Alaska Fellows Program Position Description
Alaska Children’s Trust
Community Resilience Fellow
This position is part of the Alaska Fellows Program. All fellows live together, “in community,” in their respective host site. Each host site is unique and remarkable.
Fellows receive housing, a monthly living stipend and a modest relocation stipend. The fellowship includes facilitated and funded opening and closing retreats.
Applications are accepted on a rolling basis. If you are applying to a position in Juneau, please note that the program will last seven months (October-April) while other programs will run nine months (September-May).
For other questions about the application process, email applications@alaskafellows.org.
Work Term: September 2020 – May 2021
Employer: Alaska Children’s Trust
Contact: Trevor Storrs, President/CEO
Title: Community Resilience Fellow
Organization Description:
As the statewide lead organization to prevent child abuse and neglect, Alaska Children’s Trust (ACT) focuses on large-scale social and system change. We have three key roles: (1) advocate, (2) convener, and (3) catalyst. As an advocate, ACT strives to actively influence public policy within political, economic and social systems and institutions that help us build a state dedicated to ensuring the safety of Alaskan children. We host Kids Count Alaska, a national program sponsored by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. It is a resource containing reliable data, policy recommendations, and tools needed to advance sound policies that benefit children and families. We utilize data, like Kids Count, to identify key policies or systems to change to improve the lives of children and families. In addition, we generate various tools and briefs to help decision makers and fellow advocates have the tools they need to ensure children and families receive the support and resources to thrive. We actively participate in the legislative process and provide technical assistance to partners to help them share their own voice.
As a convener, ACT fosters relationships across the state and within specific communities, building momentum and creating opportunities for large scale social change. No organization or program working alone will reverse Alaska’s incidence of child abuse and neglect. Greater progress can be made if nonprofits, tribal entities, government businesses, and residents create collective impact. Two examples of ACT’s work in this arena are the Alaska Afterschool Network and the Alaska Resilience Initiative. The Alaska Afterschool Network (AAN) is a state-wide collaboration supporting and advocating for after-school programs in Alaska. AAN, in partnership with the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, has 60 Alaskan communities, including over 45 rural communities as members. It conducts technical assistance, hosts a state-wide conference, leads development of statewide quality standards, and is the lead advocate for after-school programing. Alaska Resilience Initiative (ARI) is a network of nonprofit, tribal, and state government organizations, schools, businesses, and community coalitions working to heal intergenerational and systemic trauma and end child maltreatment through healing and strategic advocacy. The goal of ARI is to educate and advance the dialogue on adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), impact of ACEs on brain architecture, and how communities can prevent ACEs and build resilience. ARI strives to empower communities by functioning as an umbrella for trauma and resilience efforts and through a Collective Impact approach.
ACT believes if we want better outcomes for our children and families, we must apply the science of early childhood and brain development to a broader range of policies, and we must be willing to take risks and try new strategies. We recognize without new and innovative ideas we will continue to have high rates of child abuse and neglect. As a catalyst, ACT is encouraging a new culture, developing new methodologies, and promoting radical ideas in fighting an epidemic that has plagued Alaska for decades. As a grant maker, ACT has invested over $8 million supporting programs across the state focused on the prevention of child abuse and neglect. Over recent years, ACT has been restructuring grant-making processes to support activities that act further upstream and focus on the social determinants that place children at greater risk.
All of our work described above involves addressing inequalities. We recognize a core issue that creates and perpetuates the issues that lead to child abuse and neglect are directly linked to inequities in our communities.
Position Description:
The Community Resilience Fellow will have the opportunity to work across programs and within all three roles of the Children’s Trust – advocate, convener and catalyst. The fellow will work in conjunction with program directors to support their role in achieving our mission of preventing child abuse and neglect. Specifically, the key role of the Fellow will be to help expand and strengthen the Alaska Children’s Trust (ACT) community engagement across the state and support ACT’s efforts in building resilience in children, families and communities.
Specific tasks for the fellow will include:
Managing the ACT grant portfolio of $200,000 to $300,000, which includes
Increasing community awareness of ACT grant program;
Managing all grant requests; and
Staffing the ACT Community Investment committee that reviews and selects grantees.
Assisting in the implementation of ACT’s Theory of Change – with a focus on the development and implementation of a statewide plan focused on the prevention of child abuse and neglect.
Working with the VP of Philanthropy and External Affairs to strengthen ACT’s brand and expand our community outreach.
Supporting ACT’s advocacy efforts:
Disseminating published data briefs/materials.
Supporting efforts to provide support and technical assistance to partners.
Participating in direct advocacy/lobbying efforts
Other duties may include logistics in scheduling, preparing for, and participating in informal and formal convenings/gathering and representing ACT in coalitions.
Position Logistics:
Hours for this position will likely be Monday-Friday, 8am-5pm (an hour lunch), at ACT’s office in Anchorage. Travel within Anchorage will be minimal.
Qualifications:
Bachelor’s degree preferred
Ability to compile and analyze data.
Effective listening, verbal and written communication skills (i.e. proper grammar).
Excellent presentation and communications skills and the ability to communicate data findings and complex issues to external audiences, including governmental, nonprofit, and community groups, other partners, and the general public.
Proficient computer skills including spreadsheets, word processing, PowerPoint, and other online related programs.
Ability to work with a diverse group of advocates, community and nonprofit partners, state agency officials, and constituency groups.
Ability to work in a team environment and motivate others to assist in the agency’s work.
Ability to effectively and efficiently handle multiple, simultaneous and complex tasks and projects in a fast-paced environment.
Ability to make decisions, engage in critical thought and solve problems.
A sense of humor, strong work ethic, and dedication to system change to benefit children and youth.
Application Materials: Cover letter & Resume
Submit materials to: tstorrs@alaskachildrenstrust.org
When submitting your applications, please also copy applications@alaskafellows.org.
Contact Information:
Trevor Storrs
(907) 248-7676 (general office)
(907) 248-7370 (direct line)
tstorrs@alaskachildrenstrust.org