Program Manager, City Year Greater Philadelphia

Posted by on May 30, 2011

Program Manager, City Year Greater Philadelphia

Posted on: May 26, 2011

Organization’s Mission and Goals
City Year was founded in 1988 on the belief that young people can change the world. The organization unites 17-24 year olds of all backgrounds for a year of full-time service, giving them the skills and opportunities to change the world City Year’s diverse young leaders make a difference in the lives of children by working to close the achievement gap and turn around low performing schools in 20 U.S. locations and in London and South Africa. This year, more than 2000 City Year corps members are serving on diverse teams in schools and communities. City Year received more than 8,400 applications for 1,750 U.S. corps member positions in the 2010-11 program year.

City Year is committed to engaging community members, corporate partners, and civic leaders in this work, and together we’re building a citizen service movement that is larger than our organization, our lifetime, and ourselves. City Year’s vision is that one day the most commonly asked question of a young person will be, “Where are you going to do your service year?”

City Year Service
At City Year’s 22 locations diverse young people serve full time for 10 months. These diverse and dedicated leaders put their idealism to work for children and communities through school-based service, as well as youth leadership programs and community transformation.

City Year is focused on significantly reducing the high school dropout rate in each of our target cities. Through City Year’s Whole School, Whole Child service model, City Year deploys diverse teams of full-time corps members in schools to help students stay on track – and get back on track – to graduate. Corps members serve in schools as tutors, mentors, role models and leaders of after-school programs. As near-peers, corps members are uniquely able to help improve student attendance, behavior and coursework – which research confirms are indicators of a student’s likelihood of graduating from high school. This school-based service is at the heart of City Year’s approach to helping students and schools succeed.

Another important way corps members help students succeed is by leading programs that teach elementary, middle school and high school students about how to be active citizens in their communities and make a difference. In addition, City Year corps members foster a city-wide ethic of service by engaging community members, corporate partners and civic leaders in transformative physical service such as painting murals, planting gardens, creating play spaces, renovating schools and refurbishing community centers.

City Year Greater Philadelphia (CYGP) is one of the largest sites in the City Year network, with 225 corps members serving in more than 20 schools.

Position Overview:
This Program Manager (PM) is responsible for the overall management of the day-to-day team based operations and the achievement of City Year’s service mission with the youth in the school community. The PM will report directly to a Program Director. The PM will directly manage a team of AmeriCorps members to reach all AmeriCorps and site wide service goals. In addition, the Program Manager will supervise the team, oversee the service projects, ensure a strong service impact, create opportunities for engaging outside volunteers/visitors, and support the overall efforts of City Year’s mission statement.

The PM will manage a 10-20 member team in one or two schools to directly work with those students who are identified as off-track towards high school graduation. The team will use City Year’s Whole School Whole Child Model to provide academic support, school climate activities, afterschool programs and one on one attention to identified students. It is crucial that the PM understand the wide scope of City Year and National Service, and be able to communicate that effectively to a range of people.

Responsibilities:

Manage and Develop Corps Members
• Supervise and develop up to 20 corps members (including at least 1-2 team leaders), through performance management which includes observations and coaching for performance improvement, weekly/bi-weekly 1-on-1 meetings, mid-year and end-of-year reviews.
• Inspire the team to embrace a culture of power and idealism using City Year leadership tools, team building exercises, rituals and best practices
• Coach and manage corps members on team to meet performance standards for service excellence, service goals and inspirational standards that are expected of all City Year members.
• Support corps member training and professional development through established training and development tracks and identify additional team training and development needs.
• Effectively translate information and messages from various stakeholders (the school, City Year, the Community) to CMs in a timely fashion so they understand and are empowered but not overloaded
• Attend a two-night retreat in August for incoming corps members.

Ensure High Impact Service
• Ensure that the vision and goals of AmeriCorps, the School District of Philadelphia, service partner, corporate partner, community and City Year are met. This includes working with the team to regularly monitor clear and measurable monthly and weekly deliverables for corps members to meet and/or exceed goals related to academic tutoring, planning school climate activities like socialized recess, organizing after-school programming, college and career programming and civic/service activities.
• Work closely with City Year and school staff to collect, document, and review data related to service delivery and student progress both accurately and by established deadlines while using results to make service and program decisions and improvements.
• Build a strong partnership with school officials including principals and other key decision makers/stakeholders while cultivating these relationships.

External Relations and Site Support
• Devote time to corps member recruitment, including outreach and interviews.
• Identify leaders and resources in the community, and develop partnerships that support the ability of the team to implement its school-based and community-based service objectives.
• Work with Development Department and the team to manage relationships with corporate partners
• Work with team to develop/maintain relationships with local community organizations, neighborhood councils, and elected officials and direct team’s community engagement activities.
• Assist with or lead on the planning and implementation of special events throughout the year, including Serve a thon, MLK Day, National Youth Service Day, Annual Tribute Dinner, and more.
• Attend overnight conferences including Academy, which is a minimum one week-long training conference for all City Year Staff held in Boston, and additional engagement and training activities.

Key Capabilities
• Bachelor’s degree or adequate years of relevant experience
• Experience coaching young people and working with diverse populations
• Experience working in a school setting a plus
• Previous City Year experience as an effective team leader a plus
• Passion for working with urban youth and developing young leaders, Living the values of Idealism, Integrity, Perseverance, Inclusiveness, Empathy and Flexibility and National Service and City Year’s Mission
• Previous experience building successful partnerships to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes

Competitive salary and benefits: Great benefits including health/dental/vision insurance, vacation days, holidays, parental leave, a matching 401K, Flex Spending Accounts, Commuter Benefit Accounts, T-Mobile Blackberry phone/service, and more. Staff members are eligible for increases yearly based on performance. Compensation commensurate with experience.

Start date is July 5th, 2011.

Qualified applicants should send a resume, cover letter, and salary requirements, with “Program Manager” in the subject line, to: Kelly Batiancila, Human Resources Director at cygpjobs@cityyear.org

No Phone calls please.