WOW Youth Specialist

Position Summary

WOW Counselors are responsible for providing school- based group counseling and direct service to girls in 7th-12th grade to ensure they develop responsible decision-making skills, self-awareness, emotion management, self-acceptance, healthy relationships and social awareness. The WOW Counselor will use their clinical expertise and youth engagement skills to empower the girls to become successful in school and life.

Essential Duties/Responsibilities

• Facilitate 4-5 weekly group counseling sessions utilizing the WOW curriculum during the school day
• Provide clinical assessments for each client
• Provide individual counseling for WOW students
• Provide family and crisis intervention as needed
• Perform weekly required documentation and special administrative assignments
• Participate in WOW staff development and required curriculum trainings
• Provide all necessary functions to develop the WOW program using teacher trainings and school in service presentations
• Collaborate with the LSC, Parent Programs and the Pupil Personnel Support team
• Participate on assigned WOW committees
• Serve on Youth Guidance Board and/or agency committees as requested
• Perform public relations assignments as requested
• Other duties assigned

What Youth Guidance offers:

We offer a robust package for eligible candidates including:

• A Hiring Range of $41,921.25-$76,049.82
• A hiring incentive of $250 for part-time and $750 for full-time
• A retention incentive of $250 after 90 days of continuous service.
• A competitive benefit package. Even though healthcare costs have gone up, we have not passed along those increases to our staff.
• If you are pursuing your social services licensure, we can help you by providing licensure test study support. Licensing test reimbursement. Assistance in attaining licensure supervision hours.

Minimum Qualifications

Education/Experience/Training

• Perform public relations assignments as requested
• Master’s Degree in social work, counseling or a related human service field from an approved accredited university is required
• Must have at least two years’ experience facilitating groups
• Experience in Clinical and Youth Engagement
• Experience working with trauma-informed services and framework
• Experience working in schools or youth related systems, ie DCFS, juvenile detention, mental health facilities

Skills/Abilities

• Ability to demonstrate effective written and verbal communication skills
• Capable of collaborating in team settings and work independently
• Must exhibit cultural competency
• Must demonstrate creativity in engaging youth
• Provide a positive team-based approach to treatment and care working with clients
• Fluent in Spanish and English highly preferred

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

Leadership Core Competencies (Supervisor & above roles)

• Continuous improvement-minded: Takes initiative to identify and execute strategies and processes to continuously improve one’s leadership to strengthen organization’s overall impact.​
• Develops and motivates others: Motivates others and supports their development through strong coaching and mentoring. Effectively stewards self and others through both small and large scale change**.** ​
• External representation and relationship building: Represents the organization among external stakeholders, and builds strong, trusting relationships with stakeholders​
• Leads with vision: Has an inspiring vision for the future of the organization, beyond the status quo, and communicates it effectively; leads with courage and willingness to take risks in service of impact​
• Manages with data: Understands data; analyzes data and identifies insights and implications​
• Strategic thinking and resource management: Considers the future of the organization proactively and responsively; weighs diverse inputs to inform strategies; identifies innovative opportunities when relevant; makes and communicates decisions that effectively balance tradeoffs between financial sustainability and impact​
• Team building: Builds strong relationships with teams and colleagues; fosters effective teams and collaborative interactions​

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

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 young 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 meant to support youth and staff are inequitable and unjust.

As such, we are committed to advancing DEIB 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, staff, 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 and those around them.

Youth Guidance is an equal opportunity employer and proudly values diversity, equity, inclusivity, and belonging. Youth Guidance does not discriminate based on 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.

EEO/M/F/D/V/SO

Keywords

Youth SpecialistGroup CounselingClinical ExpertiseYouth EngagementSchool-BasedTrauma-Informed ServicesCultural CompetencySpanishEnglish