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Public Engagement Ambassador (Volunteer)

Mentor A Promise · New York, NY · 1 mo ago
OTHRVolunteer

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, education, literacy, creative expression, career development, advocacy, and community-centered opportunity. PromisePublic is MAP’s public engagement and advocacy division, helping the organization listen to communities, strengthen public understanding, elevate underrepresented perspectives, and turn community input into meaningful action.

Role Overview

MAP is seeking outgoing, thoughtful, and community-centered Public Engagement Ambassadors to support outreach and public engagement throughout New York City. Ambassadors will connect directly with families, community members, educators, service providers, and other stakeholders through community outreach, surveys, workshops, events, listening activities, and public-awareness initiatives. This is more than distributing information. We are looking for people who can start respectful conversations, listen carefully, explain information clearly, document what they learn, and help MAP better understand the communities we serve.

Key Responsibilities

  • Community Outreach & Engagement
    • Conduct in-person outreach throughout New York City.
    • Engage families, youth, educators, community members, and local organizations.
    • Support community events, workshops, listening sessions, and outreach campaigns.
    • Distribute educational and program materials.
    • Facilitate approved surveys, feedback activities, and community conversations.
    • Help ensure outreach is welcoming, accessible, and respectful.
  • Community Voice & Feedback
    • Accurately document community perspectives, questions, concerns, and ideas.
    • Organize survey responses and engagement notes.
    • Identify recurring themes and emerging community needs.
    • Help prepare outreach summaries and recommendations.
    • Route questions and concerns to the appropriate MAP teams.
  • Engagement Planning
    • Help identify communities, stakeholders, events, and outreach opportunities.
    • Support outreach plans, schedules, materials, and field logistics.
    • Research community organizations and potential engagement locations.
    • Help improve engagement strategies based on lessons learned in the field.
  • Communications & Public Awareness
    • Support public-education and awareness initiatives.
    • Help create clear community-facing materials.
    • Identify frequently asked questions and information gaps.
    • Support communications related to housing instability, education, mentorship, youth opportunity, accessibility, and other MAP priorities.
  • Data & Engagement Support
    • Help organize and clean non-sensitive outreach data.
    • Track participation and engagement activity.
    • Identify patterns in community feedback.
    • Support simple reports, summaries, and presentations.

Safeguarding, Privacy & Professional Boundaries

  • Protect confidential and identifying information.
  • Follow approved data-collection and consent procedures.
  • Maintain appropriate professional boundaries.
  • Never pressure individuals to disclose housing circumstances, trauma, or sensitive personal information.
  • Never promise services or outcomes MAP has not authorized.
  • Follow all applicable photography, video, recording, and media-consent requirements.
  • Report safeguarding concerns through MAP’s established procedures.
  • Treat every person with dignity, whether or not they choose to participate.

Ideal Candidate

Strong candidates will demonstrate:

  • Comfort engaging with members of the public
  • Excellent listening and communication skills
  • Cultural humility and professionalism
  • Reliability and strong follow-through
  • Ability to accurately document information
  • Interest in public engagement, advocacy, community organizing, public service, education, sociology, social work, public policy, or nonprofit work
  • Comfort participating in outreach across New York City
  • Respect for privacy, confidentiality, and professional boundaries
  • Alignment with MAP’s mission

Prior professional public-engagement experience is not required. Multilingual candidates are encouraged to apply.

What Success Looks Like

Success means community members feel respected and heard, outreach reaches beyond MAP’s existing network, community feedback is accurately captured, insights reach the appropriate teams, and MAP can demonstrate that listening influences how we work. The most important questions are not simply How many people did we reach? They are Who did we hear from? Who are we still missing? What did we learn? What should change because we listened?

Commitment

  • Approximately 5–10 hours per week
  • Minimum 6-month commitment required
  • Ability to participate in in-person outreach throughout New York City
  • Some remote work for planning, research, communications, and data support
  • Availability for scheduled community events and outreach activities
  • Reliable attendance and communication
  • Completion of applicable MAP onboarding and training requirements

What You’ll Gain

  • Hands-on public engagement and community outreach experience
  • Experience conducting surveys and listening activities
  • Exposure to advocacy, communications, strategy, and community research
  • Opportunity to work directly with diverse New York City communities
  • Experience translating community input into organizational learning
  • Professional development, references, and letters of recommendation
  • Opportunity to help community voices meaningfully influence MAP’s work

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