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 Career Pathway Coach at Kelvin Park High School works directly with youth and is responsible for the successful implementation of the Project Prepare program. The Career Pathway Coach collaborates closely youth at an assigned school site and creates intentional services plans to support those youth in accessing relevant career pathways. The Coach facilitates group workshops and provides individualized support to empower students as they develop work readiness skills.
Essential Duties/Responsibilities
- Contribute to the development and implementation of the Project Prepare program in conjunction with other Career Pathway Coach(es) and Program Manager
- Coordinate recruitment and enrollment of program participants
- Assess participant’s job readiness and determine needs, provide career counseling, and assist participant with meeting long and short-term employment and educational goals
- Provide individual and group-based career readiness training/workshops
- Develop and execute professional curricula related to job skills and post-secondary education
- Use labor market information and industry trends to help participants assess employment and educational opportunities
- Build relationships with potential employers and coordinate the placement of well-prepared youth into those opportunities
- Develop relationships with community partners and other stakeholders to support participant’s goals
- Coordinate supportive services and provide follow-up services to program participants
- Prepare and maintain case file documentation throughout the duration of youth participation in the program, ensuring that data is entered in an accurate and timely manner
- Conduct employer, postsecondary, and partner engagement activities, including, participation on local chambers of commerce, work groups, and networks
- Other duties as assigned
Minimum Qualifications
Education/Experience/Training
- Bachelor’s degree in a human service field from an accredited college/university and minimum of three years of relevant social service experience required; Master’s degree in Social Work or related human service field preferred
- One year of youth engagement experience
- Significant experience in providing job skills training or post-secondary supports to high school students and/or young adults
- Experience implementing programming through the Workforce Innovation & Opportunity Act preferred
Skills/Abilities
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Proficiency in Microsoft Office products (Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint) required
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Succinct and clear verbal and written communication skills required
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Proven track record of cultivating relationships with employers to provide quality jobs for program participants preferred
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, all Youth Guidance employees must be fully vaccinated or approved for a medical or religious exemption
- 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.
Youth Guidance is an equal-opportunity employer and proudly values diversity. Youth Guidance does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, veteran status, marital status, sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law and is committed to creating a dynamic work environment that values diversity along all of these lines. People of all backgrounds are encouraged to apply.