Success Mentor

Grand St Settlement Inc.•New York, NY

39d•$20

About The Position

Success Mentors are caring adults who mentor chronically absent students to identify the barriers preventing them from attending school each day. The Success Mentor will work closely with families and Community School staff to support Community School Attendance Initiatives. The Success Mentor will help support parent-school communication to increase student attendance. The Success Mentor will ensure optimal academic, social, and emotional development for students. The Success Mentor will work closely with the Community School Team (director, social worker, outreach worker, and tutor) to provide resources that will enhance the Community School. Success mentors are the most successful strategy for combating chronic absence. The idea is not for a Success Mentor to have the answers, but for the mentee to talk about and explore ideas. Staff members would need to have a working reliable computer.

Requirements

High school diploma required; Bachelor’s degree preferred
Two years or more experience in the field of youth development
Family outreach and home visit experience
Excellent written and verbal communication skills
Excellent documentation skills
Facility to motivate others toward achieving goals
Ability to develop alliances with high risk and difficult to engage youth and families
Knowledge of community resources and counseling practices with high risk populations
Outstanding collaborative skills

Nice To Haves

Bilingual Spanish/ English is a plus.

Responsibilities

Maintain a caseload of 25 to 30 chronically absent students for the full school year.
Meet and greet mentees each morning.
Make positive morning phone calls home to families of absent students.
Monitor mentee’s attendance data and maintain a folder to include notes and other information to track mentee attendance. Utilize the Student Profile from the New Visions Attendance Heat Map or Portal.
Meet with mentees regularly—both one-on-one and in small groups—to check-in, listen, and chat about how school is going.
Work with school staff and teachers to identify appropriate interventions to support and engage mentee(s).
Celebrate improvements, no matter how small.
Create and maintain thorough written record of assessments, attendance outreach efforts and all required documentation
Work collaboratively with community resources to establish timely and effective referral processes.
Maintain ongoing open communication with the school principal, parents, and school-based staff.
Assist Outreach Worker with home visits to engage families and develop relationships between school and families of students identified as the targeted population (At-risk and chronically absent students).
Assist Outreach Worker with recruiting additional mentors, assigning mentees and monitor mentor and mentee relationships and track mentee attendance
Partnering with families to create family goal plans that increase student attendance and enhance parent and child well being.
Maintain written records of home visits, family goals, and all required documentation.
Implement attendance incentive programs.
Work collaboratively with community resources and advocate for families when necessary.
Refer participants to social worker for counseling to support with crisis intervention and safety planning.
Participate in ongoing efforts to advocate for program needs via community coalition building.
Seek partnership opportunities and bring in at least 3 new partners a year to leverage resources to support programs.
Work closely with a social worker, tutor, and outreach attendance team to support targeted student needs.
Attend all required department/ agency meetings and/or trainings.
Perform other duties as assigned by the Community School Director and/ or Assistant Community School Director.