Youth Programs Associate

Reports to: Director of Youth Programs

Work Schedule: 20 to 25 hours per week, mostly during the school day (8:30 a.m. -3:30 p.m.); event-based evening hours required with ample notice

Organization:

Literary Arts is a community-based nonprofit arts organization located in Portland, Oregon. Our mission is to engage readers, support writers, and inspire the next generation with great literature.

Our programs create opportunities for readers and writers of all ages and walks of life to engage with stories. We provide programs in concert halls, classrooms, our community space, and on the radio. Literary Arts is committed to remaining a dynamic and responsive organization that will continue to evolve with our community’s needs and deepen our equity work across all our programs.

Youth Programs reach 4,000 students annually. Our program includes: Writers in the Schools (WITS), which sends professional writers into public high school classrooms for creative writing residencies; Students to the Schnitz, which provides tickets and transportation for youth to literary events; the College Essay Exchange, pairing students working on college applications with volunteer mentors; and a suite of slam poetry programming, including Verselandia, the city-wide youth poetry slam championship.

The Position:

Literary Arts seeks a Youth Programs Associate with excellent organization and time-management skills, experience working with youth and/or in education, administrative experience, and a passion for literature to assist with Youth Programs. This role will be a crucial part of the Youth Programs team, largely attending to offsite events and programming needs.

This is a part-time, seasonal role that will work through the Youth Programs events season from September through the last day of school in June. This role will work mostly outside the office in our partner schools, attending workshops and events, though some in-office work is required for meetings and staff events. Our service area includes Portland, Parkrose, Gresham, and Woodburn school districts. Reliable transportation is required.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Support College Essay Exchange sessions, including materials set up, volunteer engagement, and presentation.
• Support WITS residencies (planning meetings, observations, readings, and residency help if needed) at two to four assigned schools each semester.
• Support WITS general admin (contracts and scopes of work, matrices, etc.) as needed.
• Support programming at organizational and department events, including but not limited to Portland Book Festival, Portland Arts & Lectures events and author visits, Bookmark, student readings, end-of-year celebrations, and Verselandia.
• Support planning and coordination for slam poetry programming, including scheduling workshops.
• Support Youth Programs blog coordination.
• Photograph and record data for program events.
• General support of YP (Youth Programs) Director as needed.
• Other duties as assigned.

Experience & Requirements:

Literary Arts acknowledges and celebrates all types of learning: academic, career, on-the-job training, and volunteer and military service. Our goal is to hire and retain individuals who have demonstrated success performing the essential duties of the position and/or who possess the qualities to learn new skills quickly.

Experience working directly with youth, and with people from diverse racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds is strongly recommended for this role.

Qualifications:

• Experience as a teaching artist and/or as a classroom teacher is strongly preferred. This role will often work autonomously with teaching artists and classroom teachers.
• Experience working with contractors, especially in an arts capacity, is a plus.
• Knowledge of Portland-area high schools and/or arts education is a plus.
• Excellent time management and organizational abilities.
• Ability to be self-directed and prioritize program needs.
• Excellent and consistent communication skills.
• Experience working with diverse communities.
• Impeccable attention to detail.
• Fluency with Mac, Microsoft business applications, Google Suite, Survey Monkey and/or MailChimp is a plus.

Job Conditions:

Work environment: This role will work largely outside of the office, at partner schools across Portland, east Multnomah County, and Woodburn (as needed), and is welcome to perform administrative work wherever it is best. Some in-office work is required, including for team meetings and staff events.

Office Layout is open concept, between two common spaces used for meetings, events, and workshops. Literary Arts’ new facility will also be open concept, with flexible meeting rooms and hoteling workstations.

Equipment Used: Mac laptop (provided by Literary Arts), copier/printer, postage machine, and other standard office equipment. The Youth Programs Associate will need reliable transportation to complete job duties.

Physical Demands: Extended periods of sitting are required at the computer or in meetings and in classrooms. Concentrated periods of computer keyboarding may be required throughout the work week. However, this position does accommodate breaks from sitting as needed. Lifting and moving boxes is required; boxes over 25 pounds should be lifted with help. Navigating in and around public high school buildings is required for this position.

For more information about Literary Arts, visit www.literary-arts.org.