Career Connections Engagement Partner; Yampa Valley Partnership), RPC Fellow

Note:

This is a full-time RPC Ameri Corps position with Yampa Valley Partnership for Students, Stewardship & Sustainability

The Rural Partners Corps (RPC) is a new Ameri Corps service fellowship from Lead For America (LFA) that places locally rooted fellows with rural, place-based backbone organizations. Fellows already live in or near the communities they serve. They bring local knowledge, transferable skills, relationships, and a commitment to making their communities stronger. RPC Fellows will serve 40 hours per week from December through August, working alongside Host Site staff and community partners to build organizational and community capacity and advance cradle-to-career economic mobility for rural young people.

The Yampa Valley Partnership for Students, Stewardship and Sustainability (YVPS3) is committed to expanding career-connected opportunities for every student throughout the Yampa Valley. Our work is grounded in the belief that a student's ZIP code, family income, school, or personal network should never determine access to high-quality career exploration and work-based learning experiences. YVPS3 partners with schools, employers, and community organizations to build systems that remove barriers to participation and ensure students across our rural region have equal access to career-connected learning.

YVPS3 is building the regional systems needed to make career-connected learning equitable, accessible, and sustainable for students across the Yampa Valley. YVPS3 is developing a region-wide web-based work-based learning platform, strengthening partnerships with local employers, designing high-quality work-based learning experiences, expanding paid internships and other compensated opportunities, and piloting an integrated career advising model within schools. The RPC Fellow will be a locally rooted member of the team who helps expand the scale, reach, and sustainability of these cradle-to-career efforts.

The Fellow will support partnership building, asset mapping, employer engagement, and resource development so that more students and families can explore careers, build professional networks, and access clear pathways to education and employment. The Fellow's service is focused on building lasting community connections and capacity through staff-directed research, outreach, resource development, and support for approved career-connected learning activities. The Fellow will work under YVPS3 staff guidance and will not independently manage the platform, direct partner organizations, or make decisions on behalf of participating schools or employers.

The RPC fellow will:

Project 1:
Regional Career-Connected Learning Asset Map

• Assist staff in collecting and organizing information on at least 25 regional resources (employers, training providers, higher education partners, nonprofits, and existing student opportunities), using staff-approved procedures and appropriate information-sharing practices.
• Record each resource in a shared, updatable format with consistent fields (sector, contact, opportunity type, student eligibility), using staff-approved procedures and appropriate information-sharing practices.
• Help set up a process for staff to update the map after the term, and document it in one how-to guide for staff review and approval.

Project 2:
Work-Based Learning Platform Launch and Adoption

• Assist with staff-directed development and population of the platform.
• Support the onboarding of at least 20 employers and all partner schools or community partners by helping share platform information, gather requested information, and provide staff-approved onboarding resources for staff review and approval before distribution.
• Help develop at least three user guides or outreach materials (for example, employer, educator, and student/family versions) about the Career Connections platform for staff review and approval before distribution.
• Support the delivery of at least 3 student and employer information sessions in coordination with YVPS3 and participating school or employer staff.
• Support staff-led outreach through social media, school announcement platforms and other avenues to increase student, teacher, and community awareness of and usage of the Career Connections platform. All communications will follow organizational procedures and be reviewed or approved by authorized staff before…