Company description

Kite’s Nest is a center for liberatory education in Hudson, NY. It is our mission to build the collective capacity of young people to bring about personal transformation, social connection, healing, and systemic change.

We create youth-centered spaces of radical imagination and creativity, and support youth-led movements for equity and justice that transform the conditions impacting young people's lives. Our programs engage experiential education, the arts, meaningful job training, and civic action as tools for building community power.

Job description

Location: In-Person, Hudson, NY
Position: Full-time
Schedule: M-F with occasional weekends
Start Date: January 2026
Applications Due: November 24, 2025

Kite’s Nest runs the Social Justice Leadership Academy (SJLA), a year-round political home for teenagers, including both a weekly after school space and 5-week summer intensive. Now in its 12th year, SJLA combines transformative political education and hands-on arts programming, bringing youth together to connect, create, grieve, heal, learn, play, and organize. The program centers youth of color, immigrant youth, queer youth, low-income youth, and court-involved youth in our community. 

The Director of Youth Power leads this powerful program and supports youth-led organizing and campaigns throughout the year. The Director of Youth Power will work closely with our experienced team of educators to coordinate all aspects of SJLA and our youth organizing programming: overseeing the program schedule and teaching staff, collaborating on the development of and working within the parameters of the SJLA program budget; collaborating to design creative curriculum and political education workshops for teens; leading group activities during after school and summer sessions; building meaningful relationships with youth; providing one-on-one mentorship to youth organizers; and supporting youth-led campaigns throughout the year. We are seeking someone with a passion and talent for supporting the creative power, collective leadership, and joy of youth.

The person in this role will report to the Co-Executive Director of Liberatory Education.

Responsibilities include:

Manage all aspects of SJLA program:

• Collaborate with contract educators, partners, and Youth Staff to design after school and summer curriculum, including experiential learning activities, group discussions, arts projects, campaign development, community actions, and field trips.
• Coordinate program planning for SJLA, facilitating planning meetings with SJLA adult and alumni educators and coordinating with youth program advisors.
• Co-develop and manage SJLA program budget with support from our Co Executive Director of Resource Mobilization; manage purchases and supply inventory within budget parameters; maintain and submit purchasing records for bookkeeping purposes
• Support in interviewing, hiring, and training teen Youth Staff and young adult Alumni Staff; supervise and provide leadership development for Youth and Alumni Staff.
• Hire, train, and supervise lead educators, guest educators and teaching artists. Coordinate partnerships and field trips with community partners, including youth organizing groups, social justice organizations, activists and artists in the Hudson Valley, the Capital Region, and New York City.
• Help facilitate restorative and transformative practices and peer mediation as needed.
• Facilitate regular feedback sessions and program evaluation with Youth Staff and young adult Alumni Staff.

Support youth-led organizing and campaigns:

• Facilitate creative curriculum and political education workshops for SJLA teens to support their development as thriving youth leaders.
• Partner with SJLA youth to design and lead campaigns for policy change, supporting teens to identify issues impacting their lives, co-develop and conduct Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) projects, develop campaign strategy and goals, connect with local and statewide partners, create media, organize public actions, attend political events, and mobilize community participation.
• Provide mentorship to youth organizers in our programs.
  Lead occasional creative political education workshops at high schools and with other youth organizations in Columbia and Greene counties.
• Represent Kite’s Nest at relevant city meetings and events related to local, regional, and statewide organizing.

General responsibilities

• Develop and maintain seasonal work plans
• Contribute to program reports for grant reporting, applications and end-of-year documentation
• Participation in occasional organizational fundraising events
• Develop and provide broad-level strategic visioning for the program, with support from the Co-Executive Director of Liberatory Education
• Document and contribute social media and archival content telling the story of program activities
• Optional participation in various staff committees

Compensation: This is a full time exempt position. Pay is $62,500/year with a full-time benefit package, including paid vacation, $200/month housing stipend, wellness/sick days, professional development funds, wellness fund, & employer-funded ethical 401(k) plan. Fully-covered health, vision, dental, life, and accident insurance. 

Schedule: Full-time position, M-F with occasional weekends

• School year program days (2 days/wk): 11:30am-7:30pm
• Non-program days: 10am-6pm
• Summer program days (5 days/wk, Early July - Early Aug): 8am-4pm  

** Please see full job description for more details and preferred qualities in a candidate **

Compensation

this position is: salaried, $60,406 - $75,000

Application instructions

Deadline

November 24, 2025