Chief of Youth Development & Leadership (Volunteer)

Mentor A Promise is a New York City–based nonprofit serving children and youth (ages 5–18) experiencing housing instability, grounded in the belief that every child is a Promise—full of potential, dignity, and possibility. We deliver consistent, high-quality programming across mentorship, literacy, social-emotional learning, and creative expression in shelters, schools, and community spaces, creating structured environments where students can grow, be seen, and build lasting skills. Through signature experiences like The Imagination Studio, The Kitchen Table, The Sound Lab, and The Story Space, we nurture academic development, emotional well-being, and creative voice, all within a trauma-informed, culturally responsive, and accessibility-centered framework. Our work prioritizes dignity-protective storytelling, consent-driven engagement, and deep community partnership, ensuring that how we serve is as intentional as whom we serve. We are not only addressing immediate needs - we are building pathways to confidence, belonging, and long-term opportunity, so every child has the support and foundation to carry their promise forward.
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Chief of Youth Development & Leadership (Volunteer)
PromiseRise | Teen Leadership, Career Readiness & Youth Opportunity
Organization Mentor A Promise (MAP)
Division PromiseRise
Location Remote — United States, with NYC-based collaboration as needed
Type Volunteer Executive Leadership
Commitment Approximately 5–10 hours per week
Minimum Commitment 6 months
Reports To Chief Executive Officer
Leads Youth Development, Teen Leadership & Opportunity Strategy
Works Closely With PromiseRise, PromisePrograms, PromiseRooted, PromiseConnects, PromiseLearning, PromiseBridge, PromiseMeasure, PromisePublic, PromisePeople, and Executive Leadership
About Mentor A Promise
Mentor A Promise (MAP) is a New York City–based nonprofit serving children and youth ages 5–18 experiencing housing instability through mentorship, education, enrichment, creative expression, career development, advocacy, and community-centered opportunity.
Our work is dignity-centered, trauma-informed, culturally responsive, and grounded in the belief that young people deserve consistent relationships, meaningful choices, opportunities to discover their strengths, and pathways toward futures they can help shape.
Position Summary
Mentor A Promise is seeking an experienced and youth-centered Chief of Youth Development & Leadership to lead MAP's strategy for adolescents and older youth, with particular focus on young people ages 13–18.
This executive leader will build an integrated pathway connecting youth development, leadership, mentorship, career exploration, workforce readiness, postsecondary preparation, financial capability, civic participation, creative opportunity, and meaningful youth voice.
The Chief will ensure that young people are not simply participants in programs designed by adults, but active contributors whose ideas, experiences, aspirations, and feedback influence the opportunities MAP creates.
The central question is
How do we ensure that as young people grow older, the opportunities around them grow too?
This role should not simply create more programming for teenagers.
It should build a pathway toward adulthood.
Youth Development Strategy
Develop and lead MAP's organization-wide strategy for adolescents and older youth.
Create age-appropriate pathways connecting mentorship, education, leadership development, career exploration, creative expression, financial capability, community engagement, and preparation for adulthood.
Build a developmental progression
Explore → Discover → Develop → Practice → Experience → Lead → Advance
Establish clear priorities and standards for youth engagement, belonging, participation, retention, leadership, growth, and opportunity.
Recognize that the needs of a 16-year-old are different from those of a 6-year-old and ensure MAP's opportunities evolve alongside the young people we serve.
Teen Leadership & Youth Voice
Build meaningful structures through which young people can exercise leadership and influence MAP.
Lead and strengthen MAP's Youth Advisory Board.
Develop opportunities for
Youth-led projects
Peer leadership
Peer mentorship
Public speaking
Community engagement
Creative leadership
Advocacy education
Youth-led events
Organizational feedback
Advisory participation
Leadership development
Build systems for gathering, understanding, responding to, and closing the loop on youth feedback.
Young people should not simply be invited into rooms where adults have already made every important decision.
Programs should be developed with young people, not simply for them.
Career Readiness & Future Pathways
Build a comprehensive career-readiness pathway for older youth.
Develop opportunities involving
Career exploration
Résumé development
Interview preparation
Workplace communication
Professional etiquette
Digital skills
Financial literacy
Entrepreneurship
Career panels
Job shadowing
Internships
Work-based learning
Professional mentorship
Networking
Career Days
Employer engagement
Help young people understand not only how to obtain their first opportunity, but how careers, professional relationships, skills, and opportunities develop over time.
Talent is everywhere.
Opportunity is not.
PromiseRise should help close that distance.
Internships & Experiential Learning
Develop meaningful internship and work-based learning opportunities.
Establish a framework
Purpose → Preparation → Placement → Supervision → Learning → Feedback → Reflection → Advancement
Ensure opportunities provide genuine learning rather than simply filling organizational labor needs.
An internship should never mean giving a young person whatever work no one else wants to do.
Young people should leave an experience with greater skills, confidence, professional understanding, relationships, and clarity about what they may want to pursue next.
College & Postsecondary Exploration
Help young people explore multiple pathways after high school without assuming there is only one definition of success.
Create exposure to
Colleges and universities
Vocational education
Skilled trades
Certifications
Apprenticeships
Entrepreneurship
Creative careers
Technology careers
Public service
Workforce programs
Other postsecondary pathways
Support young people in understanding the requirements, opportunities, costs, expectations, and possibilities associated with different pathways.
The goal is informed choice.
Financial Capability
Develop age-appropriate opportunities for young people to understand
Earning
Saving
Budgeting
Banking
Credit
Financial decision-making
Employment compensation
Taxes
Entrepreneurship
Financial goals
Financial education should connect information with real life.
Young people should leave MAP better prepared to make decisions about money, work, and opportunity.
Leadership Development
Build a recognizable leadership-development framework within PromiseRise.
Help young people develop
Communication
Confidence
Decision-making
Collaboration
Problem-solving
Accountability
Initiative
Self-advocacy
Conflict navigation
Public speaking
Professionalism
Community responsibility
Leadership should not be defined by who speaks the loudest.
MAP should help young people discover the many different ways they can lead.
Program Development & Quality
Provide executive direction for teen-focused programs, workshops, initiatives, and special projects.
Ensure programming is
Developmentally appropriate
Youth-centered
Strengths-based
Trauma-informed
Culturally responsive
Accessible
Engaging
Purposeful
Safe
Connected to meaningful outcomes
Collaborate with PromisePrograms and PromiseLearning to ensure older-youth experiences align with MAP's broader mentorship and educational strategies.
Youth Experience
Look beyond whether a program happened and examine what young people actually experienced.
Ask
Do young people want to return?
Do they feel welcomed and respected?
Do they have meaningful choices?
Are they appropriately challenged?
Are adults listening?
Can they see themselves progressing?
Are they developing meaningful relationships?
Are they discovering possibilities they did not know existed?
Do they believe their voices matter?
A program should not be considered successful simply because young people attended.
The question is what became possible because they did.
Partnerships & Opportunity Development
Collaborate with PromiseBridge to develop

Work arrangement
Yes