Venice Arts is a non-profit arts organization whose mission is to ignite, expand, and transform the lives of Los Angeles’ low-income youth through photography and film education, and to use our participatory storytelling practices to amplify the voices of underrepresented communities around the world. Working under the Director of Education, the Creative Pathways Manager is responsible for ably managing all components of Venice Arts’ growing college and creative career development programs. The Creative Pathways Manager’s primary roles and responsibilities include:

College Success
• Oversee, coordinate, and evaluate the impacts of all college program activities including College Days (fall, spring); college mentoring with professionals, for high school seniors (fall); local college visits and portfolio day. Work with the Program Operations Manager to assure high quality and well-attended events.
• Oversee the College Counselor and assure the provision of 1:1 college counseling for seniors (fall), juniors (spring), and their families (as requested).
• Work with the Director of Education on developing the long-term vision for college programming, and oversee the build-out of new program components.

Creative Career Development
• Support the Director of Education with the identification of prospective industry and community partners to meet the educational and career goals of Venice Arts’ students.
• Oversee and coordinate the logistics of Creative Career presentation series, career-directed field trips, shadowing opportunities and other events (e.g., Creative Career Days, Visiting ArtistsCreative Professionals Series, etc.)
• Provide support to the Lead Teaching Artists to assure that all curricular components in the creative career development programs are aligned.
• Work with the Program Team to coordinate and deliver soft skills workshops, résumé and cover letter workshops, and related events.
• Work with the Director of Education and Program Team to identify and track students who are internship-ready, maintaining a prospective intern database.
• Support the Program Operations Manager in collecting internship documents from students and employers, such as the Supervisor-Intern Agreement, postinternship evaluation surveys and Youth At Work documentation.
• Steward the internship placement process from beginning to end (matching youth to potential placements; assuring the receipt of quality cover letters, résumés and, as appropriate, portfolios or reels; forwarding applicants to prospective employers; tracking; etc.).
• Report on successes and challenges for individuals, as well as in aggregate, at bimonthly team meetings, at the close of the project, and as requested.

College and Career Mentoring
• Provide structured creative career counseling services.
• Participate in Team meetings to assess the successes and barriers to success for student.
• Report on successes and challenges for individuals, as well as in aggregate, at bimonthly team meetings, at the close of the project, and as requested.
• Work with the Director of Education, and teaching team, to identify how best to deliver soft skills training, as stand-alone workshops and/or integrated into the curriculum.

Awards, Competitions, and Film Festivals
● Assure the maintenance of the awards, competitions, and film festival calendar.
● Work with Lead Artists, to identify strong candidates for all opportunities.
● Assure that the Program Team and all teaching artists know about award
opportunities in a timely manner.
● Coordinate awards “mini-workshops” and other, as-needed, support for award
submissions (.e.g., in-class and 1:1 mentoring).
● Assure the maintenance of data logs of all award and festival submissions and
their outcomes.
Other Duties as Assigned

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE
The ideal candidate for this position has experience in youth development, college and career pathways, and the arts. An individual who demonstrates the ability to manage planning and logistics for a program, while also delivering limited (10-25% time) direct services, required. Additionally, the ideal candidate has:
● At least five years of demonstrated experience in youth development, creative youth development preferred; at least two-years of experience in college or career mentoring, with creative sector experience, strongly preferred.
● Experience providing case management, or similar services; a demonstrated understanding of how to identify resources and navigate service systems, an asset.
● An understanding of how to support career and college readiness, including how to design and implement the matrix of activities that result in positive outcomes for youth.
● An understanding of internship and entry-level employment opportunities in a broad cross-section of creative sector companies.
● Sensitivity to the unique creative career development challenges common to low-income young people who may also be homeless, foster youth, and/or justice involved.
● A candidate with background in filmmaking or photography strongly preferred.

● Candidate must demonstrate excellent organizational skills and attention to detail, while being able to manage a caseload of young people with diverse needs. Must be able to take direction, work well as a member of a team, and work well independently. Must be personable and an excellent communicator, verbally and in writing.

SALARY & HOW TO APPLY

This is a non-exempt, full-time position with a compensation package that includes a salary of $48,000-$52,000 to start, commensurate with directly related experience, paid vacation, medical and dental benefits available after 90-days, and an opportunity to pay into a 401k. Send résumé with a cover letter highlighting relevant experience to Director of Education, Julia Berghammer Villarreal: [email protected] Please indicate: Creative Pathways Manager in subject line. Please: No phone enquiries or walk-ins. Portfolio, curricular, or other materials may be requested if an interview is scheduled.

Venice Arts is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer.