Volunteer: Jumpstart Summer NorCal Corps Member

Jumpstart aims to close the gap in educational achievement between children from low-income communities and their wealthier peers, before that gap appears. In pursuit of this goal, Jumpstart recruits and trains college students, called Corps members, to help preschool-aged children in low-income neighborhoods develop the language, literacy, and social skills they need to succeed in kindergarten and beyond. Jumpstart inspires children to learn, young adults to teach and lead, families to become more involved in their children’s education, and communities to progress together.

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• ABOUT JUMPSTART
  
  

Jumpstart is a national early education organization working toward the day every child in America enters kindergarten prepared to succeed. We provide language, literacy, and social-emotional programming for preschool children from under-resourced communities and promote quality early learning for all children. Join us to work toward the day every child in America enters kindergarten prepared to succeed. Learn more at www.jstart.org.

The following information is an overview of position responsibilities, please see the following link for a more comprehensive position description https //www.jstart.org/our-work/corps-members/corps-member-description/

About The Position

Jumpstart Corps members have the unique opportunity to inspire young children to learn, serve in a local community, collaborate with others on a team, and build professional skills. All Corps members receive high quality training to help them implement Jumpstart’s outcome-based program, promote children’s school success, and build family engagement. This position serves vulnerable populations, i.e. preschool children.

Members must exhibit dedication to early childhood education, commitment to service, professionalism, and embodiment of Jumpstart's core values Learning, Community, Joy, Inclusive Leadership, and Social Justice.

About The Summer Program

The Jumpstart summer program enhances children’s readiness for kindergarten through small group learning experiences and interactions designed to boost oral language and social-emotional development.

• Jumpstart Corps Members serve in multiple classrooms and provide direct programming to children for 11 weeks over the course of the summer (June-August).
• Must be able to interact with preschool-age children at their level and potentially with their families/teachers in a classroom or virtual setting with high activity and noise levels and other varying environmental conditions. Interaction includes being able to move around the classroom or virtual setting to participate in various activities with the children and families/teachers.
• Must be able to complete 1-3 hours weekly of individual planning and preparation for Jumpstart service activities. This includes preparing for storytime read-alouds, practicing activity facilitation and flow, gathering/creating activity materials, assembling family/classroom learning kits and newsletters.
• Must be able to demonstrate effective reading skills in English in order to participate in the Jumpstart program. Includes reading lesson plans and training manuals.
• Jumpstart Corps Members work in collaboration with classroom teachers to implement Jumpstart’s summer-specific curriculum. Key features of the curriculum include
• Theme-based activities to enrich children’s experience in the classroom as well as extension activities for meals and outside time
• Diverse storybooks with rich vocabulary and social-emotional themes
• A focus on playful learning experiences that build language skills and social-emotional competencies
• A mix of adult-led and child-initiated learning in small group settings
• Corps Members will complete dedicated training sessions before entering the classroom to ensure readiness. Jumpstart staff provide additional training, coaching, planning, and networking support This is a volunteer opportunity provided by VolunteerMatch, in partnership with LinkedIn for Good.