Project Manager (Hope Fellow Manager), City of Phila.

Posted by City of Philadelphia Office of Public Engagement on September 13, 2022

The Mission of the Office of Public Engagement (OPE) is to strategically engage the many diverse communities across Philadelphia to increase residents’ knowledge of key Kenney Administration initiatives, and to gather feedback and perceptions about how the government and these initiatives can best serve our communities.  OPE does this by collecting and tracking data, employing quality engagement methods, and ensuring culturally competent and inclusive practices.

The Office of Public Engagement enhances the City’s community outreach and engagement efforts. We work with residents to make City government accessible to all Philadelphians. We also help make sure everyone’s voice is heard when the City is drafting and implementing policies. The Office of Public Engagement is housed within the Mayor’s Office.

Job Description

The Hope Fellow (Manager) will be responsible for leading the implementation of A Hope That Lights The Way (“Hope”), a 1-year grant-funded project, from the start to the finish line.

More about the Hope project:

The Mayor’s Office of Public Engagement exists to provide a pathway to visibility and well-being for our most vulnerable and dispossessed residents, including youth and young adults, and Black men and boys, women and girls. A Hope That Lights The Way will produce a multi-media documentary that uses ethnographic research and narrative analysis to depict the need and ongoing work of forging and protecting hope for Black men and boys – and the communities that love them – in Philadelphia.

Narrative is a primary meaning-making tool for human beings. In Towards a Poetics of Fiction, Hardy writes, “For we dream in narrative, daydream in narrative, remember, anticipate, hope, despair, believe, doubt, plan, revise, criticize, construct, gossip, learn, hate and love by narrative. In order to really live, we make up stories about ourselves and others, about the personal as well as the social past and future.”

For too long, Black men and boys have been center stage regarding gun violence in Philadelphia and most of our efforts as City government have been reactive and short term.  The Hope project will disrupt this persistent narrative by amplifying, strengthening, and documenting the strategies of hope used by Black men and boys in our City.  By turning a light towards those who do the important work of helping people develop and maintain hope, this project seeks to record relevant data that will help the City make critical decisions about how to engage residents as we tread a path forward.

Further, narratives shape public policy and public actions. Narrative research suggests that by intentionally constructing narratives using methodologies such as the Narrative Policy Framework, we can ensure that the lived experiences of Black men and boys are fully understood, and that policy goals that promote the wellbeing of Black men and boys are met.

Learn more and apply.