Director of Young Quakers Community Athletics, University of Pennsylvania

Posted by University of Pennsylvania on July 28, 2014

POSITION SUMMARY

This Director will provide overall coordination and support of the staff, volunteers, activities and partnerships that comprise the Young Quakers Community Athletics (YQCA) program. YQCA is a component of the nationally recognized University-Assisted Community Schools (UACS) program of Penn’s Netter Center for Community Partnerships. YQCA is administratively based at Penn’s Netter Center and operated in partnership with Penn’s Division of Recreation and Intercollegiate Athletics (DRIA) and UACS sites, which are neighborhood public schools in West Philadelphia.

YQCA is a place-based partnership program that requires close collaboration with Netter Center staff, DRIA administration, Penn coaches and student athletes, K-8 school administration, the parents of the K-8 students, and of course the K-8 students.

Background
Goals
• Advance the model of Penn student-athlete as a leader in athletics, academics, and civic and community engagement
• Provide more opportunities for local engagement that has a significant and positive impact on young people and families in the West Philadelphia community
• Strengthen team culture and morale and enhance student-athletes’ pride in Penn and Penn Athletics
• Expand leadership and communal responsibility opportunities for Penn student-athletes and the West Philadelphia community public school students
• Increase the awareness among Penn student-athletes of the critical needs and issues that exist in urban communities
• Develop national models for the civically-engaged student-athlete
• Within University-Assisted Community Schools, create a student-athlete culture that strengthens school pride, improves school attendance and performance by integrating sports into the curricula, improves fitness and health, and improves mobility and access for inner-city youth by establishing and nurturing a “college-going” culture
• Create a cost-effective model that builds upon DRIA and UACS partnerships, human capital resources, financial resources, and infrastructures
• Support Penn’s overall outreach to its neighborhood and the broader West Philadelphia community

University-Assisted Community Schools goals:
• Focus on the school as the core institution, the hub, for community engagement and democratic development
• Open their doors to all, before and after school, weekends, and summers, to provide safe and engaging environments
• Serve the educational, social service, health, and recreational needs of all participants and the broader community
• Link school day and after school curriculum to solving locally identified, real world, community problems—every opportunity for service is an opportunity for learning
• Engage youth as deliverers, not simply recipients, of service
• Engage universities as lead partners in providing academic, human, and material resources
• Engage higher education faculty and students in developing and implementing community school programs through academically based community service linked to the university’s core educational and research missions

Program Components
• Regular athletic training by YQCA/Penn coaches and Penn student-athletes
• Sessions that are scheduled at the school, at local recreation centers, and at Penn
• Sessions that include fitness training, skills development, competition, academic and mentoring time
• Mentoring opportunities, such as those that focus on character building, promoting effort, leadership, responsibility, commitment, discipline, resilience, academic persistence, and college awareness

Reporting
The YQCA Director will report to the Netter Center’s Director of University-Assisted Community Schools. A YQCA advisory committee will provide significant support in the areas of program design, strategic planning, and development of resources and partnerships. The advisory committee is comprised of Netter Center staff, DRIA staff, and program partners. The YQCA Director will be supported by 20% time of a Netter Center administrative coordinator.

Management responsibilities
The program will hire part-time staff and engage Penn volunteers as on-field coaches for every sport. The Director will manage and support those part-time YQCA coaches who will be hired in consultation with the Penn coaches and Netter staff. In addition, there will be times when the Director will need to work directly with coaches, staff, and youth at practices and academic support sessions, to both model lessons and instruction for the Penn staff and students, and/ or to stand in when unforeseen circumstances arise. Thus, while directly coaching/teaching every practice and academic support session is not the day-to-day focus of the position due to the scale of the work, the position requires the ability and flexibility to both lead and implement this work, as well as support and train others in doing it.

The director also will help guide Penn and K-8 students’ work together off-field in academic support programs.

The director will supervise Penn student interns who, as appropriate, will support program implementation, development and evaluation.

Student engagement and instruction responsibilities
One priority for this position is the ability to engage and educate K-8 students in athletic and academic settings. Specific responsibilities in this area include:

• recruitment and retention of K-8 students;
• supervision and co-implementation of the various core activities, including
o ensuring the K-8 students’ attendance and positive behavior at practices and games;
o coordinating travel to practices, meets and other YQCA events;
o and on-field (athletics) and off-field (academic support) components;
• ongoing parent communications; and
• ongoing school communications with program directors, principals, and school day and afterschool teachers.

Another priority is the ability to work with Penn student athletes. This position is responsible for providing orientation, training and reflection activities for the Penn student athletes. The emphasis is on providing recommendations for effectively working with K-8 students. This work would draw from and be supported by the Netter Center’s UACS orientation programs, but needs to be appropriately adapted to Penn student athletes working in YQCA programs.

In addition, the Director will help recruit, train and coordinate Penn students who are not varsity athletes who support YQCA programming on days that the Penn sports teams are not working with the K-8 students. This may not apply to all sports, but there is a significant opportunity to provide the K-8 students with athletic skill-building and practice activities during after-school and summer programs in addition to the days that Penn coaches and student athletes are engaged.

Curriculum responsibilities
The Director will provide significant input into the design of on-field and off-field (academic) curriculum. Netter Center staff and coaches are key partners in the design of the curricula, so curriculum design experience is not necessary but strongly preferred. Ability to teach the curriculum, as well as supervise its implementation, is required. Ability to assist with on-field coaching and practice facilitation is strongly preferred.

Partnership building skills
The Director will work closely with Penn coaches and athletic teams in the development and implementation of the programs. The Director will also, with Netter Center UACS staff, work closely with school leaders and teachers. Activities and curricula will vary by sport, and the Director will need to successfully negotiate mutually beneficial arrangements that follow the YQCA and UACS principles.

Budgeting and fundraising responsibilities
This position has responsibility for budgeting and administering both a central administration budget as well as budgets for sport-level programming. The YQCA advisory committee will provide oversight of all budgets, and the sport-level budgets will be designed in partnership with that team’s coaches.

The YQCA advisory committee will play the lead role in fundraising. The Director will support this work in several important ways, including providing program updates and reports as needed, and coordinating site visits as part of development and stewardship. The Director will be expected to cultivate and execute relationships with equipment providers and small corporate donors. Netter Center staff will provide technical support to the Director for corporate donors, foundations, and suppliers, as appropriate.

Evaluation responsibilities
The Director will work closely with the Netter Center evaluation team to ensure that appropriate data are collected and timelines met, including accurate attendance data, pre-/post-tests, and feedback on program operations. The Netter Center is developing and implementing a comprehensive and innovative evaluation that measures activity-level impacts (Penn students, K-8 students) as well as school-wide, community-wide, and university-wide impacts.

The position will include, over time, advising other UACS efforts locally and nationally.

Position requirements

• A bachelor’s degree and 3 years to 5 years of experience are required. We expect most candidates to have more experience. A master’s degree is preferred.
• Strong experience with K-8 education, including academic and sports and recreation education.
• Experience working with undergraduate students, particularly in community service and service learning, preferred.
• Experience in facilitating successful partnership endeavors and managing multiple programs.
• Experience with financial management (budgeting, administration) and with fundraising and stewardship preferred.
• Track record of both self-directed and team-oriented accomplishments.
• Organized, detail-oriented, accurate, and dependable.
• Highly flexible (schedule will include nights and weekends).
• Knowledge about Penn and West Philadelphia preferred.
• Team building and coaching experience preferred.
• Certification in First Aid & CPR.

https://jobs.hr.upenn.edu/postings/5364