Executive Director | Youth Art & Self-empowerment Project

Youth Art & Self-Empowerment Project (YASP) is a Philadelphia-based organization rooted in abolition, healing justice, and the power of young people to transform the systems that harm them. We work alongside youth who have been directly impacted by the carceral system, providing restorative justice diversion programming, creative arts programming, a youth-led hub for participatory defense, and other legal education. We believe that the people most harmed by unjust systems are the ones best positioned to dismantle them.

YASP is fiscally sponsored and operates across several interconnected programs:
Healing Futures, the Youth Participatory Defense Hub, and Creative Arts workshops. This is a moment of growth and deepening for the organization, and we are looking for a leader who can hold both the day-to-day and the long horizon.

This Moment at YASP

This is not a standard Executive Director role. YASP is at an inflection point, building organizational infrastructure while holding deep commitments to youth leadership, abolitionist values, and tight-knit staff community. The next ED will need to be someone who understands that this work is more urgent than ever. In a moment when organizations are losing funding, facing political targeting, and navigating the realities of rising fascism, YASP needs a leader with deep conviction, someone whose commitment doesn’t waver when conditions get hard.

The next phase of YASP’s work is about stability, deepening, and continuity, connecting what we’ve built to where we’re going, and making sure we’re here for the next 20 years.

• Loves young people, full stop. Someone who is genuinely committed to their liberation, growth, and development, and brings that love into every decision they make as a leader.
• Leads from within, not from above. Someone who is present, participatory, and builds power alongside staff and youth rather than directing from a distance.
• Is culturally rooted and community-connected. YASP is deeply embedded in Philadelphia’s culture and communities. We’re looking for someone who understands what it means to organize through culture, and who can build real relationships grounded in warmth, authenticity, and shared values.
• Can hold the long view. Someone who thinks in decades, not just program cycles, and who sees organizational development as movement infrastructure, not administrative maintenance.
• Embodies YASP’s values in how they show up. Not just someone who can articulate abolitionist principles, but someone who lives them in their relationships, their leadership style, and their presence in this work.

The estimates below reflect our honest assessment of where this role lives and where we need the ED to be the most present.

Organizational Vision, Mission & Culture (~25% of time)

• Lead regular retreat and reflection spaces where staff shape strategy together
• Work closely with staff and the advisory board to build a youth leadership model that is substantive, not symbolic
• Protect and cultivate YASP’s internal culture → the practices, rhythms, and accountability processes that make this a place people want to work
• Hold the organization with steadiness and care during periods of transition, transformation, and grief, responding to crises in ways that maintain staff morale, trust, and collective momentum
• Create ongoing space to reflect, reevaluate, and stay honest about what’s working

Staff Support & Supervision (~20% of time)

• Directly supervise program leads and coordinators:
  Healing Futures Program Manager(s), Youth Hub Coordinator, Creative Arts Coordinator(s), and Development & Communications Coordinator
• Hold regular check-ins with supervises; ensure all staff have consistent touchpoints for support and guidance
• Conduct annual end-of-year evaluations with all supervises; ensure other supervisors do the same
• Partner with program leads on hiring and staff transition decisions
• Support staff in connecting their individual work to YASP’s broader mission and organizational direction
• Cultivate a staff culture rooted in YASP’s values — one where people feel seen, supported, and invested in the work

Finances &…