Vice President | Community Engagement

Application Deadline: Monday, Oct 31, 2022

Description

 General Summary

The Vice President | Community Engagement will serve as a member of the organization’s Senior Leadership Team (SLT) and work collaboratively across a number of departments including Content, Institutional Advancement, Digital, Membership, Finance and Operations.

The primary purpose of this role is to develop a strategy to more deeply connect Connecticut Public to a wider range of community-focused organizations and to explore opportunities for strategic collaboration.  We plan to pursue these efforts to gather community feedback and build bridges of outreach, particularly to younger and more diverse audiences consistent with Connecticut Public’s mission to connect citizens to their communities.

This position is tasked with identifying potential alliances/partnerships and envision opportunities for Connecticut Public’s potential collaboration. Given the deep and ongoing reservoir of content Connecticut Public possesses, we hope to convene groups around specific issues with a goal of advancing the hopes and desires of communities within the state.

While the bulk of the successful candidate’s time will be spent externally, one of the critical aspects of his/her work is to build bridges with external people and organizations and expose them to various internal departments, capabilities, personalities and people within the organization.

We would like to partner with organizations focused on human welfare (i.e. health, education and other social services), youth services, strengthening civility in public dialogue, improving the human rights of all citizens as well as a variety of other missions.

As a non-profit we would also like this position to help develop, manage, organize and activate volunteers who would like to help us in fulfilling our mission.

Essential Functions

The VP | Community Engagement provides a wide range of services in collaboration with the entire organization.  Applicants must have the ability to complete the following essential job functions:

• As society emerges slowly from COVID-19, the need for this individual to be out and active within the community will require someone who can be available for meals—including dinners—as well as a willingness to be active on the weekends.
• Build authentic, mutually beneficially relationships with stakeholders and partners.
• Creating and maintaining deep and credible connections to communities within Connecticut. The definition of success for this role will be measured by the number, depth and quality of community partnerships and collaborations created during the next three years.
• Developing an organization-wide strategy for community collaborations and convenings.
• Developing and maintaining deep knowledge of key institutions within Connecticut.
• Developing a strategic plan and overseeing Connecticut Public’s Civility Initiative.
• Growing and nurturing community convenings and partnerships.
• Identify new high potential communities resulting in increased representation.
• MUST possess a visceral distaste for office politics and gossip. We are deeply committed to making Connecticut Public an organization that judges performance based on the quality of an individual’s work. Period.

Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential job functions.

Responsibilities
This position has many responsibilities.  Duties include, but are not limited to:

• An engagement focused approach, with a passion for talking to and involving partners in events and activities both online and face to face.
• Convening community dialogs (in-person dialogs aligned with our content).
• Developing collaborations and partnerships for the Curious Families program.
• Get along well with others, not be territorial, and be willing to share credit for his/her work across a wide range of contributors.
• Partnering with the CEO to determine Connecticut Public priorities in multiple areas.
• Serving as the Connecticut Public liaison to the Community Advisory Board (CAB).

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities
Knowledge of:

•  Leading large complex projects, working in a fast-paced environment and handling multiple and changing priorities simultaneously.
• Microsoft Office applications, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Microsoft Project, Smartsheets and Outlook.
• Mission and purpose of CT Public.
• Navigating complex organizations and making the right connections to drive work forward, while anticipating potential shifts in work.

Skill In:

• Attention-to-detail, scheduling, and strong organizational skills.
• Embracing and encouraging the use of new techniques and technologies.
• Delegating, assigning, setting objectives, providing positive feedback and taking corrective action, if necessary.
• Knowledge of Spanish.
• Operational experience, including implementation of strategic plans and business initiatives.
• Setting and meeting goals, by developing and implementing strategies, tactics and moving toward progress via measurable benchmarks.
• Strategy development, leading community-based initiatives, or nonprofit management.
• Strong interpersonal skills and a willingness to collaborate across the organization and lead others.

Ability to:

• Adjust on the fly during interactions.
• Be a relentless self-starter.
• Define problems, collect data, and establish facts in order to draw valid conclusions as a change agent.
• Lead multiple projects concurrently while paying close attention to detail; and is unwilling to settle for talking points, clichés, and platitudes.
• Possess a visceral distaste for office gossip and politics.  It bears repeating.
• Possess initiative and self-motivation, and work with minimal supervision.
• Solve practical problems and deal with a variety of concrete variables in diverse situations.
• Steward the brand and understands his/her role in growing and protecting the reputation and results of the greater network.
•  Take creative direction/feedback.

Work Environment
This  position works in a hybrid environment with regular on-site interactions.  Extensive engagement and travel within the state of Connecticut is required and essential to this position. This position may be exposed to adverse environmental conditions, specifically during engagement or event work.

Position Type / Expected Hours of Work
This is a full-time, salary, exempt position.   It is the nature of the position to experience non-standard working hours, Someone used to a 9-5, Monday through Friday existence will likely not be successful in this role.  Weekend and evening events are likely.

Physical Demands
The physical activities of this position may include frequent in-person interactions.  It is essential to be able to remain at a desk/computer workstation for prolonged periods, perform extensive data entry and other computer-related tasks, and create/maintain filing systems.  Must have close visual acuity to perform an activity, such as preparing and analyzing data and figures, transcribing, viewing a computer terminal, or extensive reading.  The typical physical requirements are: light work—exerting up to 25lbs of force occasionally and/or up to 10lbs of force frequently and may include climbing, pushing, standing, hearing, walking, reaching, grasping, kneeling, stooping, and repetitive motion. Must have the ability to travel throughout the state.

Education and Experience
Bachelor’s degree with other graduate work AND/OR five (5+) years of prior experience in a similar or senior leadership role plus ten or  more (10+) years of direct, sustained, professional experience in community engagement.

For additional information about this position, please contact: