Youth Engagement Specialist
City of New York · New York City, New York, United States
ABOUT THE CAMPAIGN FINANCE BOARD
The Campaign Finance Board is a nonpartisan, independent city agency that empowers New Yorkers to have a greater impact on their elections. Our mission is to make local democracy more open, transparent, and equitable by removing barriers to participation.
We make it easier for New Yorkers to vote, meaningfully support candidates for city office, and run for office themselves. NYC Votes, our voter engagement initiative, meets people where they are to share trustworthy election information and help New Yorkers make a plan to vote. We publish the citywide Voter Guide, which delivers information about candidates directly to voters’ doors. Our public matching funds program ensures small contributions can make a big difference, allowing regular people to run for office by relying on the support of other regular people, not just wealthy donors and special interests. And we lift the veil on how candidates raise and spend money, increasing transparency and accountability in local government.
We believe that when every New Yorker is empowered to participate meaningfully in elections, candidates will better reflect the communities they serve, elected leaders will be more accountable to the public, and New Yorkers will have a democracy they can truly trust.
ABOUT THE DEPARTMENT
Public Affairs Division
The Public Affairs division engages New Yorkers, informs them about elections, and boosts their participation in the democratic process. We make election information accessible and relevant, increase engagement with underrepresented communities, and cultivate a team that reflects our core values of purpose, curiosity, creativity, and collaboration.
The division includes Marketing and Digital Communications, Community Engagement, Language Access, and Public Relations. Our division’s work includes publishing the citywide Voter Guide, running the official citywide Debates Program, and managing the voter engagement initiative, NYC Votes.
Community Engagement Department
The Community Engagement unit works to build partnerships across the city to disseminate voting information, deliver accessible voter education, and conduct direct to voter outreach. Through relationships with community-based organizations as well as on-the-ground voter outreach, this team creates pathways for all New Yorkers to gain trustworthy and accessible information and education around voting and democracy.
JOB DESCRIPTION
We are seeking a Youth Engagement Specialist to support our Youth Programs Team, which builds relationships with youth-serving organizations and delivers voter education and civic engagement programming to young New Yorkers. The team focuses on engaging New Yorkers ages 14–24 through community partnerships, educational workshops, trainings, and events that build civic knowledge, leadership, and capacity for sustained participation in the democratic process.
Youth voter turnout is particularly low in several neighborhoods, particularly in the South Bronx and East New York. We are especially interested in candidates with lived and or professional experience developing and implementing youth programming in these communities.
The Specialist will lead voter education and engagement efforts for young New Yorkers ages 14–24, with a focus on building civic knowledge, leadership, and long-term capacity for participation. The educational programming will cover topics such as Civic Engagement, Local History, Campaign Finance, and more. The work will include developing and facilitating workshops, planning and executing community events, developing and delivering train-the-trainer sessions for educators and youth leaders, partnering with public schools to create and implement programming, and creating other opportunities for young people to engage with the electoral process.
Given these responsibilities, we are looking for someone with strong organizational, communication, facilitation, and collaboration skills. This role will require building and maintaining relationships with a diverse range of youth-serving organizations, schools, and community partners; understanding the unique needs and experiences of young people across New York City; and managing multiple programs, events, and cross-team collaborations. The success of this work relies heavily on strong interpersonal skills, which is why we are looking for someone with demonstrated empathy, discernment, adaptability, and self-accountability. The Specialist should understand the structural barriers that can limit young people’s participation in civic and electoral life and bring an approach that centers accessibility, relationship-building, and youth leadership. Beyond the technical skills, this role requires someone who can create spaces where young people feel respected, heard, and empowered to participate, while thoughtfully navigating different perspectives, priorities, and community contexts.
We believe that a diversity of experiences and perspectives will help us build stronger teams. We strongly encourage people of color/the global majority, people that speak a language other than English, LGBTQ people, people with disabilities, and people with other marginalized identities to apply.
The responsibilities and tasks to be completed in this role include, but are not limited to:
Relationship Management
- Research and identify new and existing partner organizations – including city agencies, community-based organizations, nonprofits, and advocacy groups to expand NYC Votes’ outreach.
- Develop and implement a tailored partnership building plan specifically for organizations in assigned geographies in alignment with strategic goals.
- Develop, manage, and evaluate paid partnership opportunities with organizations serving people in priority neighborhoods that result in measurable community impact.
- Identify opportunities to deepen partnerships by creating collaborative initiatives, advisory opportunities, co-created programming, and on-going community feedback mechanisms.
- Convene partners through meetings, listening sessions, advisory groups, networking opportunities to strengthen relations, and gather feedback.
- Manage material requests and distribution to voters in priorities neighborhoods, ensuring NYC Votes printed materials and toolkits are widely available.
Trainings, Workshops, and Education Programs
- Develop relevant educational content that encourages use and understanding of accessibility tools, civic engagement, and voter contributors, and candidate participation for youth voters in priority neighborhoods
- Plan community conversations, trainings, and workshops both virtually and in-person for people in assigned geographies and audiences.
- Work closely with partner organizations to improve NYC Votes education content and delivery, providing accessible tools like print and downloadable materials.
- Deliver education based on audience needs which may include various formats depending on trust, safety, engagement-level, and other aspects of the audience (conversation circles, presentations, classroom-style activities, etc.)
- Develop paid educational programming with key partners and coordinate invoicing and purchases for education related activities in collaboration with Supervisor and Finance Department.
- Develop and implement various methods to collect and incorporate audience feedback, including real-time survey, pre and post surveys, follow up phone calls, etc.
- Create experiential engagement programming and other creative forms of community engagement.
Data Management, Project Management, and Reporting
- Collect, maintain, and regularly update data for all assigned projects, ensuring information is complete, accurate, and documented according to unit policies.
- Effectively utilize CRM, project management tools, data dashboards, and other agency tools to manage work, track p