Youth Advocate

Position: Youth Experience Advocate - Employment (2893)
Youth Experience Advocate - Employment
This is a bargaining unit position represented by the OPEIU. All terms and conditions of employment are subject to change in accordance with a collective bargaining agreement.

WORK SCHEDULE: This position is full-time, regular, and non-exempt. It requires a flexible schedule that may include evenings, weekends, holidays, and special events. The role is on-site and highly interactive, supporting youth and staff across multiple Youth Care locations.

ABOUT THE ORION CENTER: Youth Care opened the Orion Center in 1984 and since then Orion Center is dedicated to ensuring that every young person we serve is not only housed and supported but also inspired, connected, and thriving. The program provides a dynamic platform for youth stability to explore their creativity, develop life skills, and build meaningful community connections through structured group activities, workshops, and peer engagement opportunities.

This program functions as a bridge between resource navigation, education, employment, and enrichment, ensuring that youth engagement is a central part of each young person's journey toward stability and independence. Whether through basic needs, creative arts, leadership development, community service, or social-emotional learning, the program's goal is to empower young people to take an active role in shaping their futures.

Staff in this program are innovative thinkers and relationship builders, working collaboratively across all Youth Care departments to cultivate safe, inclusive, and empowering environments where youth voice drives the experience. The Youth Experience Advocate plays a leading role in designing and delivering these opportunities-translating youth input and community partnerships into high-impact, memorable experiences that foster belonging, confidence, and hope.

POSITION SUMMARY: Under the supervision of the Program Manager, the Youth Experience Advocate - Employment position plays a part in ensuring that Youth Care programs are not only accessible but inspiring and impactful for the young people we serve. The Youth Experience Advocate - Employment is responsible for working with the engagement team to support the functions of the Orion Center program and provide direct, trauma-informed services to a caseload of no fewer than ten (10) and no more than fifteen (15) clients.

This position requires an innovative, youth-centered thinker who is passionate about creating and executing engagement strategies that elevate youth voice, increase participation, and promote connection to meaningful programming.

The Youth Experience Advocate - Employment develops and delivers creative group activities, workshops, and curricula that promote social connection, personal development, and positive identity formation. This position, as a fully integrated part of the Orion Center programming, will assist clients with employment support, resume writing, job search, employment related programming, referrals, and other services based on the needs of the client.

This individual partners closely with Program Managers, Client Service Navigators, and community collaborators to ensure that every youth support is intentional, empowering, and aligned with Youth Care's mission to end youth homelessness.

ESSENTIAL RESPONSIBILITIES:
Program Development & Youth Engagement

• Provide on-site, in-person support to young people while maintaining professional boundaries. Use and model positive behavior strategies, effective de-escalation, problem-solving, and mediation skills, and be prepared to always apply them, especially during crises.
• Design, coordinate, and implement innovative youth-focused programming, events, and group activities that increase youth participation and engagement across Youth Care sites.
• Develop employment curriculum, group sessions, and workshops that promote life skills, self-advocacy, resilience, and community belonging.
• Provide job assistance support to young people within the broader functioning of the Orion Center.
• Serve as a creative driver for youth engagement initiatives, generating new ideas and opportunities for youth involvement that reflect youth voice and lived experience.
• Remain adaptable to youth-driven programmatic suggestions to drive engagement and employment support that meet the needs of the clients at the Orion Resource Center.
• Evaluate engagement strategies through participation data, youth feedback, and outcomes tracking; continuously improve programming based on results.
• Support youth with their transition from emergency services to service navigation, education, and employment programs.
• Collaboration & Systems Integration:
• Partner with program staff to integrate engagement and employment goals into service navigation, housing, education, and employment pathways.
• Collaborate with multidisciplinary teams, including clinical, housing, and outreach, to coordinate youth involvement opportunities and ensure alignment with individualized service goals.
• Build and…