Type of Position: Contract
Reports to Project Director: Victoria Mejia, Director of Programs
Assists Edu-Futuro’s Executive Director, Jorge Figueredo, and
Workforce Development and IT Team Lead: Danny Diaz
QUALIFICATIONS
Competencies:
Project Management
● Prioritize project management skills
● Active listening
● Written communication
● Public Speaking
● Organization skills
Leadership
● Motivating team members
● Giving and Receiving feedback
● Keeping projects on schedule
● Showing a Vision
● Delegation
● Conflict Resolution
● Negotiation skills
Business Acumen?
● budgets?
● Financial reports
● Business Strategies
● Marketing
● Industry trends
Strategy Creation
● Goal-setting
● Resource allocation
● Analytical skills
● Decision-making
● Planning
Decision-making
● Problem-solving
● Analytical Skills
● Creativity
● Collaboration
Personal Motivation
● Passionate about working with the immigrant community
● Eager to grow professionally
● Interested in the nonprofit education space
● Committed to service; customer orientation
Teamwork/Interpersonal Skills
● Team oriented
● Establish and maintains effective relations with staff, volunteers, beneficiaries, and stakeholders
● Work actively to resolve conflicts
● Respond appropriately to employee and/or co-worker concerns
● Leverage every opportunity to teach and learn
● Day-to-day member coaching, mentoring and training
● Ability to work effectively with different people and teams of people by putting others at ease.
● Acknowledging diverse opinions, addressing relevant concerns, minimizing conflict, promoting harmony.
Integrity
● Accurate and transparent in communication
● Share critical information accurately, openly, and voluntarily
● Focus relentlessly on continuous improvement
● Persevere through problems and difficulties to do the right thing
● Communicate pride and ownership of work
● Own both successes and mistakes
Initiative/Perseverance
● Ability to be willing to take action to address needs without being requested to do so.
● Staying on-task to completion, particularly in the face of obstacles or other trying circumstances.
Versatility
● Manage conflicting demands and priorities smoothly
● Adjust readily to changing priorities and conditions
● Move from decisions to action and results quickly and effectively
● Acquire and apply new ideas with ease and confidence
Minimum Experience Requirements:
● Bachelor’s Degree
● Business administration experience in helping refine a member recruitment strategy for a similar project
● Prior experience and/or interest in project management and/or business administration , grant writing, education, and legal research
● Background in grant writing/fundraising, education/curriculum design, and pre law/paralegal work
● Full-time service for one year (365 days) without regard to regular working hours. (1700 hours; ca. 36 hours/week)
● Be willing to undergo a criminal history check.
● Hold one of the following citizenship/legal residency statuses:
● US citizen,
● US National,
● Lawful Permanent Resident Alien, and
● persons legally residing in a state that have any of the following legal residency classifications: refugee, asylum or asylee, temporary protected status, or deferred action for childhood arrivals
● Must be able to serve 2-4 evenings/week and occasional Saturdays ?
● U.S. Citizen or Permanent Resident
● Passionate about teaching and serving the immigrant community
● Access to a motor vehicle to conduct service activities throughout the City of Alexandria, Arlington, and Fairfax Counties
Service Activities
Type of Position: Contract
Reports to Project Director: Victoria Mejia, Director of Programs
Assists Edu-Futuro’s Executive Director, Jorge Figueredo, and
Workforce Development and IT Team Lead: Danny Diaz
Year 1 & 2 Project Lead activities:
● Conduct research on funding opportunities for the CETC, including public, private, and capital funding sources;
● monitoring, evaluating, and analyzing current trends and best practices in early childhood education curriculum design;
● helping to develop a community outreach strategy for the CETC and Edu-Futuro’s expanded Workforce Development program.
Additional duties:
● Research the legalities of each of the major jurisdictions in Northern Virginia in order to narrow our focus to one or two priority locations for the initial CETC site.
● Assist in outreach and recruitment of VISTA team
Community Need Addressed
Background: The drought of childcare options is felt most intensely in systematically excluded communities, the Latino community in particular: as reported by the Brookings Institute, before the pandemic approximately 64% of Latina women worked in jobs paying low wages – the largest share of any demographic group. Because low-wage jobs tend to be part of industries that rely on face-to-face interaction, these workers were also less able to transition to remote work, making the demand for reliable child care even greater.
The AmeriCorps Vista Project Lead will play a significant role in designing and planning the adult and child programming to be provided at the Edu-Futuro Childcare Education and Training Center (CETC) recruiting AmeriCorps Vista members who will develop the implementation plan to ensure that the work of the CETC will be sustainable for the long-term. The AmeriCorps Vista Project Lead will help recruit and supervise a team of 5 AmeriCorps Vista
members.
* VISTA Leaders have successfully completed at least one term of full-time AmeriCorps service with VISTA (365 days), NCCC (1,700 hours), or State and National (1,700 hours), or a full term with the Peace Corps.
Position Outcomes
Goal of the Project:
The goal of this project is to build staff capacity to launch a single Child Care Education and Training Center.
Focus Area(s)
Primary: Building the internal staff capacity to support the CETC through our existing Workforce Development Services
Secondary: Launching with a single childcare training center in a location where demand for our services and amenable relationships with community stakeholders have been clearly established, and give Edu-Futuro an advantage over other localities throughout Northern
Virginia.
Target Audience:
● Youth and adults who want to become certified as childcare providers
Benefits
Childcare assistance if eligible, Education award upon successful completion of service, Health coverage, Living allowance, Stipend, Student loan forbearance, Training
Benefits:
● Monthly living allowance of $3,000.00
● Local travel reimbursement for service-related activities
● Health insurance
● Professional development and networking opportunities
● Segal AmeriCorps Education Award, which can be used towards student loans and/or to help finance higher education pursuits upon successful completion of service term. Choice of Segal Education Award is $6,895.00 OR monthly stipend of $574.58
● Childcare assistance
● Student loan forbearance or deferment
● Gain skills and valuable experience to prepare you for a career after-service
● Make an impact in under-served communities
Skills you will gain
Non-Competitive Eligibility
Once you've successfully completed service in AmeriCorps VISTA, you will receive one year of non-competitive eligibility for employment in the federal government.
This special hiring status enables you to apply for federal jobs with the advantage of not having to go through the standard public competitive selection process. That means that you can be appointed to federal positions that may not be available to the general public. In addition, your application could be processed faster than others.
While this is a great advantage, it does not guarantee you a federal job, but it does provide a valuable opportunity!
Competencies You Will Develop
Communication
Demonstrate sensitivity and empathy, Lead group discussion, Listen to and consider others' viewpoints, Maintain open lines of communication with others, Speak clearly, in precise language and in a logical, organized and coherent manner, Write cleary and effectively
Creativity & Problem Solving
Able to identify and define the problem, Capable of generating possible solutions, Communicate the problem to appropriate personnel, Provide relevant expertise, Select and implement well-considered solution
Teamwork
Derive consensus, Develop constructive working relationships and maintain them over time, Establish a high degree of trust and credibility with others, Interact professionally and respectfully with supervisors and co-workers, Stay positive and outcome oriented, Use appropriate strategies and solutions for dealing with conflicts and differences to maintain a smooth workflow
Decisions
Accepts responsibility, Anticipate the consequences of decisions, Identify and prioritize the key issues involved to facilitate the decision making process, Involve people appropriately in decisions that may impact them, Quickly respond with a back-up plan if a decision goes amiss
Tools
Operate tools and equipment in accordance with established operating procedures, safety standards, and ethical guidelines, Seek opportunities to improve knowledge of tools and technologies that may assist in streamlining work and improving productivity
Planning
Able to prioritize various competing tasks, Create environment of contribution, Create plan of action, schedule tasks so that work is completed on time, Demonstrate the effective allocation of time and resources efficiently, Drive decision making, Effectively delegate tasks, Facilitate group planning, Set goals
Service
Be pleasant, courteous, professional and respectful when dealing with internal and external customers or clients, Honor the privilege of being able to work with and for those being served, Provide personalized, prompt, and efficient service to meet the requirements, requests and needs of customers, Recognize the importance of maintaining privacy and confidentiality of those being served, Understand and anticipate the needs of others, Understand the importance of one's role in the functioning of the organization, Understand the significance of maintaining a healthful and safe environment