BAM Counselor

About Our Organization

Youth Guidance creates and implements school-based programs that enable children to overcome obstacles, focus on their education, and ultimately, to succeed in school and in life.  We believe that no matter what challenges a young person faces, they are more likely to succeed when they have caring adults in their lives. Our highly trained staff guides kids to overcome the life and academic challenges facing the youth. We meet kids where they are — physically and emotionally — to help them focus on their education, make positive choices, and remain on the right path toward life success.

Founded in 1924 and celebrating 100 years of impact this year, Youth Guidance is a leading provider of outcomes-driven programs serving more than 18,000 youth around the country.  For more information, visit www.youth-guidance.org.

Position Summary**:** Becoming A Man (BAM) Counselors are responsible for guiding young male identifying youth in grades 7 – 12 to learn, internalize, and practice social skills, make responsible decisions for their future, and become positive members of their school and community. BAM Counselors do this by providing the youth with the mindsets, values, and abilities they need to develop into healthy, responsible young men and thrive.

School site location: John Lewis Middle School, 600 S Lewis Ave, Waukegan, IL 60085

Essential Duties/Responsibilities:

• Work in collaboration with BAM Replication Specialist, Curriculum Specialist, and school administration to identify, recruit and build relationships with up to 60 school-based youth to participate in the BAM.
• Lead and facilitate 4 – 5 weekly BAM groups during the school day, utilizing youth engagement, clinical counseling, and men’s rites of passages skills.
• Provide individualized support to all BAM participants, and provide individual, family, and crisis counseling sessions to students on an as-needed basis.
• Participate in monthly staff development training and team meetings on the evidence-based BAM curriculum and other topics relevant to working with youth.
• Participate in supervision and coaching to ensure fidelity of program delivery.
• Document all interactions with youth, including group and individual case notes, clinical assessments, brief encounters, special events, program consents, pre/post surveys, and monthly program narratives based on program protocol.
• Work jointly with BAM Replication Specialist to manage an annual program budget to plan and execute field trips and special events for students throughout the school year and summer.
• Collaborate with school administration, teachers, and other Youth Guidance programs to provide, and participate in professional development sessions.
• Collaborate and/or coordinate services with the Local School Council, Youth Guidance Parent Family Engagement team, and school-parent engagement team.

Minimum Qualifications:

Education/Experience/Training

• Bachelor’s degree from an approved accredited university and a minimum of two years of youth engagement experience.
• A master’s degree in social work, counseling or a related human service field from an approved accredited university and one year of youth engagement experience preferred
• Minimum of two years of experience providing supervised group counseling.

Skills/Abilities

• Bilingual in Spanish preferred
• Knowledge of advanced psychological concepts (e.g. CBT, Clinical Processing, Modeling and Group Development)
• Ability to commit to working in at risk environments
• Ability to commit to the continuous improvement of service quality and the organization’s mission
• Effective communication skills: Written and verbal
• Ability to function well in group and team settings
• Ability to demonstrate interpersonal skills that excel in cultural sensitivity and respect for differences
• Willingness to occasionally participate in youth sports activities
• Proficient in the use of Microsoft Office products (outlook, word, excel, power point)

Core Competencies

• **Communication:**Uses effective written and oral communication with internal staff, teams, and community served; demonstrates empathy and listening
• **Client orientation:**Recognizes needs of diverse stakeholders and approaches relationships with a service orientation, to ultimately maximize the impact
• **Equity mindset:**Understands and is committed to goals of equity, consistently brings an equity mindset to the organization’s work and workplace
• **Growth mindset:**Views growth as important for personal and professional development; seeks out opportunities to expand skills, even if the change is required, demonstrates curiosity and eagerness to learn
• **Ownership and quality of work:**Effectively manages own work, and work of the team to ensure delivery of high-quality work
• **Supervisory skills:**Effectively manages and develops others
• **Mission drive:**Demonstrates commitment to the missing of the organization as a whole and alignment with organization values

Physical Demands

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions

Work Environment

The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• This job operates in a professional office environment, school setting, and working with the public.
• Occasional local and national travel

DEIB Statement

At Youth Guidance, we understand that Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEI&B) are fundamental to realizing our vision of bright and successful futures for all people. We celebrate the diversity of youth and staff and recognize them as empowered leaders, problem-solvers, and experts of their own experiences. At the same time, we acknowledge that many systems and institutions are meant to support youth, and staff are inequitable and unjust. As such, we are committed to advancing DEI&B through our words and our actions, both internally and externally, by:

• Strengthening cultural competence as well as policies, practices, and organizational structures that foster belonging and leverage the unique backgrounds and talents of staff;
• Offering youth-centered programs that are accessible and responsive to people from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds, abilities, sexual identity, gender identity and expression, language, and cultural and religious beliefs and practices;

Influencing systems that youth, staff, their families, and communities are impacted by, such as schools, organizational networks, governmental bodies, researchers, and the funding community, to apply approaches that embrace DEIB in addressing the needs and supporting the aspirations of young people.

Keywords

BAM CounselorYouth GuidanceSchool-based programsCounselorSocial skillsResponsible decisionsSchool successCommunityYouth engagementClinical counselingMen's ritesFamily counselingProgram developmentBudget managementProfessional developmentBilingualPsychological conceptsCommunication skillsInterpersonal skillsMicrosoft OfficeCore competenciesPhysical demandsWork environmentDEIB Statement