Chair, Clinical Advisory Board (Volunteer)

About Mentor A Promise

Mentor A Promise (MAP) is a New York City–based nonprofit supporting children and youth ages 5–18 experiencing housing instability through mentorship, literacy, education, social-emotional learning, creative opportunity, advocacy, technology-enabled programming, and community-centered support. MAP believes that every program serving children and families should be grounded in dignity, safety, developmental understanding, and respect for the whole person. As MAP grows, the Clinical Advisory Board helps ensure that program expansion remains thoughtful, evidence-informed, trauma-aware, developmentally appropriate, and centered on the well-being of the children and families we serve.

About PromisePrograms

PromisePrograms is MAP's program delivery and program excellence division, responsible for strengthening the quality, coordination, development, and continuous improvement of services for children, youth, and families. The division supports MAP's in-person, virtual, mentorship, educational, family-engagement, and community-based programming while helping ensure consistent standards for program quality, participant experience, safeguarding, and impact.

The Clinical Advisory Board operates within PromisePrograms as a non-clinical advisory body, bringing multidisciplinary professional expertise to strengthen program design, child and family well-being, trauma-informed practice, safeguarding, social-emotional development, and responsible organizational decision-making.

Leadership Opportunity

Mentor A Promise is seeking an accomplished and compassionate Chair of the Clinical Advisory Board to help build and lead a multidisciplinary team of professionals committed to strengthening the quality and integrity of MAP's programs. Working closely with PromisePrograms leadership, the Chair will help recruit and develop Clinical Advisory Board members, establish annual advisory priorities, facilitate meaningful interdisciplinary discussions, and translate professional expertise into practical recommendations for MAP's programs and leadership. This is an opportunity not simply to chair an advisory board, but to help build one—its membership, culture, priorities, standards, and long-term contribution to MAP. The goal is not to turn MAP into a clinical organization. It is to ensure that programs designed for children and families benefit from the knowledge of exceptional professionals who understand development, well-being, resilience, trauma, family systems, and responsible practice.

Key Responsibilities

• Build & Develop the Clinical Advisory Board: Partner with PromisePrograms leadership to build and develop the Clinical Advisory Board. Help define the Board's structure, membership priorities, expertise, and annual objectives. Identify and recruit accomplished professionals across complementary disciplines. Build a multidisciplinary team representing areas such as psychology, social work, counseling, child development, behavioral health, education, public health, disability and accessibility, and related fields. Identify gaps in the Board's collective expertise and help recruit professionals who can address them. Help onboard new members and establish clear expectations for participation and contribution. Strengthen member engagement, retention, and succession planning. Build a culture where members are active contributors—not simply names on an advisory roster.
• Advisory Board Leadership: Provide leadership and direction to the Clinical Advisory Board. Chair and facilitate scheduled Board meetings. Establish annual advisory priorities in partnership with PromisePrograms leadership. Create an environment that encourages thoughtful interdisciplinary dialogue, constructive challenge, and professional respect. Ensure discussions remain focused on areas where clinical and developmental expertise can meaningfully strengthen MAP's programs. Translate advisory discussions into clear, practical recommendations for organizational leadership.
• Child & Adolescent Development: Provide high-level guidance on developmentally appropriate approaches for children and adolescents. Help MAP consider developmental needs when designing programs, activities, curricula, and engagement strategies. Encourage approaches that recognize differences in age, development, ability, lived experience, culture, and individual circumstances. Support practices that promote healthy relationships, belonging, resilience, agency, and positive youth development.
• Trauma-Informed & Dignity-Centered Practice: Advise on trauma-informed, culturally responsive, and dignity-centered approaches. Help identify practices that could unintentionally stigmatize, retraumatize, or diminish the agency of children and families. Encourage approaches centered on safety, trust, choice, collaboration, empowerment, and respect. Help MAP recognize both the challenges children may experience and the strengths, capabilities, and resilience they bring.
• Program Quality & Development: Provide professional perspective on proposed programs, workshops, educational resources, family-engagement initiatives, research activities, and other relevant projects. Help identify developmental, psychosocial, ethical, behavioral, or safeguarding considerations. Recommend evidence-informed approaches where appropriate. Help PromisePrograms strengthen program quality and continuous improvement. Advise on appropriate boundaries between mentorship, education, supportive programming, and services requiring licensed professionals.
• Safeguarding & Responsible Boundaries: Support MAP in maintaining clear boundaries between supportive programming and clinical services. Help identify circumstances where referral to appropriately qualified professionals or community resources may be warranted. Contribute expertise to relevant safeguarding practices and policies when requested. Promote responsible approaches to sensitive situations involving children and families. Collaborate appropriately with safeguarding, legal, privacy, research, and program leadership when issues cross professional disciplines.

Potential Advisory Priorities

• Child and adolescent development
• Social-emotional learning
• Trauma-informed practice
• Youth mental health and well-being
• Housing instability and child development
• Family engagement
• Mentoring relationships and boundaries
• Disability inclusion and accessibility
• Psychological safety
• Positive youth development
• Youth voice and agency
• Behavioral and developmental considerations
• Safeguarding
• Referral practices
• Program design and evaluation
• Research involving children and families
• Volunteer and mentor education

Role Boundaries & Clinical Independence

Clear professional boundaries are fundamental to this role. The Clinical Advisory Board and its Chair:

• Provide advisory guidance, not direct clinical services.
• Do not diagnose, evaluate, or treat MAP participants through Board service.
• Do not establish therapist-client, physician-patient, or other clinical relationships with participants through the advisory role.
• Do not independently access confidential participant information unless specifically authorized and appropriate safeguards are established.
• Do not supervise MAP executives, program leaders, staff, or volunteers.
• Do not independently direct MAP programs or organizational operations.
• Do not replace emergency, medical, mental-health, safeguarding, or mandated-reporting procedures.
• Do not exercise the fiduciary authority of MAP's governing Board of Directors.

MAP leadership retains responsibility for organizational decisions and implementation. The Chair's influence comes from professional expertise, ethical judgment, thoughtful leadership, and the quality of the Board's recommendations—not operational authority.

Ideal Chair Profile

This opportunity is particularly well suited for an accomplished professional with substantial expertise in one or more areas such as:

• Clinical psychology
• Child or adolescent psychology
• Social work
• Psychiatry
• Counseling
• School psychology
• Child development
• Developmental psychology
• Behavioral health
• Public health
• Trauma-informed practice
• Family or community mental health
• Pediatric or adolescent health

Strong candidates will demonstrate:

• Significant professional or clinical leadership experience
• Deep understanding of children, adolescents, and families
• Experience with trauma-informed and developmentally appropriate practices
• Strong ethical judgment and professional boundaries
• Experience building or leading multidisciplinary teams, boards, committees, or professional groups
• Ability to translate research and professional knowledge into practical organizational guidance
• Excellent facilitation, listening, and communication skills
• Respect for lived experience, family voice, and community knowledge
• Ability to navigate sensitive matters with discretion and care
• Commitment to MAP's mission and the dignity of the communities we serve

Relevant professional licensure, advanced degrees, board certification, or comparable credentials are highly valued where appropriate to the candidate's discipline.

What Success Looks Like

• Success means MAP develops a strong, multidisciplinary Clinical Advisory Board.
• Highly qualified professionals are recruited, onboarded, engaged, and retained.
• The Board has clear annual priorities and meaningful opportunities to contribute.
• Meetings generate thoughtful, practical, evidence-informed recommendations.
• MAP's programs increasingly reflect developmentally appropriate, trauma-informed, and dignity-centered principles.
• Program leaders have access to trusted multidisciplinary expertise when complex questions arise.
• Potential risks to child and family well-being are identified earlier.
• Clinical and programmatic boundaries remain clear throughout the organization.
• The Board remains connected to current professional practice, research, and emerging issues affecting children and families.
• Clinical expertise strengthens MAP without unnecessarily medicalizing the experiences of children and families.

Why This Role Matters

Children are more than the challenges they experience. Housing instability may affect a young person's environment, but it does not define their potential. The Clinical Advisory Board exists to help MAP honor that truth—by ensuring that every program, every intervention, and every interaction reflects what we know about child development, trauma, resilience, and human dignity. This role matters because it helps build the infrastructure of care that allows children to be seen, supported, and celebrated—not as problems to be solved, but as promises to be kept.