Waking the Village

 Waking the Village Employment Coach Job Description

Overview
Waking the Village's Youth Employment Program connects youth (18 to 24 years old) to meaningful employment and education as they stabilize housing. Youth partner with both an Employment Specialist and a Case Manager to pursue career and education goals while also strengthening housing, wellness, and health. The program serves primarily youth that identify as LGBTQ and parenting youth, two subpopulations experiencing unique barriers to employment.

Employment Specialist’s Responsibilities
Employment Specialists provide case management around Career and Education so that youth each year receive profound interventions and support to accelerate toward career. Duties include:
1. Providing weekly career counseling to each youth that includes career interest and strength inventories, job shadowing, and engagement in short term work projects that reveal strengths and challenges.

2. Coordinate with WTV case managers to tackle barriers tangential to employment success such as housing, legal concerns, wellness, and childcare.

3. Design and lead twice monthly employment cohort meetings where youth address challenges, share successes, and develop community bonds that normalize the hard work of journeying toward careers.

4. Lead Pop Up Incubator Workshops for the first 8 weeks of each cohort. WTV ensures the first step is a thrilling one. Too often job programs begin with a resume workshop that highlights poor job history and results in an end product that youth are not proud of. WTV’s program begins by inviting youth into Pop Up Incubators where they plan and lead projects that allow them to highlight their strengths. Pop Ups may be a record release, a children’s art festival, a forum on youth homelessness, a street outreach effort, a pop up disco, a pop up salon in an elders home, a Spoken Word event, or anything that stems from a youth’s interests. At the end of the event, not only does the youth have a proud offering for her resume, her support team has a much better read of the strengths she possesses and the challenges she faces as she enters the workforce. This insight improves quality of job placement as the feedback about barriers and workplace issues comes from first hand experience rather than the employer’s first check in.

5. Connect each youth to best fit education opportunities and an exploration of college.

6. Locate long term job opportunities with employers: Employment Specialists work with each youth to identify a best fit job opportunity. Opportunities suit the youth’s level of job readiness, but also offer a growth trajectory and match youth’s areas of career interest. Employment Specialists lead the One Higher initiative to recruit employers willing to make one hire that represents an investment in a youth experiencing homelessness. WTV subsidizes up to 80 hours of paid employment with a One Higher Employer with an agreement from the employer to attend a training on working with youth and an agreement to extend a job offer if the youth meets expectations. The youth are eligible for the subsidized employment opportunity once s/he completes the coursework, workshops, case management, and trainings detailed in her individual service plan.

7. Offer Employer Support: WTV Employment Specialists meet twice a month with employers to assess client’s success at meeting workplace expectation. The employer assists in identifying supports or training needed to improve the youth’s experience and likelihood of long term employment. WTV is also be on call to intervene in areas of immediate concern at job placement sites.

Structural Elements of the Employment Program
WTV believes that an effective program for youth overcoming homelessness needs key structural elements to mitigate the destabilizing forces of trauma and housing instability. These include:

1. Cohorts: Creating cohorts of 10 to 15 youth allows youth to connect with peers on a similar journey and engage together in workshops and experiences that develop job skills. Cohorts celebrate together and offer support in addressing the challenges of navigating workplaces. Cohorts might be driven by time of recruitment or by career choices. Cohorts help hold one another accountable, normalize workplace challenge, and facilitate strong workshop attendance. Each cohort includes 10-15 youth. The first cohort launches in July and the second in November. We will also be launching a cohort for transgender youth that addresses the unique challenges they face in getting hired and experiencing safe, meaningful work spaces.

2. High Quality, High Engagement Workshops: Youth do best when they engage with workshops by choice rather than mandate. At Creation District, our workshops pull a crowd by sweetening skill development as we wrap it within the arts. We do not teach a workshop titled “How to Interview Well.” We engage youth in creating a documentary on homelessness where they speak as field experts and then consider the qualities of a strong interview as they watch the footage. We then translate those skills from an experience of interviewing on a topic they bring experience to to a less familiar experience of mock interviewing for ridiculous jobs like cat washer or contract lullaby singer. Finally, we get serious and practice interviewing for the jobs we long for and the jobs we will take anyway. Each workshop sidles up slyly to the dry topic it intends to address. Resume workshops begin with self-portraits. Customer service skills are honed through improve games. In the fun and laughing, trust and courage build, allowing the big steps to happen.

3. Immediate Access to Case Managers with Experience Navigating Services for Youth Experiencing Homelessness: One bad day can destroy months of progress. Our experienced case managers can read the signs of trauma reaction and build relationships with clients so that they can get into moments before they spiral into destruction or self-sabotage. Furthermore, our case managers bring expertise. They do not hand out lists of phone numbers; they reach out to established contacts at partnering agencies to ensure a strong connection that ensures progress toward stability and ongoing engagement.

4. Short Term Work Experience Opportunities: While some youth are ready to jump into a career path, most youth need time to explore as they uncover strengths and develop the skills to sustain employment and pursue career. WTV offers a range of short term work experiences within its cottage industries, service learning opportunities, and Pop up Incubator as well as within partnerships with community employers and nonprofits. These short term experiences allow youth to make mistakes and develop skills before they commit to longer work experiences and career pursuit. When youth succeed in long term work placements, we also retain employers who experience the positive reward of extending opportunity to youth.

5. Connection to a Best Fit Job and a Meaningful Career Path: Youth experiencing homelessness are often mired in the work of overcoming abuse, injustice, relentless instability, and trauma. Resiliency is eroded and tactics for managing the streets rarely translate well to the workplace. Job placement and career pursuit cannot be a quick decision. It must be complex and take the time needed for a youth to regain a measure of wellness. In that time of healing, much can happen. Youth can develop job retention skills, job shadow, work short job experiences, and open up to case managers. In this engagement, passion and possibilities will be begin to show themselves. As Employment Specialists get to truly know their client, career paths begin to sharpen and the best trajectories to them can be defined.

Essential Duties and Skills
*Facilitate high impact, innovative youth employment program centered on tenets of youth development and trauma informed care.

* Assess: Create a friendly and accessible environment for youth. Determine eligibility and create tools and experienced for youth to assess their skills and abilities. Work together to develop a case plan of training and career support.

* Case Manage: Engage in weekly conversation with active WIOA youth and monthly contact with youth in aftercare.

*Support youth to be successful at their Work Experience site including job descriptions, established work schedules, work attire, transportation, etc.

*Support youth in meeting education and/or employment goals. Actively problem solve worksite or educational concerns. Connect youth to partners and other support services with a warn hand off.

*Job Coach: Support and train youth in resumes, reference pages, and job applications using creativity and innovation. Provide weekly support on job site performance, interview techniques, in-depth job search skills and techniques.

* Worksite Development: Reach out to employers to develop work experience opportunities.

* Connect youth to needed resources and support them in using them. Resources include but are not limited to tutoring, health insurance, counseling, childcare, food, housing, financial aid, skill specific training, mentors, leadership development opportunities, etc.

* Support youth with post-secondary education options like campus tours, orientations, academic counseling appointments, financial aid, scholarships. Connect with on campus resources including EOPS, childcare, CalWorks offices, etc.

* Maintain case file for all youth including case notes, contact dates, activity logs, work experience forms, timesheets, and documents. Employment Specialists commit 4 hours a week to entering outcome data.

Essential Qualities
*Creative and Committed Leadership: We welcome vision and an ability to bring a strong vision for nurturing children into reality.

*Committed to Creating Safe and Engaging Space for queer youth and to addressing the unique challenges transgender and non-binary youth face in pursuing employment

*Strong Ability to Build Partnerships with Youth, Employers, and Community Partners: Warmth, follow through, and an ability to connect are essential.

*Hard Working

*Able to work independently and see a plan through

*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 youth 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 residents make. We respect their cultures, their histories, their religious beliefs or their atheism, their gender identities, their politics, their sexual orientation, and their visions for the future.

*Flexible: Your best laid plans will intersect with the busy, complicated lives of our youth. 104 degree fevers, babies born early, college 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 person who can solve problems and who addresses needs as they arise, rather than one who simply reports problems.

Requirements
*Experience as an employment specialist, teacher, social worker, counselor, or youth professional or intern working with youth, in particular youth coping with trauma and/or homeless youth, transgender youth, queer youth, and teen parents. We place a high value on applicants with experience in serving homeless youth and/or with lived experience.

*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.

Additional abilities required by the position
* Ability to lift at least 50 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 an hour. Employees are eligible for medical, vision, dental, and life insurance benefits on first of month after 60 day welcome period. WTV pays 75% of benefits package up to $500/monthly.

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.

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.