Chair, Youth Advisory Board & Adult Mentor (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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Chair, Youth Advisory Board & Adult Mentor (Volunteer)
Executive Team | Youth Leadership, Mentorship, Voice & Organizational Influence
Organization Mentor A Promise (MAP)
Division Executive Team
Board Youth Advisory Board
Location Remote, with NYC-based collaboration and youth activities as needed
Type Volunteer Leadership Role
Commitment Approximately 5–10 hours per week
Minimum Commitment 6 months
Reports To Chief Executive Officer
Leads & Supports Youth Advisory Board
Works Closely With CEO, Executive Team, PromiseRise, PromisePrograms, PromiseLearning, PromisePublic, PromisePeople, PromiseShield, and other MAP leaders as appropriate
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, literacy, social-emotional learning, creative expression, career development, advocacy, and community-centered opportunity.
MAP believes young people should have meaningful opportunities not only to participate in programs, but also to help shape the organization and experiences intended to support them.
The Youth Advisory Board creates a direct pathway for youth perspectives, ideas, and leadership to reach MAP's Executive Team.
About The Youth Advisory Board
The Youth Advisory Board is a youth-centered advisory body within MAP's Executive Team structure.
It provides young people with opportunities to develop leadership, discuss issues that matter to them, propose ideas, advise organizational leaders, contribute to projects, and influence appropriate areas of MAP's work.
The Board is built around a fundamental principle
Young people should not simply be invited into rooms where adults have already made the decisions.
The Youth Advisory Board is advisory. It does not carry the fiduciary responsibilities of MAP's Board of Directors or the executive decision-making authority of MAP's officers.
Its influence comes from something equally important ensuring MAP has structured ways to listen to the young people at the center of its mission.
Role Overview
The Chair, Youth Advisory Board & Adult Mentor is the adult leader responsible for mentoring, guiding, facilitating, and supporting MAP's Youth Advisory Board.
This is not a ceremonial board-chair position.
It is a hands-on youth leadership and mentorship role requiring an adult who understands how to provide structure without controlling the room, guidance without replacing youth judgment, and mentorship without creating dependency.
The Chair helps create a pathway of
Youth Experience → Discussion → Ideas → Leadership → Recommendations → Executive Leadership → Organizational Response → Follow-Up
The Chair does not speak for young people.
The Chair helps young people develop the confidence, skills, structure, and opportunities to speak for themselves.
Youth Mentorship
Develop trusted, appropriate mentoring relationships with Youth Advisory Board members.
Help young people strengthen
Leadership
Communication
Confidence
Critical thinking
Collaboration
Decision-making
Problem-solving
Facilitation
Public speaking
Professional skills
Self-advocacy
Recognize that young people will enter the Board with different personalities, abilities, experiences, and levels of confidence.
The goal is not to produce one type of youth leader.
It is to help each young person discover how they can lead.
Board Leadership & Facilitation
Provide the adult structure necessary for the Youth Advisory Board to operate effectively.
Prepare meetings, develop agendas with youth members, facilitate discussions, coordinate follow-up, and ensure the Board remains purposeful and engaging.
Meetings may follow
Welcome → Connection → Youth Priorities → Discussion → Ideas → Recommendations → Commitments → Reflection → Next Steps
The Chair should know when to guide a conversation and when to allow young people to guide it themselves.
A successful meeting is not one where the Chair speaks the most.
Develop Youth Leaders
Create intentional opportunities for members to practice leadership.
Support young people in
Leading portions of meetings
Developing agenda topics
Facilitating discussions
Presenting recommendations
Interviewing organizational leaders
Developing projects
Conducting appropriate research
Working collaboratively
Speaking with executives
Taking responsibility for approved initiatives
The development pathway should increasingly move toward
Adult Support → Guided Participation → Shared Leadership → Youth Leadership
The strongest Chair does not create followers.
The strongest Chair develops other leaders.
Connection to the Executive Team
Serve as the organizational bridge between the Youth Advisory Board and MAP's Executive Team.
Help young people understand how MAP works, how decisions are made, who is responsible for different areas, and how recommendations can be presented effectively.
Create appropriate opportunities for youth members to interact directly with the CEO, chiefs, directors, and other organizational leaders.
Prepare young people for those conversations.
Just as importantly, prepare adults to listen.
Youth engagement should not require young people to perfectly adapt to adult spaces while adults make no effort to create spaces where young people can participate authentically.
Youth Voice & Organizational Influence
Help youth transform experiences, observations, and ideas into thoughtful recommendations.
Use a process such as
Experience → Question → Discussion → Perspectives → Possible Solutions → Recommendation → Leadership Review → Response → Follow-Up
Ensure recommendations reach the appropriate organizational leaders.
Then close the loop.
Young people deserve to know what happened after they contributed their ideas.
MAP may not implement every recommendation, but youth should receive an appropriate response explaining what was considered and what happens next.
Youth-Led Projects
Mentor Board members in developing appropriate youth-led projects.
Projects may include
Youth forums
Leadership initiatives
Creative projects
Publications
Community activities
Youth surveys
Program recommendations
Educational initiatives
Career-focused activities
Organizational improvement ideas
Other approved youth-led projects
The Chair provides guidance, resources, structure, and safeguards without unnecessarily taking ownership away from young people.
The Board should not exist only to advise.
Young people should also have opportunities to create.
Board Culture & Belonging
Create an environment where members feel respected, welcomed, challenged, and supported.
Encourage disagreement without disrespect.
Make room for different communication styles and personalities.
Ensure leadership opportunities do not automatically go to the most confident or outspoken members.
Some young people lead from the front.
Others lead by asking the question nobody else considered.
Both matter.
Safeguarding & Professional Boundaries
Maintain strong adult-youth boundaries and follow all MAP safeguarding requirements.
Because this position involves direct engagement with minors, the Chair carries significant responsibility for creating a safe and appropriate environment.
The Chair must follow MAP requirements regarding authorized communication, supervision, confidentiality, privacy, appropriate interactions, reporting, and youth protection.
The Chair is a mentor and facilitator.
The Chair is not a therapist, investigator, caseworker, disciplinarian, or substitute parent.
Any concern involving youth safety, abuse, harassment, inappropriate conduct, or another safeguarding matter must be escalated through MAP's established procedures.

Work arrangement
Yes