Waking the Village

 Youth Development Coach for Waking the Village

Program Overview: Waking the Village operates programs for youth and children experiencing homelessness. Our hallmarks are building communities where youth and children develop leadership and pursue the goals that ensure healthy interdependence, stability, wellness, and meaningful days. We are hiring a Youth Development Coach (AKA case manager) to work with the youth of our new shelter for young parents and children'- the Village. We are seeking someone organized, experienced, and reflective to join our highly collaborative team.

Overview of Responsibilities and Duties: Within Waking the Village, case managers are called Youth Development Directors. The Youth Development Directors are a team of 8 directors that arrive daily to infuse the WTV community with energy, compassion, and real presence. They inspire youth to be diligent and to treat their dreams seriously, while also modeling how to face challenges with grace and humor. Each leads meaningful workshops in response to youths’ needs. Workshops could range from service learning projects to social justice issues to stress management techniques to art therapy to daily exercise sessions. Most workshops/curriculum are created by the Youth Development Directors in response to the youths' needs. The Youth Development Directors coach youth, meeting with each regularly to guide them as they pursue the goals they have set for themselves. The Youth Development Directors coordinate with our child development staff, community programs, and contract counselors to shape a dynamic daytime program.

Primary Responsibilities:
*Be on site at the Village 40 hours weekly to inspire youth to commit fully to their goals in strengthening wellness, connection, and housing stability.
The Youth Development Director works Monday through Friday to ensure each youth and his or her child has a meaningful day. The most likely schedule will be Monday through Friday from 8:30 to 4:30. As an on-site presence, the director is called on to inspire and to confront. Steadiness, consistency, and faith in the youth are always needed.

*Plan and lead a morning meeting 2 days a week.
Each morning the youth gather to begin the day. The morning meeting is a moment of reflection and sharing to add intention to the day’s work and check in with each youth. It is a time for youth to assess the day- what might prevent or promote progress, and to address it thoughtfully. Activities to build energy and community, explore current issues, or develop new skills are often integrated.

*Respond to challenges that appear during the day
In a community of youth and all their children, there is bound to be challenges or difficult interactions or small emergencies that arise each week. All WTV staff responds to these moments that might include having a youth get a phone call with bad news, guiding a parent with a baby with a 104 degree fever, helping a youth cope with a break up, assisting a youth with a flat tire, helping two youth communicate frustration in a productive way, or advising a youth whose health insurance just got cut off. WTV staff is constantly stacking on hats, learning new skills, and modeling persistence and grace in the face of challenges.

*Coach youth in pursuing their goals in stabilizing housing and their dreams as parents, employees, students, citizens, and self-sufficient adults
Other agencies use the word "case manager" to describe similar work. We prefer coach. As a coach, you will stand alongside youth in some of the most beautiful and some of the most difficult days of their lives. Meeting one-on-one at least 3 hours a week, and interacting throughout the week during day program, you will help each youth create a road map to permanent housing and to the future s/he wants, and remind each of the steps to these goals. Coach and youth draw up plans for each day leading into the future, troubleshooting roadblocks, and navigating the best path to permanent housing while also creating traction toward employment, saving money, parenting, securing childcare, enrolling in Medi-Cal, clearing warrants and debts, connecting to wellness, tutoring...whatever it takes in seeing through the many and varied steps toward self-sufficiency and wholeness. You will be there for births, interviews, court dates, the As and the Fs, the moments of despair and the moments when a youth realizes the depth of her strength. Each coach also has monthly paperwork to complete with their coachees to document progress. The paperwork takes approximately 2 hours monthly to complete for each youth. Coaching means lots of talking, phone calls, texts, rides, emails, and reminders. It means being fully present and prepared for a very real relationship that holds its share of tears, laughs, tedium, buoyancy, and words said in hope and anger and fear. It means not always knowing the path yourself, but modeling how to find the resources to help the youth on their way. Coaching is NOT about giving a weekly to do list and filling out papers. It is joining in the journey. It involves huge amounts of reflection to foresee obstacles and plan experiences thoughtfully so precious time is not lost. It is learning the difficult art of creating an environment that allows each young woman and young man to unfold.

*Collaborate with the Youth Development Team
The Youth Development Directors works alongside one another and a full time Jesuit Volunteer Corps volunteer, Creation District team, Youth Employment Team, Child Development staff, and a range of service providers that provide short, home visitation sessions. As a team, you decide the best use of staff energy. You assess the week ahead and plan each team member's work in maintaining youths' momentum, and being present for key support. You also engage with the team in creating curriculum, finding resources, and delegating responsibility for projects. Each Youth Development Director also takes on an area of specialty (housing, employment, education…) and leads workshops and weekly groups for the clients of WTV.

*Design and lead workshops in areas that respond to the needs of the current youth.
Workshops center around a theme such as ready to rent, nutrition, anger management, social justice, or financial independence. At their best, these workshops connect learning to service projects. For example, a series of lessons on dying and grief culminated in youth raising funds for a youth to design and place a headstone upon her father's unmarked grave. A lesson on the Hmong culture and the struggles of refugees ended with a 3 day renovation of the home of a family of refugees that allowed youth to lead a team of 26 volunteers. WTV youth have planned and planted community gardens, led weekly crafts for elders with dementia, created documentaries on youth homelessness, and authored a bill that was carried into the State Assembly. Youth Development Directors also organize weekly workshops as needed on topics such as securing housing, creating a resume, budgeting, selecting a college degree, or healthy eating. They also coordinate and plan annual youth retreats. These retreats are typically overnight, and all staff share in leading activities. Directors share passions or talents in workshops as well. Directors may arrange for guest speakers on certain topics of interest. You should anticipate some at lesson planning weekly for morning meeting and workshops.

*Spearhead movement to train and empower youth to have a real voice in shaping, evaluating, and creating a powerful program and nurturing community at the Village through Community Meetings, Peer Review Council, and leadership roles.
You will not do the following things- but you will model, encourage and guide them. At times you will feel it would be much easier to do these things yourself, but the goal is to use every moment to teach, and to put in the hands of the youth the responsibility for building a happy home and powerful community. The things: Organizing and welcoming new youth, organizing recreation, planning dinners that bring together the community, assessing the healthiness of the community and confronting issues that create tension, evaluate the program and rules, guide a peer review council in addressing infractions of rules, plan birthdays and baby showers, plan interventions when a youth or the youth’s family is in desperate need, reorganize and deep clean the houses periodically… Essentially, empowering youth to look at the community as staff does- looking for what might be improved or what needs doing, making a plan, and tackling the work.

*Build a relationship with the children of the Village.
The children of the young parents we serve see us daily and very quickly begin shouting our names jubilantly when we walk in the door each day. No matter how busy it gets, the children need us to slow down for silly songs or cuddles or a game of monster. We also encounter moms and dads in an occasional bad moment, and we all hone the art of knowing when to step in, when to hold our tongues, and when to give a break from the relentlessness of parenting. Staff experienced in parenting and work with children handle the big stuff, but simply sharing the day with children will require presence and joyfulness, and a willingness to change the occasional diaper or wipe the occasional nose. You'll want to like sharing the world with children.

*Be a strong voice in defining the Village program and sharing thoughts about each youth's and the community's needs
All staff share the work of trouble shooting, thinking up solutions, tackling difficult moments, and imagining ways to do even better. Every voice is essential in creating a program that changes lives. We all take ownership of the program, and avoid handing off the work of tough decisions or managing challenge. The Youth Development Directors engage with the entire staff at weekly staff meetings, on-line forums, youth evaluations, staff training intensives, and in daily work to share perceptions of the youths' progress as community leaders, invested parents, and self-sufficient adults. Occasionally, Youth Development Directors will be on-call during the night and weekend for emergencies. Given the authentic connection between staff and clients, it is not unusual to get texts or calls after hours and on weekends, though we work hard to set healthy boundaries. (It is rare for there to be an emergency that requires off site staff to come in during their time off.)

Possibilities of the Position: Each director puts her or his own stamp on the work. We welcome this and welcome the possibilities that could be. They include:
*Leading workshops that develop the spirit such as yoga, art, exercise, wilderness experiences, cooking, woodwork, meditation, dance...
*Leading regular group counseling. Common themes for youth include struggles with depression or anxiety, attachment issues, stress management, difficult relationships with boyfriends and/or the fathers of the children, eating issues, healthy sexuality, sobriety support, anger management...
*Leading recreational experiences such as ROPES courses, camping trips, holiday events, theatre, community service trips, hiking, rafting, museum trips, and assisting in acquiring funds or donations for such outings.
*Spearheading a cottage industry such as silk screening or summer camps that generate income for the nonprofit while also providing youth a forum to develop job skills and earn an income.
*Partner with community employers to create apprenticeships for clients in such fields as the culinary arts or child care or construction.
*Develop and maintain a dynamic website where youth share their journey through digital storytelling and/or blogs.

Essential Qualities
*Hard Working
*Able to work independently and see a plan through
*Creative and Committed Leadership: We welcome vision and an ability to bring a strong vision for nurturing children into reality.
*Strong Ability to Build Partnerships with Parents: Warmth and an ability to connect with youth are essential.
*Professional: An ability to establish healthy, clear boundaries and model emotional intelligence is essential
*Brave: Our youth take incredible risks and tackle the challenges of personal growth as they pursue their goals. As a staff, we must model the same courage to grow.
*Joyful: Our young parents and children rely on us for smiles, hearty hellos, and a positive attitude that never quits.
*Unafraid to speak the truth: We must not tip toe around our youth. They deserve to be confronted when they are ducking responsibility, making unhealthy choices, or sabotaging their own success. We must have the conversations they need to explore behaviors that undermine their goals and growth.
*Open minded and accepting: We respect the choices our youth make. We respect their cultures, their histories, their religious beliefs or their atheism, their politics, their sexual orientation, and their visions for the future.
*Flexible: Your best laid plans will intersect with the busy, complicated lives of 8 adults and all their children. 104 degree fevers, babies born early, job schedules, weird rashes, Medi-cal appointments, and family emergencies can change your day in no time.
*Desire to be a part of a work environment where every person supports, encourages, problem solves, and envisions growth together.
*Willingness to embrace and address each day’s challenges be they a sick child, a discouraged youth, a troublesome computer, or a dead car battery. We are looking for a director who can solve problems and who addresses needs as they arise, rather than one who simply reports problems.

Requirements
*Experience as a teacher, social worker, counselor, or youth professional or intern working with youth, in particular youth coping with trauma such as youth overcoming homelessness and teen parents. We place a high value on applicants with experience in serving youth experiencing homelessness.

*Prefer a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work, Human Development, Community Development, Sociology, Psychology, Education, Women’s Studies, Child Development or other related field of study

*Prefer experience and/or training using a Youth Development model that puts youth in charge of decision making and governing of their community. Knowledge of Harm Reduction, Trauma Informed Care and Motivational Interviewing are all assets.

Staff Development and Workplace Opportunities
*Annual 2 day staff training intensive
*Weekly staff meetings of all staff for case review, program planning and training.
*Opportunities to attend training and workshops in areas including Youth Development, Trauma Informed Services, and areas relevant to daily work

Additional abilities required by the position
* Ability to lift at least 40 pounds
*Ability to determine own physical limits so that injury does not result when leading service projects, recreation, or program activities.
*Ability to walk up and down stairs or a request for an accommodation
*Ability to safely transport self and others in agency vehicles. Must have a clean driving record that will ensure our agency insurance can cover staff to transport.
*Ability to manage stress of multi-tasking, leading youth, and counseling youth
*Ability to establish healthy boundaries and maintain personal wellness while shepherding clients through past and current experiences of trauma.

Compensation: $19 to $22 an hour depending on experience. Employees are eligible for medical, vision, dental, and life insurance benefits on first of month after 60 day welcome period. WTV pays 70% of the premium with a $500 monthly cap.

How to Apply:
Please send a resume and a cover letter to admin@wakingthevillage.org. We read cover letters carefully and appreciate the time taken to share your work experience, strengths, and workplace goals. We will be reviewing applications and calling to schedule interviews with selected applicants in November and December for a January start date.

Nonprofit Overview: Waking the Village operates programs for youth (18 to 24 years old) and children overcoming homelessness. Learn more at www.wakingthevillage.org and on our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/Waking-the-Village-Tubman-House-Audres-Doorway-the-Creation-District-340042712682366

Equal Opportunity Employer
Waking the Village is an equal opportunity employer and service provider. WTV believes that all people are entitled to equal opportunity for employment or connection to services provided by our agency. We follow state, local, and federal laws prohibiting discrimination in hiring, employment, and service provision. We do not discriminate against employees, clients, volunteers, or applicants in violation of those laws. We extend this policy to volunteers and interns working for Waking the Village and all clients served by our agency. Waking the Village reaffirms its long-standing policy prohibiting discrimination in employment and the provision of services on the basis of the fact or perception of: Race, Color, Ancestry, National origin, Religion, Sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions), Disability, Age, Citizenship status, Genetic information, Marital status, Sexual orientation and identity, Gender Expression and Gender Identity, AIDS/HIV, Medical condition, Political activities or affiliations/ opinion, Military or veteran status, Status as a victim of domestic violence, assault, or stalking.