Assistant Teaching Artist

Assistant Teaching Artist

Seeking artists to facilitate violence intervention prevention storytelling workshops with youth

TRIGGER Violence Intervention and Prevention (VIP) is a gun violence intervention program based on the First Person Arts 60-minute documentary film TRIGGER. Using select excerpts of the film as a springboard for conversation and creation, the workshop series seeks to mentor students through telling their own stories and articulating their views about gun violence with impact and authenticity. Telling their own stories helps participants process and take back their narrative and opens a path to healing. We see the impact of exploring and sharing personal stories through our long history of success with our City of Philadelphia Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Service (DBHIDS) Engaging Males of Color (EMOC) programs.

Each workshop series will end in an opportunity for students to share, as comfortable, their first-person narratives with their peers and community. Each assistant teaching artist will be paired with a teaching artist.

Job title: Assistant Teaching Artist

Location: Schools throughout Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Salary: $35/hour; assistant teaching artists invoice for planning time in addition to time in the classroom.

Employment type: Occasional/part-time contract. Approximately 3 billable hours a week per cohort; number of cohorts based on teaching artist’s availability.

Duration: 9 sessions, beginning September 2024. 

Area of focus: Community and Capacity Building through the Arts

Responsibilities

• Assist with one or more storytelling sessions for a group of up to 12 students per site, often for 2 cohorts of students per site. 
• Attend a day-long, paid professional development session and orientation, as well as monthly paid TA community meetings.
• Collaborate with the lead Teaching Artist, assisting in modeling and facilitating activities as they align with your skills and experience. 
• Support students one-on-one and in small groups to reinforce lessons and aid students in drafting and sharing their first-person stories. 
• Take notes during the classroom sessions regarding particular questions or needs that came up for students so that continued support can occur in future sessions.
• Co-teach the fundamentals of storytelling, using a sample curriculum alongside a slate of resources for customization.
• Mentor students through the process of articulating their own stories through verbal and written techniques.
• Give feedback on drafts of stories to sharpen students’ ability to articulate and communicate their narratives to an audience. 
• Provide students opportunities to practice public speaking skills, such as volume, enunciation, pace, and gesture;
• Use techniques that break down barriers to create a supportive, affirming space for authentic sharing.
• Collaborate with VIP Project Coordinator, Project Director, and fellow Teaching Artists to ensure sessions stay on track to achieve project goals.

Required skills 

• A passion for storytelling and using art to articulate one’s narrative, rooted in any form including film, theater, writing, live events, podcasts, and more.
• Ability to connect with young people, with a desire to learn how to create educational spaces that activate their interests, agency, and needs. 
• Ability to give affirming, constructive mentorship to students, with a desire to learn how to be an empathetic, active listener for the lived experiences of others.
• Desire to learn how to facilitate group learning, exploration, and conversation through art.
• Desire to learn how to create a supportive space for young people to share their stories, and affirm the stories shared by their peers.
• Collaborative and dedicated team member.
• Must be able to pass FBI and state background checks.

Preferred experience

• Experience working with young people in the Philadelphia area (strongly preferred).
• Experience with storytelling through the arts (strongly preferred).
• Experience leading groups in art-making, learning, or social change practices.
• Experience in mentorship, particularly mentoring young people.
• Experience using arts education to create social dialogue and change.

About First Person Arts

First Person Arts is Philly’s original storytelling arts nonprofit. We believe that everyone has a story to tell and that the art of storytelling has the power to change lives.

Since 2001, we have helped ordinary Philadelphians become extraordinary storytelling artists who transform the drama of their real lives into memoir and documentary art. 

We offer programming that serves the diverse communities that call the greater Philadelphia area home. Our programming includes monthly StorySlam storytelling competitions, Applied Storytelling educational programs, a podcast drawn from our digital archive of more than 10,000 story files, and TRIGGER, a gun violence intervention program with the City of Philadelphia DBHIDS EMOC program. 

Our annual First Person Arts Festival brings together all these audiences and communities by hosting established and emerging artists across many artistic forms and formats. 

Commitment to diversity 

First Person Arts is an equal opportunity employer. This means we are committed to recruiting, training, compensating, and promoting all of our employees regardless of race, color, religion, sex, disability, national origin, age, sexual orientation, gender, or any other protected classes set forth under applicable law. We are dedicated to reflecting the diversity, and multiculturalism, of our viewers, creators, partners, and communities. Inclusion is at the heart of what we do and at the core of our values.

How to apply

Applications are open until the position is filled.

To apply, please provide a thoughtful cover letter and resume to RHall@firstpersonarts.org

First Person Arts is an equal opportunity employer.