In-School Youth Specialist

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world's worst humanitarian crises, helping to restore health, safety, education, economic wellbeing, and power to people devastated by conflict and disaster. Founded in 1933 at the call of Albert Einstein, the IRC is one of the world's largest international humanitarian non-governmental organizations (INGO), at work in more than 40 countries and 29 U.S. cities helping people to survive, reclaim control of their future and strengthen their communities. A force for humanity, IRC employees deliver lasting impact by restoring safety, dignity and hope to millions. If you're a solutions-driven, passionate change-maker, come join us in positively impacting the lives of millions of people world-wide for a better future.

IRC Background: The Workforce Development Program assists our clients to achieve educational and career goals, learn basic financial management skills and build assets with a special emphasis on youth services. IRC's programs help youth move sustainably out of poverty by offering in-school educational support, career planning, and integrated economic empowerment services.

The REP program serves newly arrived immigrant and refugee, high school students with mentoring workshops focused on providing youth the foundational knowledge needed to be successful at pursuing their education and career goals in the United States.

Job Overview: Under the supervision of the Youth Coordinator, the In-School Youth Specialist is responsible for Refugees Empowering Peers (REP) service provision and outcomes, including screening referrals from teachers, client processing and enrollment, curriculum development, providing assessments, creating individualized service plans, case management including client success coaching towards youth goals, referrals to community organizations for care givers, follow up services, and financial requests. This role will also be responsible to coordinate school enrollments for newly arrived youth including working with families to ensure youth are enrolled into and attending school. The position will also be responsible to provide additional recommendations for student support on campus.

The Youth Specialist will develop relationships with local school districts and site staff, including building rapport, learning about opportunities on campus, and connecting youth to appropriate staff for support. Youth Specialist will be responsible to provide teachers with a clear understanding of REP objectives and enrollment criteria along with a clear referral process. The Youth Specialist will be responsible for enrolling clients into REP, ensuring that each site meets enrollment number requirements, and assigning mentors to each youth. They will be responsible to develop goal maps with each youth and provide guidance to mentors on how to follow up on the plans monthly to ensure progression towards goals. The Youth Specialist will also train mentors on related skills and processes. All activities will advance skill acquisition and support school engagement and progression. This role will oversee the development and implementation of REP workshops aimed to support education, life skills development, employment information, and skills assessments. In addition, the Youth Specialist will be responsible for overseeing progress made through mentoring programs and will report findings through maintaining casefiles, case notes across ETO, and internal tracking systems.

Additionally, Youth Specialist will support with school enrollments- working alongside IRC’s Community Integration Team, the specialist will work with newly arrived families to enroll students into proper schools. Specialist will meet with students and families to go over US school norms, expectations for school, and answer any questions the family may have. The specialist will work directly with the school to connect the students to resources and appointments needed for their new school.

Major Responsibilities:

Client Outreach & External Partnership Development

• Identify appropriate teachers to partner with for REP youth referrals and communicate the goals of the program and students to be referred to the teachers.

• Implement and improve recruiting strategies to increase student participation.

• Communicate with families and provide additional support and referrals to resources as needed.

• Build rapport with school staff to understand breadth of opportunities available at school-site and connect newly enrolled youth to appropriate on-campus support.

• Act as a liaison between the IRC, clients, and schools to provide a seamless enrollment process and connection to resources on campus.

Case Management

• Conduct intakes, assessments, and enrollments then provide intensive one-on-one case management and navigation services to youth, prepare individualized service plans and goal maps with youth and care givers that detail steps needed to achieve education and employments goals, and conduct follow up to ensure participants are on-track.

• Compile documentation on services provided and client outcomes in casefiles and case management database.

• Assess, evaluate, and track students’ individualized service plan progress.

• Customize clients’ resumes and supporting documentation to fit identified opportunities.

• Ensure all clients comply with the policies of the program and report client progress.

• Motivate clients to complete key items on their goal maps, attend mentoring, and take actions towards accomplish their short-term goals.

• Refer family needs identified in service plan meetings to appropriate IRC and external partnership programs.

Facilitation & Teaching

• Plan and implement engaging and educational REP Mentoring workshops and life skills development activities to ensure youth clients are active in the program and motivated towards completing shared goals.

• Command a room of 25+ high school English Learners after school for 90 minutes with the support of volunteer mentors. Ensuring clear messaging, teaching, and a safe and healing learning environment.

• Contribute to new curriculum topics and adaptations to the needs of individual school sites.

• Collect and encourage student voice and advocacy in program implementation and lesson topics.

• Train and place volunteers to support mentoring activities.

Program reporting and administration

• Complete internal direct assistance and incentive financial request according to program guidelines and client need.

• Review, request, and reconcile supportive services.

• Ensure timely and accurate compliance to all reporting requirements including database management, case noting, and file maintenance; and data reports as requested.

• Collect, aggregate, and analyze performance data for initial program reports.

• Conduct quality assurance checks on casefiles and in ETO.

• Create new program forms and create manuals to capture best practices for program services.

• Participate in all meetings, staff development activities, and fully engage as a member of the team.

• Align with all policies, procedures and protocols of the agency.

• Other related duties as assigned.

School Enrollments

• Work directly with newly arrived families to enroll all eligible students into school, keeping track of all documentation and immunization requirements.

• Conduct home visits to educate families and students on school norms, expectations, and answer any questions.

• Conduct Youth Cultural Orientation sessions.

• Work with schools for specific school enrollment information, start date, and any additional counselor or support appointments needed.

• Complete timely and accurate case notes for all services administered to youth.

Additional Responsibilities

• Other duties as assigned

Key Working Relationships:

Position Reports to:  Youth Programs Coordinator

Job Requirements:

• Undergraduate degree in related field or related work experience or a minimum of two years’ relevant work experience

• Two+ years of related professional work experience

• Youth-related teaching is a plus.

• Demonstrated experience with the US educational system effectively teaching/tutoring youth towards education progression.

• Excellent communication skills, with fluency in written and spoken English.

• Proven success achieving goals and working effectively with all levels of staff in a multicultural environment.

• Proficient in working with databases and Microsoft Office applications (Word, Excel, Outlook).

• Valid driver’s license, access to a reliable vehicle with current insurance, and the ability to travel regularly throughout the service delivery area.

• Proficiency in Farsi/Dari, or Pashto is a plus.

Working Environment:  

• Standard office work environment with regular travel throughout the service delivery area.

• Regular travel to school sites is required.

• Offices hours are scheduled as Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm. This position will administer program after school hours and may need to work 10am-6pm on program days.

• Stable Wi-Fi and the ability to work remotely

Compensation: (Pay Range: $26 - $27) Posted pay ranges apply to US-based candidates. Ranges are based on various factors including the labor market, job type, internal equity, and budget.  Exact offers are calibrated by work location, individual candidate experience and skills relative to the defined job requirements.

PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS

All International Rescue Committee workers must adhere to the core values and principles outlined in IRC Way - Standards for Professional Conduct. Our Standards are Integrity, Service, Equality and Accountability. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Safeguarding, Conflicts of Interest, Fiscal Integrity, and Reporting Wrongdoing and Protection from Retaliation. IRC is committed to take all necessary preventive measures and create an environment where people feel safe, and to take all necessary actions and corrective measures when harm occurs. IRC builds teams of professionals who promote critical reflection, power sharing, debate, and objectivity to deliver the best possible services to our clients.

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US Benefits: We offer a comprehensive and highly competitive set of benefits. In the US, these include: 10 sick days, 10 US holidays, 20-25 paid time off days depending on role and tenure, medical insurance starting at $143 per month, dental starting at $6.50 per month, and vision starting at $5 per month, FSA for healthcare and commuter costs, a 403b retirement savings plans with immediately vested matching, disability & life insurance, and an Employee Assistance Program which is available to our staff and their families to support counseling and care in times of crisis and mental health struggles. 

Equal Opportunity Employer: IRC is an Equal Opportunity Employer. IRC considers all applicants on the basis of merit without regard to race, sex, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.