Position Summary
The Community Engagement Coordinator is an important part of Maine Children’s Alliance’s commitment to ensuring that those most impacted by policy are part of identifying issues, developing solutions, and advocating for change. This position leads and coordinates MCA’s community engagement efforts, with a particular focus on building trusted relationships with parents, caregivers, community members, and others with lived experience.
The Community Engagement Coordinator will create and support opportunities for community members to participate meaningfully in providing input on challenges, developing policy solutions, and advancing strategies through advocacy efforts in collaboration with MCA and other organizational partners. This person will help ensure MCA’s engagement practices are equitable, organized, trauma-informed, and aligned with best practices, while also strengthening feedback loops so participants are engaged throughout the process and have opportunities to strengthen their practice and understand the impact of their engagement.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities:
Community Engagement and Relationship Building
- Lead MCA’s community engagement activities and help ensure clear, consistent processes for engaging parents, caregivers, community members, and people with lived experience.
- Serve as the primary point of contact for community members engaging in MCA’s advocacy and policy work.
- Cultivate and maintain trusted relationships with parents, community members, partners, coalition members, service providers, and local organizations.
- Develop strong feedback loops with participants, including initial and follow-up communications, thank-you notes, updates on advocacy outcomes, and opportunities for future involvement.
Parent Leadership and Advocacy Support
- Recruit, support, and train parents and caregivers and community members to participate in policy advocacy efforts.
- Create opportunities for participants to build knowledge, skills, and confidence in sharing their experiences with policymakers, partner organizations, and the public.
- Liaise with other parent groups, and facilitate or support meetings with partner organizations.
- Support community members in participating in public testimony, storytelling, focus groups, interviews, and other advocacy opportunities.
Policy and Coalition Engagement
- Ensure parent and community voice is integrated into MCA’s data and policy and advocacy priorities.
- Represent MCA in coalition spaces and at state and national community engagement opportunities, as appropriate.
- Recruit and support parent and caregiver participation in coalition work, including groups such as the Maine Child Welfare Action Network and Right from the Start.
- Collaborate with staff to determine the most appropriate methods for community engagement in support of MCA’s policy goals.
Project Coordination and Internal Support
- Create and maintain project plans for community engagement activities, including goals, timelines, roles, milestones, and deliverables.
- Develop and maintain systems to track engagement activities, document communications to and from participants, and related materials.
- Organize and develop protocols to securely maintain records related to community engagement efforts, including consent forms, contact information, meeting notes, and other project materials, as appropriate.
- Facilitate internal meetings to review progress, address challenges, and strengthen collaboration across teams.
- Serve on MCA’s policy team and provide support for events, collaborative projects, grant-related activities, and other organizational priorities.
Learning, Improvement, and Evaluation
- Promote best practices for equitable and inclusive community engagement across the organization.
- Help refine MCA’s community engagement tools, practices, and guidance over time.
- Support efforts to assess the impact of MCA’s community engagement work, including how well it advances equity and informs policy advocacy.
Required Skills and Experience
- Demonstrated skill in building trusted relationships, especially with parents, caregivers, and others with lived experience.
- Strong communication, facilitation, and interpersonal skills.
- Highly organized, detail-oriented, and responsive to staff, partners, and community members.
- Ability to manage multiple projects, timelines, and follow-up tasks effectively.
- Comfort with public speaking, working with coalitions, and engaging with policymakers, funders, and partners.
- Experience in advocacy, community engagement, organizing, public policy, or related work preferred.
- Combined 6 years of relevant educational and employment experience
- Committed to the mission of Maine Children’s Alliance.
- Committed to ongoing learning and practice related to equity and inclusion.
- Works collaboratively with staff and partners in the performance of duties.
- Communicates effectively internally and externally.
- Represents MCA professionally and with integrity, including maintaining confidentiality when needed.
- Delivers thorough, accurate work and meets deadlines.
- Takes initiative in problem-solving, improving processes, and sharing ideas.
- Able to prioritize and organize multiple assignments.
Location
Hybrid office arrangement, with travel to the Augusta office at least once weekly. Some additional in-state travel may be required.
Hours
40 hours per week.
Compensation and Benefits
Salary range: $50,000 -$58,000
Benefits include health insurance, generous paid vacation and sick days, and retirement contribution.
