Principal, Strategic Communications

at  Community Solutions

Please note that we are accepting applications on a rolling basis, with preference given to applicants who apply by May 22, 2024.
We kindly ask applicants not to contact Community Solutions employees for updates on this role. Additionally, we are not accepting candidate resumes from recruitment firms.

POSITION OVERVIEW

Homelessness can be made rare and brief. This is not an aspiration or a belief. It is a reality that communities are proving every day. Community Solutions (https://community.solutions/) aims to amplify this truth clearly, broadly and effectively toward a tipping point where this reality is widely understood and drives effective policy and practice nationally.

The Strategic Communications team is responsible for:

• Harnessing the learning and stories of communities and leaders that are demonstrating the practices that reduce homelessness
• Lifting up bright spots and broadly sharing the examples of community progress
• Providing direct capacity and support to communities to leverage communications as a tool to create buy-in for their local efforts to reduce homelessness
• Developing and distributing open source communications content and tools for any community to use to amplify the message that homelessness is solvable

As an organization, we support a diverse movement of more than 100 communities across the country, of all sizes and geographical and political contexts. We know that homelessness is solvable everywhere, and it is our job to 1) help communities leverage communications to reduce homelessness all the way to “functional zero,” where homelessness is measurably rare and brief, and 2) create a new set of expectations across the country that inspires measurable reductions in homelessness.

We harness communications to change expectations, behaviors, and conditions that can create a new normal where homelessness is rare and brief, everywhere. We rigorously measure success across four critical lanes of work:

• Communities can leverage communications to accelerate their own progress toward functional zero homelessness. Everything we do stems from our work with communities. We bring our knowledge as communications professionals to provide strategic capacity, support, and resources (https://login.builtforzero.org/hubs/communications-hub/) to help local leaders harness the power of communications to make homelessness rare and brief. We measure success by looking at platform-specific measures, as well as qualitative feedback from our community partners.
• Reducing homelessness — and proof that it can be made rare and brief — is well documented and reaching key audiences. We capture the compelling and complex stories of what it takes to reduce homelessness, and proof that it is possible. We develop content that is tailored to support communities and partners in effectively communicating to key audiences. The success of these efforts is tracked with platform-specific measures across our owned channels, including email, social media, paid advertising, web, video, and partner content.
• A widely observed discourse creates understanding and accountability for homelessness as a systems problem that can be resolved. By 2026, share of voice around the discourse on solving homelessness (on both social and earned media) will reflect an understanding that homelessness is a systems problem and can be made rare and brief (25%). Polling and other measures used to complement share of voice will also reflect a shift to solutions-focused action and evident progress in reducing homelessness.
• Key audiences take actions and influence peers to create accountability for population-level outcomes. Our communications efforts are intended to drive behavior change. We work to ensure that a critical mass of influential opinion leaders and priority publications create accountability for population-level outcomes and reinforce the understanding that homelessness can be made rare and brief. We develop guidance and examples of key actions different groups can take to help communities achieve that.

The Principal of Strategic Communications is a critical leader at Community Solutions, responsible for overseeing communications, which encompasses team operations, strategy development and alignment, execution on the strategic plan aims, coordination with other Community Solutions teams and critical initiatives, as well as internal communications. The Principal will work closely with the Chief of Strategic Affairs, President, communications, policy, partnerships, program, operations and finance teams to advance organizational strategic plan aims. The Principal will work with other team leaders across the organization and external collaborators to advance the movement to make homelessness rare and brief. In addition to this affirmative communications work, the Principal will lead strategies to prevent and mitigate crises and step into emerging and responsive opportunities. The Principal will also support internal communications.
The Principal will report to the Chief of Strategic Affairs, serve on the organization’s Leadership Team and interact with the Community Solutions Board of Directors.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE AND QUALIFICATIONS

• 5-10 years of high-performance writing and editing with published proof
• 5-6 years leading communications teams with proven results - preferably in whole or in part for a network or membership organization and/or broad-based campaign with results to show for it
• Strong team and project portfolio management skills, as evidenced by leading teams and projects to successful and measurable completion
• Collaborative work ethic and a high tolerance for feedback, direct communication, and proactive conflict resolution
• Experience communicating about, or driving campaigns related to complex issues
• Marketing and research experience a plus
• Strong background in analyzing and applying data and learning
• Extremely organized and attentive to detail
• High degree of professionalism and outstanding judgment in dealing with diverse groups of people, including Board members, senior executives, staff, community leaders, donors, and people with lived experience of homelessness
• Ability to prioritize and complete a high volume of tasks with limited guidance
• Passion for supporting efforts to end homelessness or other complex social problems
  Relevant work experience is required to apply for this role. A college degree may be helpful but is not required. If you think you have the right experience, but are worried we might not ‘get it,’ you could be right! Please use your resume and cover letter to help us understand your experience and why you’re qualified for this role.

STRATEGY AND ACCOUNTABILITY FOR RESULTS

• Have a hands-on leadership approach; roll up the sleeves and help get the work done
• Be an outstanding writer and editor who can generate critical thought leadership and strategic documents, and know how ‘great’ content should be created from first-hand experience
• Ensure that the team’s efforts are aligned with the strategic plan
• Work with team to set annual and six-month aims and measures, and regular processes for ensuring progress against them
• Identify opportunities and support team members to improve execution and strategy
• Assure coordination of communications within cross-organizational efforts
• Establish and adapt core messaging in line with organizational learning
• Assure clarity and consistency of Community Solutions’ messaging and materials
• Oversee and hold accountable team members for messaging alignment and quality assurance across organizational channels (which includes, but is not limited to, earned, social, digital, and shared media)
• Encourage and facilitate continuous improvement and learning, which includes action reviews around key moments

The Strategic Communications team is responsible for:

• Harnessing the learning and stories of communities and leaders that are demonstrating the practices that reduce homelessness
• Lifting up bright spots and broadly sharing the examples of community progress
• Providing direct capacity and support to communities to leverage communications as a tool to create buy-in for their local efforts to reduce homelessness
• Developing and distributing open source communications content and tools for any community to use to amplify the message that homelessness is solvabl