Substance Use Prevention Youth Organizer and

Native American Community•Minneapolis, MN

12d•$28 - $31•Onsite

About The Position

NACC’s mission is to promote the health & wellness of mind, body, and spirit of Native American families. We offer a full range of healthcare services that include Medical, Behavioral Health, Dental, and Substance Abuse. The Substance Use Prevention Youth Organizer builds a base of young people and community members with the relationships, skills, and standing to shape substance use prevention in their community. This is an organizing position: the work is identifying and developing leaders, moving people from contact to commitment to leadership, and turning individual leadership into collective capacity. The capacity takes organizational form through a Communities That Care (CTC) coalition, youth leadership structures, and culturally grounded prevention programming led by the people it serves. The Organizer works relationally and in accordance with community protocol, with accountability to Elders, families, and youth as well as to the organization and its funders.

Requirements

Experience in community organizing and engagement, youth programming, and/or program coordination.
Ability to initiate conversations with people you do not already know, and to sustain relationships over time.
Ability to work effectively with diverse community partners, including elders and youth.
Strong organizational and communication skills, including comfort with contact tracking and follow-through.
Experience coordinating meetings, events, or community-based initiatives.
Willingness to work evenings and weekends as community schedules require

Nice To Haves

Experience working with American Indian/Alaska Native communities.
Familiarity with culturally responsive programming, prevention, or public health initiatives.
Experience with youth leadership development
Bachelor's degree or equivalent combination of education and community experience

Responsibilities

Conduct one-to-one conversations with youth, families, elders, and community members as the primary method of identifying interests, self-interest, and potential leaders.
Build and maintain an accurate contact list and relational map of the community, including youth-serving organizations, schools, programs, families, and informal networks.
Carry out sustained outreach through phone and text banking, in-person canvassing at community gatherings and youth-serving sites, and follow-up contact — not one-time announcements.
Set and track engagement and turnout goals for meetings, events, and programs, and adjust outreach strategy based on results.
Identify who is not currently reached by existing prevention efforts and organize them specifically.
Recruit, convene, and support a Youth Advisory Council, developed in partnership with youth-serving organizations where appropriate.
Develop young people along a ladder of engagement — from first contact, to participation, to running an activity, to recruiting and developing other youth.
Build toward youth running their own meetings and setting their own priorities, with the Organizer moving into a supporting role over time.
Support development of culturally appropriate youth consent and participation processes.
Build the CTC coalition through recruitment of committed members rather than a standing invitation list — moving organizations and individuals from awareness, to attendance, to shared ownership of the work.
Conduct power and stakeholder analysis to identify who must be at the table for prevention efforts to have real reach and organize toward their participation.
Support the coalition through the CTC phases and milestones, including defining roles, decision-making processes, meeting structure, and shared goals.
Maintain relationships with elders, tribal and community leaders, schools, health and human services partners, and youth-serving organizations.
Coordinate communication and collaboration among internal staff, coalition members, and community partners.
Support delivery of harm reduction and opioid prevention education through culturally specific contractors and partners.
Engage youth in the development of culturally relevant prevention messaging and stigma-reduction activities grounded in their own language and analysis.
Support youth-led creation of art-based and digital prevention materials.
Collect and summarize community and youth feedback; support with readiness planning and identification of service gaps.
Debrief actions, and events with youth leaders and staff to build shared analysis of what worked.
Support collaboration with elders, youth, and public health partners.
Support grant reporting requirements.
Other duties as assigned.