CAP Transition Specialist

About Our Organization

At Youth Guidance, 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 Chicago’s 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 today Youth Guidance is a leading provider of outcomes-driven programs serving more than 8,500 youth while touching the lives of more than 14,000 youth, parents, teachers, and community members.

Position Summary**:**

The Community and After School Transition Specialist will be supporting in the management and expansion of out of school time, community schools programming by recruiting student participants, coordinating developmentally appropriate activities, and overseeing staff members. Also, responsible for supporting in the maintenance of accurate financial and attendance records, working with community members and organizations to offer programs and services that meet the needs of students and their families and marketing the program for growth and sustainability. In addition, manage relationships with school administrators and staff. The Transition Specialist will support in establishing new school sites or supporting existing school sites during staff transitions. This individual will support in training new staff as they are onboarded.

Essential Duties/Responsibilities:

• Oversight of program staff; monitoring absenteeism and parent and child interactions
• Create a developmentally appropriate multi-age after-school program
• Create and maintain a program schedule that reflects effective management
• Develop and maintain appropriate conflict resolution and behavior management
• Effectively manage a grant or tuition-based budget maintaining compliance with the provisions of the grant and/or the collection of all tuition payments
• Maintain consistent positive communication with parents
• Coordinate and monitor programs and activities
• Maintain accurate enrollment and attendance records
• Purchase/order materials and supplies
• Maintain accurate accounting records, data, and statistics
• Recruit high quality program partners that support the school’s mission
• Develop and maintain a marketing plan that supports the organization’s overall plan for growth and expansion
• Negotiate agreements with vendors and organizations that provide services
• Support in the training and onboarding of new hires with program manager or director.
• Occasional travel may be required

Minimum Qualifications

Education/Experience/Training

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent of sixty college credit hours required
• Minimum of 5 years of experience working with children and/or adults in a non-profit, social service or community development organization
• 2 years’ experience as a Resource Coordinator or equivalent

Skills/Abilities

• 3-4 years of experience working with elementary or high school age youth
• Ability to understand and interpret the policies, procedures, and general organizational structure of the Chicago Public Schools
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Ability to keep accurate records and prepare reports

Competencies

• Communication: Able to use effective written and oral communication with internal and external audiences and stakeholders; demonstrates empathy and listening
• Client orientation: Can recognize needs of diverse stakeholders and approaches relationships with a service orientation to ultimately maximize 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 change is required; Demonstrated ability to be solutions-focused, self-reflective, and dedicated the continuous improvement of service quality
• Ownership and quality of work: Effectively manages own work and work of teams ensuring delivery of high-quality work. Proven ability to be innovative and a self-starter
• Supervisory skills: effectively manages and develops others
• Mission driven: demonstrates commitment to the mission of the organization as whole and alignment with organizational 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, COVID-19 vaccination is required
• Occasional local and national travel

DEI Statement

At Youth Guidance, we understand that diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) are fundamental to realizing our vision of bright and successful futures for all young people. We celebrate the diversity of youth 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 meant to support youth are inequitable and unjust.

As such, we are committed to advancing DE&I 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, their families, and communities are impacted by, such as schools, organizational networks, governmental bodies, researchers, and the funding community, to apply approaches that embrace DEI in addressing the needs and supporting the aspirations of young people.