Training Coordinator

Responsibilities:

• You will cultivate strong, trusting relationships with family child care educators in order to develop programming that is responsive to their needs, culture, and learning style. This will include conversations over coffee, friendly visits to homes, and welcoming phone calls.

• You will build and lead a diverse and engaged facilitation and coaching team. This will include flexing your own muscles as a program designer and facilitator as well as recruiting, training, and supporting contract-based trainers to work in alignment with our training principles. Perhaps the most exciting opportunity here is the chance to build a “grow our own” program to train family child care educators to be qualified providers of professional development for their peers.

• You will organize an annual calendar of bilingual professional development offerings for family child care educators on topics including peer mentorship, peer facilitation, curriculum development, child development, health & safety, and more. You will also coordinate the We Empower Providers Assembly (WEPA), an annual gathering of learning, reflection, and community-building for family child care educators. This will include all the back-end work of scheduling, logistics, marketing, registration, and partner coordination.

• You will strategically plan with partners (including the RI Department of Human Services, the RI Department of Labor and Training, SEIU 1199NE, and other community-based professional development providers) to ensure that family child care educators have equitable access to high quality professional development and training. This will include reading research reports, attending advisory meetings, becoming fluent in professional competencies and standards for family child care, and advocating for fairer policies and practices.

• You will establish SEIU ESF as leader in professional development for family child care in RI.  This will include communicating frequently and professionally to diverse stakeholders, project managing multiple projects at once, and innovating on excellence.

Training Principles:

• Worker-centered. We believe that family child care educators possess deep wisdom, experience, and assets and should be decision-makers regarding program and policy decisions impacting their profession and livelihoods. All trainings will be designed  to center the voice and needs of providers. We will harness the wisdom of educators by supporting them to be designers and facilitators of training for their peers. 

• Focused on Healthy Outcomes for Children and Families. We believe that all children deserve high quality early care and learning experiences. All trainings and technical assistance will be designed to ensure that educators have the tools they need to continuously improve outcomes for children.

• Culturally Responsive. We believe that the training and professional development experience for educators will be most effective and relevant if we listen to and celebrate their lived experiences. The majority of facilitators will be Spanish-speaking and all trainings will be facilitated in both English and Spanish, utilizing the evidence-based I-BEST model of ESOL and job training.

• Application of Theory into Practice. We believe that educators will learn best through doing. We will bring together research and practice experts to ensure a well-rounded context for learning. We will prioritize the demonstration of best practices through modeling and the sharing of resources. 

• High Expectations and High Support. We believe that providers will do well if they have clear and high expectations, reduction of structural barriers, and multiple layers and modalities of support. We will utilize a relational-based approach to learning, coaching, and mentoring to create a cohesive web of support for educators and increase preparedness for advancement in the state’s QRIS system.