Curriculum Design Consultant, Philadelphia Youth Network

Posted by on April 19, 2010

Graduation Coaches Campaign

Philadelphia Youth Network
Curriculum Design Consultant

BACKGROUND:
The Philadelphia Youth Network (PYN) is a non-profit organization established in 1999.  Over the past ten years, PYN has grown into a nationally-recognized intermediary for public and private investments targeted toward improving the educational and workforce development outcomes of Philadelphia’s youth.  The majority of PYN’s work is aligned with two city-wide initiatives: WorkReady Philadelphia, the citywide system of youth workforce programs founded in 2003, and Project U-Turn, a collaborative of leaders and stakeholders initiated in 2004 and designed to bring much-needed attention to the City’s dropout crisis and to develop strategies to resolve it. For additional information about these initiatives visit: http://www.pyninc.org.

In support of these initiatives, PYN has partnered with the Mayor’s Office of Education to design and implement the Graduation Coach Campaign which will be launched in September 2010. The Campaign strives to empower and engage as many adults throughout Philadelphia to become “Coaches” with the goal of helping youth prepare for high school graduation and post-secondary learning.

The campaign will target adults already working on this issue (e.g. through formal mentoring programs or as staff of youth-serving programs), as well as adults who serve as informal or potential role models and supporters who can help deliver useful information to youth in their communities.  The ultimate goal of the Campaign is to ensure that these adults have access to resources that best prepare them to support youth. The main conduit to these resources and other pertinent information will be the Graduation Coach website. The development of the website along with other key components of the Campaign is supported by a grant from the United Way of Southeastern PA.

As part of this Campaign, adults who wish to serve as Coaches will participate in training sessions on how to be a Graduation Coach in a youth’s life. These trainings will draw from principles of positive youth development, college readiness, and career exposure, and will be structured in a way that is easy to understand and accessible by adults throughout Philadelphia.

The Campaign is seeking a part-time consultant to lead the following work:
– Develop content for the website, including statistics, resources and tools that will be useful to Coaches in their work with youth.
– Develop a training program for Coaches, to include a day-long training and 2-3 shorter, follow-up trainings based on the content of the website. The training program will include learning modules, worksheets and activities that will provide Coaches information on how to: 1) support the developmental and academic needs of young people; 2) increase young people’s readiness for college; and 3) expose young people to careers. These training modules will be delivered by Graduation Coaches staff and community partners throughout Philadelphia after the launch of the Graduation Coaches initiative in September 2010.
– Create a training binder and that aligns with the training program and includes additional supporting materials, such as community resource listings, take home activities, and other materials that can be used by coaches to support the young people in their lives.
– Collaborate with the Graduation Coaches Advisory Committee and staff as they work to create the Graduation Coaches website and collateral materials for the Campaign.
– Participate in and/or lead weekly conference calls and monthly in-person meetings as directed by the Project Manager.

Send cover letter and resume by April 21st to: phillyeducates@gmail.com.

Compensation: $3,000

Contract Term: April 26 – June 30