Summary
The mission of the Joyful Heart Foundation is to heal, educate and empower survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence and child abuse and to shed light into the darkness that surrounds these issues. Through our healing and wellness programs, Joyful Heart works with survivors and the professionals who serve them to provide sustainable tools for a holistic approach to trauma recovery. Our education and awareness campaigns enlighten and engage the public and work to change attitudes, while our Policy and Advocacy initiatives are transforming society's response to violence and abuse.
It is estimated that hundreds of thousands of untested sexual assault kits sit on police storage facilities across the nation in a pandemic known as the rape kit backlog. Joyful Heart's Policy and Advocacy team has made the rape kit backlog the cornerstone of their work, and the movement to address the backlog has gained significant momentum in the past few years. Some highlights include increased funding as the Manhattan District Attorney's Office committed $35M to jurisdictions hoping to test and clear their backlog of untested rape kits and Congress passed a federal spending bill to allocate $41M to address the nation's rape kit backlog, the launch of The Accountability Project which uncovers whether there are backlogs in cities across the country, and developed partnerships with cities that have committed to clearing their backlogs, most significantly Detroit, Memphis, and Cleveland.
The Policy and Advocacy Manager, reporting to the VP of Policy and Advocacy, provides high-level support to the Joyful Heart Foundation's Policy and Advocacy initiatives. The Manager is a key point person within the Policy and Advocacy Department, helping to manage the policy and advocacy work of the organization. S/he works closely with staff members within and across departments to formulate and implement strategies to advance the Foundation's policy and advocacy priorities and goals. The Manager acts as a conduit between the Foundation and our external allies, including advocacy groups, journalists, lawyers, law enforcement entities, policymakers and their staff, and other key stakeholders who work on issues concerning violence against women and girls, with a focus on sexual violence, in the United States. S/he leads and manages designated initiatives and projects as assigned including, but not limited to, the oversight of the policy department's website, http:endthebacklog.org.
Essential Job Functions
The duties outlined below are considered to be the most significant responsibilities of the Manager, ones that are essential for effective performance in this position. Responsibilities include, but are not limited to:
Program – Policy and Advocacy
General
- Manage the execution of Policy and Advocacy department activities at the local, state and national levels
- Lead specific projects, including conducting of research, interviews and field work, advising jurisdictions with rape kit backlogs, and contributing content for policy and advocacy reports and trainings
- Serve as organization's lead advocate on state-based legislative activities including but not limited to identifying target jurisdictions and designing and implementing an advocacy strategy
- Research, analyze, draft and manage internal vetting process for high-level documents such as speeches, op-eds, reports, memos, briefing papers, publications, and web content
- Respond to high-level requests for information as needed
- Represent the Policy and Advocacy department with both internal and external partners and cultivate and maintain relationships with strategic partners
- Design and implement Policy and Advocacy special events with support from Assistant
- Conduct research and develop high level content for JHF's advocacy-related web content
- Participate in strategic planning efforts of department, including quarterly reporting,tracking metrics and reporting out to board
Management and Supervision
- Provide management support for administrative staff and additional Policy and Advocacy staff upon their hiring
- Supervise Assistant in monitoring and tracking of policy and advocacy developments
- Oversee Assistant in her/his supervision of the Policy and Advocacy internship program
- Manage Assistant with tracking and reconciliation of finances for projects on which Manager is the lead
- Participate in budget development and analysis of expenditures on an ongoing basis for projects on which Manager is the lead
Qualifications
Education and Experience:
- Advanced Degree in law, political science, sociology, women or gender studies, criminal justice, journalism, or related field
- Four to six years of policy, research, or reporting experience regarding violence against women and girls in the United States; focus on sexual violence work preferred
- Non-for-profit experience strongly preferred
- Government affairs experience a plus
Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
- Strong project management skills
- Proven and effective leadership skills
- Ability to work effectively in a team environment, approaching problems and conflict professionally and constructively
- Compassionate, self-motivated, extremely well-organized, collegial and able to handle numerous tasks and projects simultaneously
- Demonstrates initiative and the ability to prioritize with minimal supervision and work independently as well as a member of a team
- Ability to gather and analyze data, identify problems and opportunities, consider alternative courses of action, draw logical conclusions and adopt appropriate solutions;action oriented
- Extremely detail oriented and precise
- Ability to negotiate effectively and appropriately to all organizational levels and external constituents
- Proficiency in Word required; proficiency in Excel and PowerPoint preferred
- Proven commitment to reducing and preventing violence against women and girls in the United States; strong knowledge of the backlog of untested rape kits in the United States.