Position Summary

The Youth Law Center (YLC) is excited to announce that were hiring a new team member to support our higher education access work. The Pathways to Higher Education Advocate will advance the Youth Law Centers California statewide technical assistance and field-building work to strengthen pathways into and through higher education for juvenile-justice-impacted students. This position directly supports implementation of YLCs California Community Colleges Chancellors Office (CCCCO) contract for the Juvenile Justice Rising Scholars Network and contributes to broader advocacy efforts on behalf of system-impacted young people.

As part of YLCs Higher Education Project team and under the supervision of the Directing Advocate, the Advocate will provide critical administrative, technical, outreach, and communications support to expand project capacity, with an emphasis on project coordination, writing, and relationship-building responsibilities. In particular, this position will lead the development of high-quality resources for California community college practitioners, prepare training and outreach materials, and collaborate with a range of professional and student stakeholders to meet contract deliverables and advance the Pathways project.

In partnership with the Higher Education Project team, the Advocates work will be integrated into YLCs broader strategic efforts to end the incarceration of youth in California county facilities and ensure that California legal services programs support youth who are exiting the juvenile justice system. To these ends, the Advocate may also lend their perspective and experience to support a variety of different efforts and advocacy strategies, including legislative, budget, and local administrative advocacy; training and education; media and narrative change; technical assistance; coalition-building; and support for directly-impacted young people to develop leadership in the field of post-secondary education opportunities for young people impacted by the juvenile justice system.

This is a fully remote position that must be performed from within Californiaideally from the San Francisco, Sacramento, or Los Angeles metro areaand occasional travel within the state will be required.

About the Youth Law Centers Advocacy

The Youth Law Centers mission is to transform foster care and juvenile justice systems across the nation so every child and youth can thrive. Attorneys and advocates at YLC use a wide variety of advocacy strategies, including policy advocacy; litigation; legislative and administrative work; collaborative systems-reform campaigns; public education and media advocacy; legal and non-legal writing; training; and technical assistance. YLCs approach is grounded in the knowledge that those most directly impacted by systems are best positioned to transform them. We believe change comes from listening deeply to young people and the organizations that support them, helping them translate their ideas into practice and policy change, and working together to advance a new narrative about how we should transform our systems.

YLCs broad advocacy goals include:

• Ending the incarceration of youth in the juvenile justice system and imagining new approaches to youth justice;
• Ending the use of congregate care for youth in foster care and juvenile justice and ensuring youth receive excellent parenting in families in their own communities;
• Improving access to education, including postsecondary ed, for system-impacted youth;
• Ensuring healthy transitions to adulthood for system-impacted youth and access to the services needed to make that transition; and
• Improving conditions in foster care and juvenile justice systems as supported by child and adolescent development research.

Find out more about us atylc.organdqpi4kids.org.

Position Responsibilities

Resource & Materials Development (Core Responsibility)

• Lead drafting, development, and refinement of written materials, including guidance documents, for community college practitioners who serve youth impacted by the juvenile justice system.
• Produce materials such as toolkits, implementation guides, templates, checklists, and process maps for community colleges and cross-system partners.
• Develop community of practice (CoP) materials, including agendas, facilitation guides, session resources, summaries, and follow-up tools.
• Translate legal, policy, and research information into clear, actionable practitioner resources.
• Conduct field scans, gather examples, and integrate promising practices into written materials.

CCCCO Rising Scholars Network Technical Assistance

• Support delivery of technical assistance, training, and statewide resources to the California Community College Chancellors Office and field practitioners in Rising Scholars Network programs.
• Create written materials for Rising Scholars Network communications, updates, briefs, and training packets.
• Help design and prepare materials for statewide and regional convenings, webinars, and professi…