Editor, Youth Communication

About Youth Communication

Youth Communication’s mission is to elevate teen voices to create real change.

Since 1980, Youth Communication has worked with youth facing systemic challenges – including youth of color, LGBTQ+ youth, and youth who are recent immigrants, living in foster care, unhoused, or economically struggling – to write and publish true stories about their lives. These stories engage and inspire teen readers and help educators and other adults better understand and serve the young people they work with.

What We Do

Writing: In our award-winning writing program, NYC teens work one-on-one with professional adult editors to write personal narratives and reported stories. For the writers, our intensive writing and reflection process (stories can go through a dozen drafts or more) is often personally transformative. It also results in stories that also have the power to be transformative for readers. These stories are the foundation of all our other work.

Publishing: We publish these stories in our online magazines; in weekly email blasts to thousands of educators, youth workers, and policy makers; in partner media outlets like Chalkbeat and the Imprint; and in anthologies and curricula, reaching a wide audience of teens and the adults who work with them.

Education and Training: In our education program, we use the teens’ stories to create change in classrooms, schools, and community-based youth programs. We provide culturally responsive, story-based curricula and professional development to teachers, after-school staff, and other youth work professionals. These adults use our stories and lessons to engage students, inspire their confidence and feelings of self-worth, and strengthen their skills. They also help adults learn more about their students’ lives and concerns.

About the Role

The editor will work closely with the senior editor to run our teen writing program and produce our two online magazines, YCteen (by and for New York City high school students) and Represent (by and for teens in foster care). The editor must have extremely strong editing skills, deep compassion, an ability to see past challenges to focus on young people’s strengths, and a strong belief in the power of storytelling to effect change for writer and reader.

Key responsibilities include:

Mentor and edit teen writers:

• Work one-on-one with six to ten teen writers each semester to complete authentic personal stories as well as occasional reported essays, interviews, and reviews.
• Build supportive, mentoring relationships with a diverse array of teen writers, including some who have been in foster care or other systems, have experienced complex trauma, and/or may have relatively low writing skills.
• Help writers identify and shape appropriate story ideas – stories that are personally meaningful to the writer, of interest to the reader, and are matched to the writer’s skill level and emotional capacity.
• Provide attentive, strengths-based feedback and developmental edits that move the story forward and encourage writers – including beginners – through the writing of multiple drafts. Editors meet with writers (typically in person) and provide edits 1-2 times each week.
• Be attentive to the varied needs of individual writers and provide support and referrals to services such as therapy, help with housing, college and job recommendations.

Co-lead group meetings and writing workshops:

• During the school year, help plan and co-lead regular group writer meetings to build community among the teen writers, develop and discuss ideas for coverage, workshop stories, and teach key writing and reporting skills.
• In late spring and summer, work with the senior editor to plan and co-lead our intensive, six-week summer writing workshop. Planning involves assisting in creating the theme, reading and evaluating applications, interviewing and selecting writers, and arranging for speakers and field trips. During the workshop, you’ll help teach core reporting and writing lessons; lead discussions, trips, and activities related to the theme; build community and manage group dynamics; and work with four writers (per editor) to complete at least one or two publishable stories during the workshop.

Develop your knowledge of issues and systems relevant to the teens we serve, and use that knowledge to inform our coverage and our work with writers. Help build connections to relevant audiences:

• Stay up to date on issues that affect our teen writers and readers (e.g. school cell phone and social media bans, changes to specialized high school admissions, immigration and housing issues, new policies in foster care, etc.).
• Maintain an evolving list of potential story ideas related to these issues. Be alert for writers whose interest and experience make them likely candidates to write those stories and work with the senior editor to plan coverage on particular themes.
• Build connections with youth media groups in NYC as well as other potential media and education partners. Be proactive in seeking new ways to share our stories.
• Collaborate with the marketing team to build our visibility and impact.

Other editorial tasks:

• After training, support the senior editor as a partner in a two-person editorial team. Provide feedback on developing stories; discuss writer challenges; proofread final stories; and share other editorial tasks such as providing updates for meetings and funders, completing special projects, etc.
• Post completed stories and update stories on the website using WordPress.
• With senior editor, plan, write and edit weekly “Story of the Week” emails highlighting a particular story or group of stories for our readership.
• From time to time, pitch in with editing and proofreading support for other departments.

Skills and Qualifications:

• At least 3-5 years of writing and editing experience, preferably including some reporting experience. An advanced degree in journalism is helpful, but not required.
• Skilled in all aspects of editing: developmental, structural, line editing, fact-checking, and copy editing. Experience in storytelling in other media (video, podcasts, etc.) is a plus.
• Interest in and experience with working with young people from marginalized communities. Patience and ability to listen and respond nonjudgmentally.
• Passion for YC’s mission and purpose (see YouthComm.org for more information).
• Self-motivated learner, able to thrive with minimal supervision and reach out for resources and guidance when needed.
• Collegial colleague with strong communication skills.
• Curiosity, energy and eagerness to learn. This position has a steep learning curve but offers great potential for growth, and the right candidate will have the opportunity to help shape an editorial department that is continually evolving to meet our organizational mission.