Senior Director of Community Education

Location: Brooklyn, New York
 Reports to: Executive Director
 Salary: 85K-100K

 About El Puente

El Puente is a human rights institution founded in 1982 with a mission to inspire and nurture leadership for peace and justice. Based in New York City and Puerto Rico, El Puente creates community-led movements for self-determination through a holistic leadership and membership model, high-impact youth and community development programs, arts and cultural organizing, education, and civic engagement.

El Puente is a youth-centered organization rooted in the belief that young people are leaders, artists, organizers, and agents of change. Its work integrates leadership development, education, the arts, wellness, civic engagement, and community building to support young people and families in creating more just and equitable communities.

Position Overview

El Puente seeks a Senior Director of Community Education with deep understanding of critical pedagogy, political and popular education to design culturally responsive program content aligned with El Puente’s history, values, and strategic priorities. The Senior Director of Community Education will develop programmatic content to foster critical thinking, leadership skills, organizing capacity, and civic engagement among youth participants and community leaders. This work will help institutionalize and advance the practices, methodologies, and strategies of political and popular education necessary to advance youth-led justice, democratic participation, and community transformation.

This role will also support the training and mentoring of entry-level staff and youth workers providing direct services across El Puente’s youth development and civic engagement programs. The ideal candidate is an experienced educator and program leader who understands that community education is a tool for collective empowerment, social analysis, healing, and action.

Key Responsibilities

Political and Popular Education & Curriculum Leadership

• Lead the integration of popular education principles and practices across all youth programs, including participatory learning, dialogue, reflection and collective analysis that help young people analyze systems of oppression, build critical consciousness, and develop strategies for collective action.
• Develop culturally responsive curricula that build critical consciousness around issues such as racial justice, environmental justice, immigration, public health, housing, education equity, and civic participation.
• Design and lead content and educational initiatives grounded in critical pedagogy, participatory/project-based learning, and youth-led inquiry.
• Develop facilitation guides and training materials that are culturally responsive and aligned with positive youth development principles.
• Collaborate across the senior leadership or the organization to create youth leadership pathways that strengthen youth voice, organizing skills, public speaking, facilitation, advocacy, and civic participation.
• Integrate El Puente’s core values of social and environmental justice, arts and cultural affirmation, and community wellness into all program activities.
• Ensure content honors community knowledge, multilingualism, intergenerational learning, and the cultural traditions of diverse communities.

Staff Supervision, Training & Capacity Building

• Support Program Directors and staff in the implementation and management of projects.
• Train, coach and support entry-level staff, youth workers, and Program Directors to implement curriculum.
• Foster the creation of learning spaces that foster identity development, creativity, and collective leadership.
• Provide ongoing professional development and feedback culturally sustaining and anti-racist practices, facilitation, classroom management, popular education, and community organizing.
• Monitor program quality through observation, feedback loops, reflective practice, and data analysis.
• Provide regular reflective performance feedback and professional development planning.
• Design and deliver staff trainings on:
• Popular and political education methodology
• Group facilitation
• Youth safety and safeguarding
• Anti-racist and culturally sustaining practices
• Community organizing and civic engagement
• Build a collaborative learning culture that promotes accountability, growth, and shared leadership.

Community & Organizational Leadership

• Represent El Puente in community coalitions, conferences, trainings, and public events.
• Collaborate across organizational departments to align youth development, arts, environmental justice, education, and community organizing strategies.
• Contribute to strategic planning, grant development, reporting, and organizational learning efforts.

Evaluation & Learning

• Develop participatory evaluation processes that center youth and community voice.
• Collect and analyze qualitative and quantitative data related to leadership development, civic engagement, educational outcomes, and community impact.
• Produce reports, case studies, and presentations that communicate program outcomes and lessons learned.
• Use data and reflective practice to strengthen program effectiveness and advance organizational learning.

• Bachelor’s degree in Education, Youth Development, Social Work, Community Organizing/Development, Sociology, or a related field (Master’s degree preferred) or deep, progressive experience in developing and facilitating programs in youth development, community education, popular education, or social justice.
• Strong knowledge of popular education, critical pedagogy, participatory action research, restorative practices, and positive youth development frameworks.
• Experience facilitating leadership development programs for adolescents and young adults, particularly Black, Latinx, immigrant, and other historically marginalized communities.
• 3 years of staff supervision and training experience, including mentoring entry-level staff.
• Excellent facilitation, curriculum development, and group process skills.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to work evenings and occasional weekends.

Strongly Preferred

• Bilingual English/Spanish proficiency.
• Familiarity with Brooklyn communities and New York City youth-serving systems.
• Experience managing program budgets and contributing to grant proposals and reports.

Our Values/Equal Opportunity

El Puente is committed to building an organization that reflects the communities we serve and the values we seek to advance in the world. We encourage applications from people with diverse backgrounds and experiences, particularly individuals with connections to communities historically excluded from positions of institutional leadership and influence.

We seek team members who approach their work with humility, curiosity, accountability, collaboration, creativity, a commitment to justice—and who recognize community members and young people as leaders, partners, and creators of change. A sense of humor is also strongly appreciated.

Salary : $85,000 - $100,000