Director, State & Local Advocacy

Overview

Since 1972, Covenant House has served and advocated for youth and young families experiencing homelessness, human trafficking, and exploitation. Our overarching goal is to end homelessness among youth and young families by helping them achieve housing stability, heal from trauma, tap into their innate resilience, and hone their interests and skills to forge new pathways to independence. This work is carried out across Covenant House sites in 34 cities in the US, Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras.

The Director of State and Local Advocacy is responsible for strengthening advocacy capability across our domestic sites in the United States to help advance policy solutions that prevent and end youth homelessness, combat human trafficking, and address the social determinants of health that impact young people’s access to a bright, healthy, safe future.

This role is designed for an emerging mid-career policy leader who combines strong cross-cutting legislative and regulatory knowledge with a practical, implementation-oriented approach. The director will serve as a hands-on contributor who develops tools, analyzes policy landscapes, supports advocacy campaigns, builds partnerships, and translates policy opportunities into action; as well as a trusted advisor and coach to site leaders as staff.

The ideal candidate is someone who can independently lead projects, build trust across diverse stakeholders, cultivate strategic partnerships, navigate complex political environments, and help local leaders become more powerful and successful advocates. They are motivated by effectiveness rather than ideology, comfortable working across political perspectives, and committed to building durable bipartisan support for policies that improve outcomes for America’s most vulnerable young people.

In this role, you will report directly to the Senior Vice President of Advocacy and Strategic Partnerships. There are no direct reports to this role at this time. This is a unique opportunity to help shape the future of youth homelessness advocacy across the United States within an international federation of sites. In this role, you won't just analyze policy. You will help turn it into action, working across state and local systems in partnership with leaders, public officials, community providers, and young people.

You'll have the autonomy to lead meaningful projects, the mentorship and visibility that come with partnering directly with senior leadership, and the opportunity to build a national reputation as an emerging public policy leader. If you are energized by solving complex problems, thrive in collaborative environments, enjoy translating strategy into execution, and want your work to have a tangible impact on the lives of vulnerable young people, this role offers a rare blend of mission, influence, growth, and purpose for a policy professional looking to take the next step in their career.

• Monitor state and local legislative, regulatory, and administrative developments affecting youth homelessness, housing, child welfare, trafficking, education, workforce development, behavioral health, and related social determinants of health
• Conduct policy landscape analyses and identify opportunities for systems change in partnership with site leadership, frontline staff, community partners, and young people with lived experience and expertise
• Produce policy briefs, issue papers, legislative summaries, talking points, fact sheets, and other advocacy materials
• Translate complex policy developments into actionable guidance for nonprofit leaders, program staff with frontline experience and expertise, and youth with lived experience and expertise
• Support the development of CHI's broader domestic advocacy agenda in partnership with the SVP of Advocacy & Strategic Partnerships

• Design and implement capacity- and capability building strategies across CHI's sites in the United States
• Partner with site leaders and key staff to develop, execute, and enhance state and local advocacy plans through continuous quality improvement
• Develop practical advocacy tools, guidance documents, training curricula, and implementation resources for CH sites and partners
• Provide technical assistance on legislative, regulatory, budget, and administrative advocacy strategies at the state and local levels in coordination with federal / national advocacy priorities and strategies
• Build systems and processes that enable sites to engage effectively with policymakers, partners, and community stakeholders

• Help sites navigate state and local implementation of federal funding and policy initiatives in partnership with SVP of advocacy and strategic partnerships
• Support sites in understanding how federal, state, and local systems interact and influence outcomes for young people
• Identify best…