Under the direction of the Director, Youth Development & Outreach, the Princeton Stronger Together (PST) Project Director is responsible for the development, quality assurance and implementation of the All Kids Thrive Princeton Stronger Together Initiative, a grant-funded project to reduce and prevent chronic absenteeism in Princeton. S/he prepares and ensures attainment of program objectives as outlined by PST Initiative’s Grant Proposal and Implementation Plan.
ABOUT THE INITIATIVE: The PST Collaboration is inspired by and adapted from an innovative group mentoring program called Thread, based in Baltimore, MD that features a unique staffing structure that includes volunteers, educators and non-profit staff members, working together to form a dynamic web of interconnectness to support low-income students who are most at risk of losing opportunities to succeed throughout their lives. The PST Project Director has primary responsibility for ensuring we achieve exemplary student and volunteer outcomes by providing coaching, support and training to members of the PST community, with a particular focus on the volunteer Team Leaders who are responsible for coaching a “family” of volunteers who make up the student PST teams, who in turn support each participating student. We believe this coaching model best supports our students and volunteers alike when all individuals are well coordinated, engaged and working together in the larger PST community. In addition, the PST Project Director is responsible for managing a portfolio of participating middle and high school students, grouped in cohorts each semester, as identified in partnership with the Princeton Public Schools. The PST program is funded through a five-year grant from the Princeton Area Community Foundation’s ALL KIDS THRIVE initiative.
Relationship Building
- Facilitate connections between volunteers and students by coaching and working through volunteer leaders and their volunteer team members
- Develop and grow relationships with principals, administrators and teachers
- Build positive, long-term relationships with PST volunteers, resource teams, collaborators, staff and students
- Develop and retain high-performing volunteer leadership and team members
- Support volunteer and student outputs that contribute to the project’s outcomes, such as: attendance at events such as youth programs, tutoring sessions, workshops
- Consistently log and monitor interactions between students and volunteers that occur both inside and outside of PST programming events, called TouchPoints
- Communicate, deploy and work through the PST Community Model
- Prepare for and execute monthly GroupTalks, which are informational sessions for all of the volunteers participating in the programs
- With support from PST organizational collaborators, recruit, train, and retain key volunteer leadership (Team Leaders)
- Conduct monthly meetings with volunteer leadership and provide tools needed to best serve their PST Teams
- Assist Team Leaders in working collaboratively with their PST Team members to identify individual needs of students/families and provide targeted interventions through daily afterschool programs, academic support and tutoring, SAT preparatory sessions, college planning activities, special social events, summer internships, etc.
- Assist volunteer leadership in connecting with and securing resources to support team and family efforts
- Work with volunteer leaders to re-engage volunteers who are not meeting participation expectations
Performance and Program Management
- Track, analyze, report on, and present metrics and results
- Continually monitor metrics and outcomes and adjust implementation in order to improve performance
- Manage assessments for volunteer leaders and coordinate with designated volunteers on the collection and assimilation of metrics
- Set standards for accountability and measurements of success for volunteers
- Reinforce critical operating protocols and ensure proper implementation
- Ensure all operations are aligned with PST Project’s vision, mission and goals
- Manage budget
- Provide effective and inspiring leadership, ensuring effective communication among students, volunteers, family members, organizational partners, resource partners and other stakeholders
- Provide feedback of successes/challenges to volunteers to better engage them in improving student outcomes
The PST Project Director will have a willingness to be open to others and build deep, meaningful, non-transactional relationships because we believe that empathetic and enduring relationships are our society’s most essential form of wealth. Central to the role are cultivating relationships that transcend racial and socioeconomic barriers and creatively building an unconventional family or team not defined by DNA and address.
- Three or more years of relevant professional experience working with youth and families preferred
- Able to act adeptly as an entrepreneur, organizer and facilitator
- Ability to drive action by working through and with a number of individuals and groups
- Exceptional leadership and coaching abilities
- Excellent communication skills
- Passion for working with volunteers, youth and their families
- Experience building positive relationships with volunteers, community partners, parents, and/or teachers from a wide variety of backgrounds
- Demonstrated ability to work in complex environment and manage multiple process and tasks simultaneously
- Proficiencies with technology (e.g. Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint; Google Docs, Sheets, Drive; databases) and willingness to adapt to new technologies
- Innovative and resourceful with respect to problem solving
- Experience with tracking, analyzing, and drawing conclusions from data sets
- Possess the following attributes: entrepreneurial spirit; positive attitude, self-motivation, ability to solve problems, humility and willingness to encourage critical feedback from volunteers, students and partners; interest in improving success of program
- Willingness to work unusual hours to accommodate the demands; must also be willing to conduct evening meetings at least twice per week
- Ability to make minimum two-year commitment to the position
Salary: $42,000.00 - $50,800.00