Advocacy Volunteer

Save to Favorites

Basic Info

Kid City Hope Place is a college access and youth leadership program that serves high school and college students in the DTLA area and its surrounding communities. Our organization has participated in several advocacy campaigns that have highlighted the importance of college affordability for first-generation college students, students of color, and students that come from low-income households. Recently, our organization met with the offices of 10 California congressional legislators to advance the Double Pell priority with the National College Attainment Network and other member organizations across the United States. In addition to doubling the pell grant, our delegation of advocates pushed for improving accessibility to SNAP benefits, expanding Pell grant eligibility to DACA and undocumented students, ensuring internet access for Pell grant recipients, and extending the student loan grace period and pandemic deferment.

Advocacy Volunteer: The Advocacy Volunteer will assist Kid City’s participation in national and state advocacy campaigns. Volunteers will reach out to congressional offices, work alongside other college access organizations in California, and recruit and train volunteer advocates. To prepare for meetings, the volunteer is expected to gather relevant research to develop key points, data summaries, and other advocacy materials. This is a great opportunity for individuals that are interested in advocacy, education policy, college access work, or grassroots organizing.

Reports to: Executive Director, Anne Hawthorne

Commitment requested (two separate time periods for internship):

• January - April - National College Access Network: March advocacy week (virtual, federal); Education Trust West: Two-day state-wide advocacy (virtual, state)
• May-July - College for All Coalition: June advocacy week (virtual, state); National College Access Network: July advocacy week (virtual, federal)

Primary Responsibilities:

Responsibility #1: Reach out to congressional offices; Identify the precise contact/info; Draft invitations; Make phone calls; Maintain formal communication with congressional staff.

Responsibility #2: Coordinate with partner organizations; Participate and prepare for weekly meetings with partner organizations to prepare for advocacy; Update shared documents; Maintain open communication with team members.

Responsibility #3: Recruit and train advocates. Persuasive advocacy requires advocates with strong narrating skills. Recruit advocates can identify policy priorities by narrating their personal experiences through precise messages.

Responsibility #4: Research. Gather research about congressional representatives, legislation, and policy priorities; Develop internal and external documents for the advocacy campaign by identifying key points, congressional profiles, district data summaries, and policy priority leave-behinds.

Responsibility #5: Lead multiple advocacy meetings with congressional offices; Prepare an agenda; Assemble a team of storytellers, a data person, and a note-taker.

Responsibility #6: Create external communications; Draft Kid City accounts and social media posts to promote advocacy priorities and achievements across multiple digital platforms; Write blog posts and newsletter articles addressing advocacy work that may include adding photos, quotes, policy issues, and partner organizations.

Responsibility #7: Attend advocacy training. Advocacy training will provide you with more context about policy issues and tips for executing effective meetings.

Responsibility #8: Completion: Add participating students to a rapid response roster or student contact database; Move documents into appropriate folders in Kid City Hope Place drive- "Advocacy" folder.

Qualifications:

Required

• College student or recent grad
• Demonstrate an interest in advocacy, education policy, college access work, or grassroots organizing
• Knowledge or willingness to learn about institutional barriers to college attainment for underrepresented communities.
• Ability to work with little guidance during assignment performance
• Experience completing group and individual projects
• Strong communication and outreach skills
• Strong research and writing skills
• Experience leading meetings and managing small teams.
• Knowledge of Google Workspace programs (e.g. Gmail, Google Drive, Calendar)

Preferred

• Pursuing a degree or completed a degree in public policy, political science, social work, or education
• Ability to use social media or visual design programs to promote advocacy goals

Benefits

• Exposure to advocacy and grassroots organizing
• Opportunity to build relationships with congressional staff, policy, and advocacy professionals