MARE’s Mission:

At MARE, we connect children and teens in foster care to permanent and adoptive families. MARE is a non-profit agency with more than 65 years working in partnership with the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families (DCF) to mobilize and support a compassionate community of individuals, families, and supporters ready to respond and provide the live-giving connections that children and youth in foster care need. We exist to help children and teens who wait the longest in foster care without permanency to find life-long connections with adoptive families and their communities. MARE specializes in the recruitment of permanent and adoptive families for teens, children of color, sibling groups, LGBTQ+ identified youth, and those with complex medical and developmental needs.

Position Summary:

The Community Engagement Manager facilitates the connection between MARE and the community by leading key community programs, building relationships with supporters, and creating impactful communications to further MARE’s mission. Key responsibilities include:

Program Management 
Oversee community engagement programs, acting as the primary program designer and day-to-day coordinator, for initiatives like: 

• Fostering Creativity Youth Art Showcase 
• MARE’s Volunteer and Community Action Program (The Neighborhood) 
• The Walk/Run for Adoption 
• National Adoption Day

Storytelling and Communications 

Source, write, and publish stories that showcase our work and engage our community. Contribute to conceptualization and copy-writing for organization communications like fundraising appeals, newsletters, and social media.

Community Engagement and Fund Development 

Assist the Communications and Development teams with donor and stakeholder engagement, relationship building, and volunteer coordination. 

Candidate Description 

You might be the right fit for this role if you are a highly organized problem-solver with strong communications skills. When faced with a complex situation, you enjoy managing all of the variables, aligning and realigning them until you have the most productive configuration possible. You are an activator, always looking to take action and able to mobilize others toward a common goal. You have a knack for logistics, and instinctively know how to get large projects to the finish line. To-do lists and calendars are your friend, and you often find yourself becoming the organizer for your friends and family. You are comfortable meeting new people and you love connecting them to the right opportunity. Learning new systems, technology, or workflows comes easily and naturally to you.

Does this sound like you? Then you might be a good fit for our team! 

Qualifications:

MARE actively seeks to broaden the diversity of our team to best reflect the populations we serve, and encourages BIPOC individuals, persons with disabilities, and those with lived experience with the child welfare system to consider applying, even if all qualifications are not met.

MARE’s Culture & Benefits:

MARE’s values of innovation, compassion and collaboration are at the core of our services to children and families. Our 21-person staff team has a clear sense of and a strong commitment to being a diverse, equitable, and inclusive organization where multiple voices are heard and honored. MARE has a flexible remote/in-person hybrid model for ongoing work with a minimum of one day per week in-person at our Newton office.

MARE offers a comprehensive benefits package including:

• Flexible family-friendly working hours
• Generous paid vacation (4+weeks), holidays (12), and sick time
• Medical and Dental Insurance
• Life and Accidental Death and Dismemberment Insurance
• Long Term Disability
• 403(b) pre-tax saving plan with a 3% salary match after one year of service.