Innovation Lab Skilled AmeriCorps VISTA

Reading Partners is a national nonprofit dedicated to helping children become lifelong readers by connecting them with community volunteers and evidence-based literacy support. For more than 25 years, Reading Partners has worked alongside schools, families, and communities to expand access to high-quality literacy resources for students in historically underserved communities.

As an Innovation Lab Skilled Volunteer Infrastructure VISTA, you will help build the infrastructure behind Reading Partners' Innovation Lab, which brings skilled volunteers and external expertise together to develop and test innovative approaches to literacy delivery. You will create systems that make it easier to recruit and engage corporate and technology volunteers, coordinate innovation projects, document the Lab's process, and turn lessons learned into reusable tools.

This position is based in Washington, DC.

You will:

• Research corporate, technology, UX/UI, product, and other skilled volunteer networks and build a national prospect pipeline.
• Develop tools to track volunteer skills, interests, availability, and alignment with Innovation Lab projects.
• Create a standardized volunteer journey for engaging skilled volunteers throughout the Innovation Lab's DRIVE process.
• Document and strengthen the Lab Sprint process, including project-scoping, volunteer matching, timelines, communication, and feedback.
• Develop templates and resources that clarify volunteer roles, expectations, project deliverables, and success measures.
• Document the Innovation Lab's Discovery, Research, Ideate, Validate, and Embed (DRIVE) process through SOPs and decision-making tools.
• Create experiment design and project documentation standards and develop a Skilled Volunteer Engagement Playbook.
• Build a centralized repository for Innovation Lab resources, project documentation, templates, and SOPs.
• Research opportunities to responsibly use AI, automation, and other technology to improve innovation workflows.
• Gather feedback, document lessons learned, and develop recommendations for sustaining and expanding Innovation Lab systems.

We are looking for a creative, organized, and curious problem-solver who is excited about using innovation and technology to advance social impact. Strong candidates will have excellent project management, research, communication, and systems-building skills. Experience with technology, UX/UI, product development, consulting, volunteer engagement, process improvement, or innovation is a plus.

During your service, you will gain experience in innovation management, skilled volunteer engagement, project design, process improvement, technology, research, documentation, and national systems building. You will collaborate with staff and skilled volunteers while helping develop a model for leveraging external expertise to address challenges in literacy and education. This is an opportunity to build a portfolio of practical systems and tools at the intersection of technology, innovation, and social impact.