About United Way:
United Way of Massachusetts Bay exists to build more equitable communities, together. With over 85 years of local impact in eastern Massachusetts, we work with and for our communities to build economic prosperity and enable everyone-across races and ethnicities-to share in the knowledge, wealth, and resources available. We believe that the key to unlocking opportunity is uniting people, and we bring together individuals, community leaders, corporate partners, legislators, and organizations to build a powerful engine of change. We target efforts in the following areas: (1) quality, affordable childcare and out-of-school time care, (2) educational and career pathways for youth and young adults, (3) safe and stable housing, and (4) wealth-building and financial inclusion. United Way currently invests over $45 million annually in a portfolio of over 300 community-based organizations. It spearheads public policy initiatives tackling the most pressing community issues, making a direct and sustained difference in the lives of individuals.
We offer excellent benefits including a BCBS PPO plan, dental, 401k retirement savings with company match and an employer base contribution, and a generous PTO policy which includes extended holiday time and summer hours. We also are offering staff a hybrid work schedule in a new office environment.
POSITION OVERVIEW:
The Vice President of Pathways for Youth and Young Adults at United is a strategic leadership role focused on education and career pathways for disconnected youth and young adults aged 16-24. The position involves serving as a thought leader and external representative, cultivating partnerships, and developing a Theory of Action aligned with United Way's vision for Economic Justice. Responsibilities include leading initiatives, building multi-sector partnerships, supporting field-building strategies, and advancing racial and ethnic equity. The Vice President will also oversee a team, collaborate with various departments, engage with funders, and contribute to policy advocacy efforts. This role is integral in driving United Way's mission of empowering youth and young adults while promoting equity and social change.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:
Strategic Leadership:
Shape and champion Pathways for Youth and Young Adults across eastern Massachusetts as a United Way leader:
- Serve as a thought leader and external representative in the community on issues related to education and career pathways for youth and young adults, aged 16-24 who are disconnected from school and work, championing the solutions and leaders emerging from United Way's priority communities
- Provide strategic leadership for United Way's Pathways for Youth and Young Adults priority, aligning efforts of community organizations, businesses, institutions, state and local government, volunteers, public and private funders, and other stakeholders with a movement for change in this priority
- Cultivate lead partnerships related to Pathways for Youth and Young Adults that will shape United Way's strategy and seek and identify opportunities to advance the work in the community with mission-aligned organizations, networks, and coalitions such as workforce investment boards, community colleges, state agencies, and direct service organizations.
- Develop multi-sector partnerships to advance initiatives and outcomes aligned with our overarching equity agenda
Build and execute a Theory of Action that advances Pathways for Youth and Young Adults goals:
- Determine and refine population-level strategies, objectives, and metrics that advance education and career pathway opportunities for youth and young adults across United Way's footprint, aligned with an overarching vision for Economic Justice. Approaches include grantmaking, field building, programming, coalition building, advocacy, policy, convenings, research, and evaluation, all oriented toward advancing regional racial and ethnic equity and economic justice.
- Responsible for leading United Way's work in supporting regional solutions for career and educational pathways for 16-24-year-olds who are disconnected from school and work. This includes capacity building and training efforts, building partnerships to strengthen provider networks, technical assistance to partners to increase funding opportunities, and leading innovative projects such as Marian L. Heard Scholars and Boston Opportunity Youth Collaborative.
- Ensure that increasing youth voice and power in internal and external systems change is included in the Theory of Action and seek out best practices for youth voice and power to weave into impact work throughout United Way,
- Collaborate with colleagues across impact areas and the broader organization to make decisions on grantmaking and other activities that accelerate momentum toward intended results
- Develop and support the implementation of a field-building strategy with the Pathways team and Housing team to mobilize communities in achieving population-level goals including creating strategic alliances with local, regional, and national partners and supporting network/peer learning and communities of practice
- Identify resource needs to execute theory of action and launch new initiatives and partner with Development and Grants Teams on the alignment of the funder community with movement change
Team Development and Interdepartmental Leadership:
The Vice President will convene and provide leadership to an internal functional team related to the design, resourcing, and implementation of the Pathways strategy. The Vice President works to ensure marginalized youth and young adults are prioritized in each avenue of prosperity and throughout the organization. The Vice President will be responsible for staffing, managing, and developing this team in collaboration with the Chief Community Impact Officer and other impact area leads. Specifically, the VP will be expected to:
- Supervise and coach direct report staff and overall Pathways team (in FY24: one full-time Director)
- Build staff capacity to achieve impact outcomes by guiding staff on priorities, managing workload, and supporting collaborative work
- Build staff talent by establishing and reinforcing performance expectations, leadership & growth opportunities and ensure staff have professional development plans
- Collaborate with Development team leadership to provide grounding on Pathways for Youth & Young Adults and to cultivate and grow individual donor relationships, corporate partnerships, and engagement opportunities that align and forward the impact strategy
- Collaborate with Strategic Partnerships and Grants team on sourcing and writing grant proposals, and cultivating and stewarding foundation relationships to secure new or continued funding for impact strategy
- Collaborate with Public Affairs staff to advise on Pathways messaging and storytelling
- Work with the Vice President of Analytics and the data analytics team to develop and track metrics monitoring Pathways outcomes progress and adjust strategy as needed. Identify external evaluation and strategic learning resources needed to assess strategic impact.
- Work closely with the Vice President of Public Policy and Government Relations, and the Public Affairs team, policy leaders, and advocates to develop a policy agenda and strategic focus on systems changes required to achieve population-level impact goals with the integration of community voice.
Personal Leadership
The Vice President will be expected to inspire the trust and confidence of others on the team, in the organization, and in the community. The position requires the ability to lead and collaborate with a diverse team of professionals, including direct reports, peers within the Department and cross-functionally, and our community partners. Specifically, the Vice President will be expected to:
- Gain the confidence and trust of others through principled leadership and sound business ethics
- Learn and develop from personal experience and from others
- Embrace the opportunities for change and lead others to a place of clarity and commitment
- Foster a sense of energy, ownership, and personal connection to the work, the communities we serve, and our staff
- Demonstrate deep commitment to and experience working with racial and ethnic equity and economic justice principles and practices, including championing the voices of people with lived experience and the solutions emerging from United Way's priority communities
- Lead by example and demonstrate UW's core values and commitment to equity in all internal and external relationships.
REQUIREMENTS:
- Minimum of ten years of increasingly responsible professional experience in the nonprofit, philanthropic, private, or public sector
- Extensive knowledge and experience in issues related to financial inclusion, wealth building, and economic justice.
- Familiarity with policy and systems change
- Experience and comfort in setting a vision and aligning activities to that vision
- Experience and commitment to successfully developing, managing, and mentoring a diverse team in a changing environment
- Strong interpersonal skills and ability to build relationships with diverse individuals, organizations, and communities
- Experience developing and aligning strategies that contributes to the overall organizational results
- Strong collaborator with experience managing complex initiatives
- Experience with philanthropy, grantmaking, and/or program development
- Ability to lead collaborative efforts internally and externally
- Excellent facilitation, listening, oral, and written communications skills
- Ability to effectively manage multiple priorities, projects, and staff
- Customer-service orientation to support grant partners and fellow staff in achieving goals and results
- Self-starter with a results-and problem-solving orientation and an ability to thrive in a fast-paced, changing environment
- Experienced public speaker and institutional ambassador
- Demonstrated personal integrity and commitment to racial and ethnic equity and the ability to engender trust, credibility, and confidence across racial, economic, ethnic, and geographic differences
- Computer literacy in Microsoft environments and familiarity with database systems.
- United Way of Massachusetts Bay is committed to hiring individuals
- who reflect the diversity of our communities.
For more information, or to apply now, you must go to the website below. Please DO NOT email your resume to us as we only accept applications through our website.