Director of Residential Life

THE ROLE

The Director of Residential Life (House Director) will serve as an inspirational leader and culture-builder, shaping the residential program into a thriving, inclusive, and supportive space for our scholars, parents, and residential staff. The House Director will work alongside the Assistant House Director and AmeriCorps Residential Life Assistant/House-Sister(s) to oversee the day-to-day operations of the dorm, while fostering a culture rooted in our values of intentionality, empathy, and community.

Residential Life

• Live on-site in the dorm, being available from 1:30 PM until the next morning and on-call throughout the night.
• Cultivate a safe, collaborative and growth-focused culture, ensuring the dorm is a space where scholars can thrive academically, socially, and emotionally.
• Build trusting relationships with scholars, encouraging their personal and academic growth through proactive communication and support.
• Lead weekly house meetings with scholars, preparing meaningful agendas to address house dynamics, scholar progress, and set individual and shared goals.
• Set and uphold high academic, social-emotional, and leadership expectations for all scholars.
• Enforce policies and protocols, utilizing restorative justice practices to resolve conflicts and build community.
• Plan and support engaging programming activities, house team days, and scholar-led initiatives.
• Support volunteer workshop facilitators, ensuring sessions run smoothly and scholars actively participate.
• Maintain detailed records of scholar medical needs, hygiene, and attendance, ensuring accountability at lights out.
• Manage dorm operations, including safety drills, budgeting, programming, and major program event coordination.
• Serve as a bus aide as needed, coordinating transportation schedules and communicating with schools about delays.
• Collaborate with the COO and Program Director on strategic initiatives related to scholar success, house culture, family engagement, and more.

Academics

• Lead study hall sessions, ensuring scholars receive necessary academic support and maintain focus.
• Train and equip residential staff to effectively support scholars' academic progress, accountability, and engagement as cohort leaders.
• Ensure scholars maintain high academic expectations, supporting scholars to achieve performance benchmarks and demonstrate consistent growth.
• Cultivate a culture of academic excellence, curiosity, and resilience among scholars by fostering a positive and growth-oriented mindset.
• Design, implement, and manage Academic Performance Improvement Plans (PIPs) and assignment trackers to provide structured and proactive support for scholars facing academic challenges.
• Monitor and assess scholar academic performance regularly, identifying individual needs and collaborating with cohort leaders, tutors, parents, teachers, and scholars to address concerns promptly.
• Attend parent-teacher conferences as needed, fostering strong collaborations with educators to support scholar success.

Parent Engagement

• Lead and manage all parent communication and relationships.
• Conduct quarterly parent-scholar meetings to review scholars' academic, leadership, and social-emotional progress and address concerns.
• Serve as lead coordinator for monthly parent meetings or community potlucks, including creating agendas and facilitating
• Oversee the HomeWorks Parent Association (HPA), including serving as HPA treasurer and supporting their initiatives.
• Develop and implement parent engagement strategies to foster strong parent connections.

Scholar Recruitment

• Co-lead recruitment efforts, including presenting to partner schools, conducting parent/guardian calls, and interviewing prospective scholars and families.
• Participate in admissions deliberations and follow-ups with applicants and their families.

Organization, Team, and Communication

• Foster a team culture aligned with HomeWorks' mission, vision, and values.
• Lead and manage the residential team, providing training, feedback, and communication to staff and program volunteers.
• Oversee, coordinate, and delegate activities such as planning events, completing incident reports, maintaining daily logs, and managing administrative tasks.
• Maintain strong working relationships and consistent communication with the Residential Team, Mental Health Counselors, and Administrative Team.
• Stay up-to-date on house emails and ensure smooth coordination of house operations.
• Coordinate transportation and house team logistics and schedules, arranging any substitutions needed for scholar travel.
• Adapt to other projects as they arise and handle incidents in alignment with HomeWorks values.
• Follow local and federal laws (i.e. drug & alcohol use, mandated reporting).

The House Director’s goal is to co-create a culture around HomeWorks values and build a healthy and safe learning and living environment for our scholars. The House Director will do this through working closely with the House and Admin team, as well as building relationships with scholars and parents. We will use tools like Asana, Google Workspace, Salesforce and Slack to amplify the work.

We hope the person in this role will have a passion for justice, education and community building, and is excited about the opportunity to lead the house, develop house culture that will ultimately equip high school girls in Trenton, NJ to be academically successful and become community leaders.

THE QUALIFICATIONS

• Experienced educator, residential life expert, mental health counselor, or leader in community engagement, coaching, youth development, or similar roles.
• Experienced culture-builder with the ability to create and sustain positive, collaborative, and inclusive environments that reflect the organization’s values.
• Proven leadership experience, including training, managing and motivating staff to achieve organizational goals.
• Strong relationship-builder with the ability to inspire and connect with scholars, parents, and staff.
• Highly organized and detail-oriented, with a proven track record of successfully managing programs or events.
• Committed to cultivating a growth mindset and fostering a positive, inclusive environment.
• Experience working with high school students of similar demographic in Trenton, NJ.
• Passionate about inspiring young people and building communities centered on empathy, intentionality, and collaboration.

THE TANGIBLE GOODS

• Location: Lawrence/Trenton, NJ
• Typical Working Hours: Please note that times may be scheduled to change, and may vary if an emergency or unexpected situation occurs (Sunday: 4:30pm-10pm; Monday to Thursday: 1:30pm -10pm; Monday to Friday: 6:00am-6:45am/8am)
• Monthly Professional Development Meetings - 12:00pm-1:30pm
• In your first year, expect a compensation package of $93,044-$103,044, with a salary between $70,000-$80,000, fully furnished housing valued at $22,000/year during the school year and daily dinners valued at $1,044/year when the program is in session.

THE BENEFITS

• Your own two-story (2 bed, 2 bath) residence in our new campus dormitory Fall of 2025, for the duration that you are employed with our organization.
• Medical, Dental, Vision plan offerings
• Life Insurance
• Employee Assistance Program
• 401k plan
• Employee Assistance Program
• Paid Time Off: During the school year - Following our partner school holiday schedules, which is approximately 22 days; During the summer - 10 days. Please Note: residential staff are unable to take vacation time off while our program is in session and our scholars are staying overnight in the dorm during the academic year.
• Smartphone and fully paid wireless plan through Mint Mobile
• Work laptop
• Professional development and leadership growth opportunities
• A rewarding career that positively impacts our amazing scholars