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 Parent Engagement Coordinator at Uplift Community Highschool provides assistance to staff to ensure program deliverables are met. The parent engagement coordinator will build and maintain the parent program .

Essential Duties/Responsibilities:

• Assists other YG staff in ensuring that the deliverables are met for the program
• Works with existing parent leadership to create a plan for parent involvement
• Provides documentation in a timely manner
• Recruits parents through flyers, phone calls, in-person solicitation and home visit
• Maintains all parent program records
• Helps to plan parent involvement activities
• Advocates on the behalf of parents with the faculty and administration
• Assists in conflict resolution
• Arranges for parent training and in-services
• Assists the social worker and facilitator
• Participates in the weeklong train-the-trainers and monthly statewide Parent Mentor meetings.
• Parent Coordinators work for Youth Guidance but are based at the school.
• Maintain parent mentor files.
• Responsible for recruiting the target # of parent mentors.
• Co-lead the initial parent mentor training.
• Check in on classrooms to make sure the parent mentor role is being respected and will notify Sr. Parent and Family Engagement Manager if a problem arises.
• Approve parent mentor timesheets and monitor classroom activity.
• Plan weekly workshops in collaboration with Sr. Parent and Family
• Engagement Manager and school staff.
• Ensure surveys, school data, check requests, timesheets, and other documents

• Duties as assigned

Minimum Qualifications

Education/Experience/Training

• Must have High school diploma or GED.
• At least two years’ experience working in a school setting

• Must be committed to the continuous improvement of service quality and the organization’s mission.
• Must function well in group and team settings.
• Must possess interpersonal skills that excel in cultural sensitivity and respect for differences.

Skills/Abilities

• Experience and comfort working with diverse populations
• Excellent verbal and written communications skills
• Rapport building
• Service oriented
• Knowledge of social service or education programs
• Effective time management and prioritization skills
• Ability to work independently and as a member of a team
• Proficient in the use of Microsoft Office products (outlook, word, excel, power point)

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, 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