Director of Public Policy, New Jersey

Position: Director of Public Policy, New Jersey    The Director of Public Policy for New Jersey  will lead our advocacy efforts to promote economic justice and create wealth building opportunities to end homelessness for the communities supported by VOA-GNY in the State of New Jersey. The Director of Policy will establish relationships with local leaders in the State of New Jersey to advance our real estate development agenda and support municipalities in meeting their affordable housing production targets. They will also develop an advocacy agenda focused on improving benefits access, promoting living wage employment opportunities and ensuring access to workforce supports necessary to prevent and end homelessness in our communities while working to advance VOA-GNY as thought-leaders in the region cross-promoting promising practices from our programs in New York and New Jersey.      The Director of Public Policy will also work to advance VOA-GNY’s legislative and budget advocacy agenda to promote health, wealth and housing opportunities that will improve the economic well-being of our constituents, expand VOA-GNY’s footprint in the state and, help the organization realize our vision of ending homelessness in the entire Greater New York region.     Location: 205 W Milton Avenue • Rahway, NJ 07065    Minimum Qualifications:  Bachelor’s degree and five years relevant experience in government relations, advocacy and research.   Must have excellent written and oral communication skills.   Experience with researching and writing policy memos, writing and delivery testimony, and comfort with presentations and public speaking required.   Other relevant knowledge, skills, and abilities include:     Ability to build coalitions and comfort with engaging various stakeholders including elected and appointed officials, funders, other social service providers and persons with lived experience.   Knowledge or the budgeting and legislative processes in NJ highly required; knowledge of NYS and NYC a plus  Knowledge of public assistance programs including cash assistance, SNAP, rental assistance programs  Knowledge of workforce supports including childcare, transportation, tax credits and other programs  Ability to travel throughout NNJ and NYC to visit program sites and, flexibility to attend conferences out of town once or twice a year as needed  Lived experience and/or direct service experience confronting the challenges of homelessness, poverty, behavioral health challenges and intimate partner violence is desired.    Director of Public Policy, New Jersey Principal Responsibilities:   In consultation with VOA-GNY program staff and leadership, develop a policy agenda that will improve the economic well-being of people at risk of or experiencing homelessness  Identify model programs and policies, including VOA-GNY’s own innovative programming, that advance economic justice and access to wealth-building opportunities for our clients.  Identify government funding streams and areas of opportunity for VOA-GNY to expand in Northern New Jersey, including municipalities with high affordable housing creation targets.  Forge relationships with DCA, DCF, local social service districts and other key stakeholders to position VOA-GNY to grow our business in NNJ.  Work with VOA-GNY program and evaluation staff to collect information and data about the successes of our programming and opportunities for replication and expansion.  Pursue legislative advocacy opportunities and administrative procedure reforms to advance the economic well-being of persons at risk of or experiencing homelessness.  Build support for VOA-GNY advocacy priorities amongst key stakeholders by participating in relevant coalitions and taskforces.  Present at conferences and other events to promote public awareness of the advocacy agenda.  Create policy memos, white papers and testimony and partner with VOA-GNY communications team to craft social media kits, author op-eds and create other materials to promote the advocacy agenda.  Prepare reports as needed for compliance with lobbying disclosure or funder requirements.  Perform other related duties as requested.    Employees receive an exceptional benefits package including:  Medical  Dental   Vision  Prescription coverage  Life insurance,  Retirement plan   Educational Reimbursement Program (includes tuition and license/certification)  Paid Time Off which is accrued monthly and rolls over from year to year. In addition;  Paid Birthday Holiday  And much more…

Salary : $105,000