Lang Center VISTA, Swarthmore College

Posted by on May 21, 2004

Friends – the Lang Center at Swarthmore College has been awarded a VISTA position to work on a project with community partners in Delaware County and Chester focusing on work force development for women. Please forward this notice and job description to folks who might be interested in applying, and let them know that we would like to have resumes sent to drobins2@swarthmore.edu by Friday, May 28. We plan to complete the hiring process by June 7. The VISTA position begins during the first week of August. The job description is attached. This is a great opportunity for someone who is interested in a holistic approach to work force development for women in the City of Chester, PA.

Overview of the position. The VISTA member has two primary responsibilities: to assist the Chester Women?s Collaborative Project Director to planning and implementation of the CWC mission; and to take a leading role in working with student interns and volunteers connected to the CWC.

Duties and responsibilities of the VISTA member are to:
? Support the CWC Program Director to plan and conduct meetings of CWC members, and to coordinate various other activities of CWC members such as workshops, retreats, training, celebrations and program evaluation.
? Assist in the development of outreach strategies and materials to support CWC members to recruit program participants, including producing a program newsletter.
? Help build capacity of CWC member agencies to supervise student interns to gain academically relevant experiences as interns.
? Help CWC members create and support undergraduate internship opportunities.
? Participate in the planning and development of training programs for CWC members, constituents, and community residents that will provide skills and knowledge for new leaders in the City of Chester.
? Help identify strategies and resources to ensure the sustainability of the CWC.
? Recruit, orient, train and support students seeking internships with CWC member agencies.
? Conduct site visits to student internship sites.
? Plan and facilitate meetings and reflection sessions for students involved in CWC programs.
? Help with process and outcome evaluations of the three-year project.
? Help disseminate information about the work of the CWC to enable other college-community partnerships to learn from and replicate the work via conference and publications.
? Attend staff meetings, conferences, workshops, and other events as required by the Program Director.
? Attend PACC/VISTA meetings as required.
? Support the day-to-day work of the Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility as required by the Program Director (ie, answer phones, staff events, welcome guests, and other duties that all members of the staff share.)

Skills and experience needed:
? Knowledge and experience with service learning programs as a student or community partner
? Ability to work with diverse groups of people in terms of age, experience, economic diversity, race, class, gender and ability.
? Willingness to learn skills to engage students and community partners in reflection activities.
? Willingness to learn small group leadership skills.
? Knowledge and understanding of the role of economics in community development and family sustainability.
? Ability to manage both administrative and programmatic portions of the work for which the VISTA has direct responsibility.
? Education: Bachelor?s degree or equivalent experience