners, advocacy organizations, research institutions, government agencies, and philanthropic organizations.
Represent Covenant House International in assigned coalitions, working groups, and policy collaboratives.
Identify opportunities for collective impact and cross-sector collaboration.
Support implementation of CHI’s strategic partnerships framework at site and community levels.