CUP’s work addresses the needs of communities struggling to make sense of the complex public policies and decision-making processes that impact their lives, from affordable housing to labor rights. By collaborating directly with communities to create accessible and visual explanations on issues important to them, CUP provides individuals with the tools to claim their rights, advocate for their needs, and fight for social justice.
What: Program Manager CUP is seeking a full-time Program Manager to work on our Community Education programs. Community Education programs are collaborations of CUP staff; visual thinkers, like artists and graphic designers; and people working in communities, like organizers, service providers, and other advocates.
The Program Manager will oversee our Public Access Design program and collaborate on other Community Education programs, including Making Policy Public and Envisioning Development Toolkits. Public Access Design is an effort to support quick-turnaround collaborations of CUP, designers, and advocates to produce timely tools for community organizing, while supporting the development of designers who want to engage in community-driven work. The Program Manager will report to CUP’s Director of Programs.
The ideal candidate for Program Manager would be someone with a demonstrated understanding of urban policy and planning issues; a strong desire to create accessible and creative tools that help demystify these topics; a belief in the power of visual communication to do so; experience managing creative projects; a desire to work in a collaborative setting with a broad range of partners; and a commitment to social justice.
The Program Manager’s responsibilities include:
- Managing projects including coordinating a diverse group of participants, keeping projects on schedule, and managing project budgets
- Using CUP’s community-engaged design methodologies to collaborate with various stakeholders to create accessible, visual explanations of complex issues, including facilitating interviews, focus groups, and other feedback sessions with members of the target audience for each project
- Conducting outreach to existing and potential project partners, particularly community organizers and advocates
- Managing contractors as well as other CUP staff, particularly program assistants and interns
- Writing, with a focus on clear, jargon-free communication that makes complex ideas accessible Providing art direction and guiding design processes with our design collaborators
- Researching complex policy and planning topics and translating them for lay audiences
- Conducting workshops using our completed Envisioning Development Toolkits in academic and community organizing settings, and training others to use these toolkits
- Evaluating projects and programs
- Assisting in development of new projects and programs and continued evolution of existing programs
- Overseeing printing, production, and fabrication of final products
- Developing written program outreach materials, including press releases, website news updates, and materials for grants and other communications, as required
- Participate in activities that help CUP to thrive, including strategic planning, fundraising, supporting the development of CUP’s organizational infrastructure, providing other organizational support as needed, and engaging in our work to continue to further make our projects and processes more directly anti-racist
- A minimum of 5 years of work experience in a related field including experience managing projects and working on multiple projects simultaneously
- Relevant fields may include public policy, government, communications design, service design, arts/culture/curatorial management, urban planning, as well as others, but the strongest applicants will demonstrate some ability to understand both design and policy
- Experience leading community-engaged design, human-centered design, or other participatory design processes
- Strong visual literacy, included demonstrated interest in or experience practicing some field of design and/or artistic work
- Experience with and ability to understand public policy
- High level of proficiency with Adobe Creative Suite software, basic web applications, and Microsoft Office Some experience managing entry-level staff and/or interns
- Some experience managing or working with project budgets
- Collaboration & Communications Skills
- Ability to work with a broad range of partners in a variety of communities; particularly with a strong understanding of racial justice and an ability to engage respectfully with individuals from historically under-represented communities (whether or not you come from one yourself); our stakeholders and partners include members of many different communities, community organizers, funders, government agencies, designers, teaching artists, and high school students
- Strong communication skills, including the ability to speak and write clearly and accessibly for multiple audiences
- Demonstrated commitment to social justice, and specifically to racial justice
- Interest in being part of a fast-paced, growing organization
- Ideal candidate is friendly, fun, self-directed, extremely detail-oriented, and able to work in a collaborative environment with a broad range of partners
- Strong administrative & time management skills
- Familiarity with NYC community organizing landscape
- Fluency in another language, particularly Spanish
- Experience art directing Digital
- UX/UI experience
Applications will be accepted until noon Eastern time on Monday, October 22nd. CUP staff will review all complete applications and schedule interviews (to be conducted in-person or via Skype/Google Hangout) in November. Finalists may be asked to complete a short assignment. Applicants will be notified in early December. Additional information can be found here.