Youth Specialist

We are excited to announce our Becoming A Man (BAM) role in our Boston area!

Are you looking for an exciting opportunity to mentor youth in the Boston, MA area? Do you believe in serving the community? Do you enjoy helping youth connect the dots of life? If so, then working as a BAM Youth Specialist at Youth Guidance might be the job for you!

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) Youth Specialists are responsible for guiding young men 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 Youth Specialists do this by providing young men with the mindsets, values, and abilities they need to develop into healthy, responsible young men and thrive.

Essential Duties/Responsibilities

• Work in collaboration with BAM Supervisor and school administration to 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 passage 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 Supervisor 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

• Ability to demonstrate effective written and verbal communication skills

• Capable of collaborating in team settings and working independently

• Must demonstrate creativity in engaging youth

• Provide a positive team-based approach to treatment and care while working with clients

• Fluent in Spanish and English is highly preferred not required

• Completion of BAM curriculum training.

• Ability to commit to the continuous improvement of service quality and the organization’s mission.

• Ability to maintain positive relationships with various stakeholders.

• 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, and PowerPoint).

• Knowledge of advanced psychological concepts (e.g. CBT, Clinical Processing, Modeling, and Group Development) is preferred.

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 essential functions.

• While performing the duties of this job, the employee is required to sit and stand for sustained periods of time, frequently talk, hear, use hands and fingers to feel, handle and operate objects or controls, and occasionally stand, bend, stoop, kneel and crouch.
• The employee is required to have close visual acuity to perform an activity such as: preparing and analyzing data and figures, transcribing, and viewing a computer terminal.
• The employee may occasionally lift and/or move up to 25 pounds.

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 essential functions.

• Occasional local and national travel

Benefits:

• Youth Guidance offers a competitive benefit package for eligible full-time employees including the option to participate in medical, dental, and vision plans as well as short-term disability, life insurance, flex spending accounts, pet insurance, 401k, a wellness program and more. You may also quality for Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF).
• If you are pursuing your social services licensure, we can help you by providing licensure test study support, licensing test reimbursement and assistance in attaining licensure supervision hours.

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 SpecialistBAMMentorCommunityYouth GuidanceSchool-based programsCounselingSocial SkillsEducationPositive ChoicesBostonMA