Children’s Action Alliance is seeking a Director of Early Childhood Policy to focus on researching, identifying and developing strategies to move forward sound early childhood (birth through age eight) public policy at the local, state, and national level. This Director is responsible for the day-to-day operations and management of the Arizona Early Childhood Alliance, a partnership of 55 statewide organizations that provides the unified voice of public policy for early childhood issues in Arizona. The Director works with national state and local elected officials and their staff, state agency personnel, state and national funders and advocacy organizations, media organizations and community and grassroots stakeholders to develop a policy agenda that will:

• Improve outcomes for children and families.
• strengthen children’s access to quality childcare and early childhood education opportunities.
• strengthen children’s access to quality health care.

About Children’s Action Alliance:

Children's Action Alliance (CAA) a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, strives to create an Arizona where all children and families thrive. CAA advocates for the well-being of more than 1.6 million Arizona children and their families at the state capitol and in the community. Since 1988, CAA works with elected officials, community partners, and coalitions to protect Arizona’s ability to meet the education, health care, and human services needs of vulnerable children and families. For more information visit azchildren.org and follow CAA on Twitter and Facebook.

Potential policy areas that this position may address include:

• Supports for families with infants and toddlers
• Early childhood growth and development, adverse childhood experiences and early intervention services
• Health care access and services for young children and their families
• Quality, access and affordability of child care and preschool
• Full day kindergarten and kindergarten development assessments
• Transition to kindergarten and early grade learning
• Early literacy development and third grade reading comprehension

Responsibilities:

• Analyze State budget proposals and legislation; consider and propose recommendations; track bills, committees, and other legislative activity during the legislative session.
• Conduct data and policy research on early childhood growth and development for children ages 0-8 including but not limited to: brain development, early intervention, high quality early childhood programs and experiences, early literacy, children’s health, and support for families with young children to create fact sheets, policy briefs, communications materials, and presentations.
• Develop and implement strategic recommendations for community-level and state-wide action steps to improve access to, and quality of, Early Childhood services.
• Identify and secure additional grant funding for Early Childhood systems advocacy and projects; manage relationships with funders, oversee grant budgets, reports, and other grant administrative functions.
• Increase public awareness of children’s issues through the media, public events, publications, and issue campaigns.
• Network with national colleagues and experts to stay current on research and emerging issues in policy and practice around the country.
• Provide leadership and collaborations with the Early Childhood Community in the state; develop working relationships with Early Childhood state and community leaders.
• Manage and maintain the daily operations of a diverse statewide Alliance of early childhood system partners working together to provide a unified voice at the state legislature providing informed messages and credible resources that help policy makers create positive change for our children.

Qualifications:

Education: 

• Bachelor’s Degree in a related filed or equivalent related work experience is required.

Experience: 

• Five years of relevant experience.

Technical:

• Knowledge of early childhood growth and development, the existing Arizona early childhood system and its gaps, programs and services for young children and their families, and local, state, and federal funding streams and oversight for early childhood systems.
• Knowledge of and experience with the state legislative process.
• Knowledge of and experience with state agency level advocacy (example: rule making, internal policy and procedure development)

Other:

• Excellent communication skills (verbal and written) and the ability to communicate data findings and issues to external audiences.
• Ability to translate data findings and research into specific policy recommendations.
• Experience working in coalitions and the ability to work in a team environment with diverse allies.
• Strategic thinking and flexible and collaborative workstyle, with a focus on authentic community engagement.
• Ability to balance the needs of partners, diverse stakeholders, and communities.
• Experience analyzing data.
• Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite applications
• Bilingual speakers preferred
• Experience building diverse and effective alliances and coalitions, particularly with staff and leaders from grassroots community organizations.
• Experience working on regional or state-level advocacy campaigns, electoral campaigns, or running coalition efforts.
• Knowledge of the federal legislative process is desirable.

Compensation:

• Salary Grade/Range: 3 – Director /$70,000-$80,000
• Major medical and dental insurance, life insurance, matching retirement contribution.
• Competitive leave policies for vacation, sick leave, personal leave and earned sabbatical.

Location:

CAA operates a hybrid (office and home) working system that allows employees to work in the most productive location based on job description, project or task. We provide employees with the resources to work effectively from either the CAA office or remote locations. When health conditions permit, we will resume occasional in-person meetings at our office located in central Phoenix. For that reason, we are looking for the candidate to reside in the metro Phoenix area.

To Apply:

Position will remain open until filled. Only candidates who send resume and cover letter to hr@azchildren.org will be considered.

Children’s Action Alliance and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment based on race, color, religion, national origin, age, gender, sex, ancestry, citizenship status, mental or physical disability, genetic information, sexual orientation, veteran status, or military status. CAA strongly encourage members of traditionally underrepresented communities to apply, including people of color, LGBTQ identified people, gender-nonconforming people, individuals with disabilities, veterans, and people who speak a language in addition to English. CAA will always make hiring decisions based on merit and qualifications of the applicants and the needs of the organization.