Description

STRIVE is a national leader with a mission to provide pathways to life-changing careers and opportunities through comprehensive professional training, intensive personal support, and self-empowerment for those who face societal barriers to advancement. Predominately operating in low-income, Black and Brown communities, STRIVE celebrates 85,000 graduates since its founding in 1984. STRIVE's purpose is to ensure that everyone can achieve upward mobility and financial empowerment for themselves and their families and offers free programs to adults of various ages, genders, and with justice-impacted backgrounds. See why STRIVE Works in this 2-minute video or learn more at strive.org.

STRIVE is active in 14 U.S. locations: in four directly-operated sites and through 10 licensed partners across the country. STRIVE is embarking on a growth plan in order to have the capacity to serve 10,000 individuals a year by 2033. To achieve this ambitious goal, we need to significantly expand our capacity in locations we are currently in and expand to new communities that are in need of our services.

POSITION SUMMARY 

Under the direction of the Managing Director, the Career Coach is responsible for assisting STRIVE participants in navigating STRIVE's education, training, and employment services; accessing resources to alleviate program participation barriers; making connections to supplemental services to achieve goals related to personal development and career readiness; and maximize the information and resources provided throughout the Career Pathways program.

The Career Coach will provide group and individual support in the areas of goal setting, decision-making, processing and applying job readiness and life skills content, understanding assessment outcomes, and more. The Career Coach also will support the participant in identifying education and training opportunities that result in milestone achievements and measurable outcomes for the long-term success of both the program and its participants. This is an in-office position, employees must be vaccinated against COVID. 

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Develop and implement effective coaching strategies to help participants overcome challenges and barriers to employment and workplace success.
• Identify participants' strengths and advise them on how to use those strengths to secure employment or excel in their chosen career path.
• Provide information on suitable career paths based on participants' skills, qualifications, interests, and experience.
• Conduct assessments to gauge participants' skills and abilities and providing feedback on results.
• Develop, review and edit participant resumes to ensure trainees are prepared for job interviews and conduct follow-up assessments.
• Meet individually and in small groups with participants to guide participants through the development of an individual or family plan; reinforce curriculum concepts, identify short and long-term goals, process assessment outcomes, and apply learnings to the decision-making process about education and training opportunities.
• Coordinate supports that will assist the participant with ongoing attendance and participation in program activities, assessing needs through case management principles and making referrals to community resources as appropriate.
• Meet regularly with participants to reinforce the use of skills learned in job readiness activities through ongoing coaching sessions during the education and training phase of program participation, as well as during and after the transition to employment.
• Collaborate with program staff to ensure successful selection and referral of participants and implement strategies to assess the abilities and barriers to the employment of participants to move them to self-sufficiency.
• Participate in intake and assessment processes as required, including panel interviews. 
• Encourage and facilitate workshop attendance and resource center access by identifying and reducing barriers.
• Develop and implement effective coaching strategies to help participants overcome employment-related challenges.
• Provide information on suitable career paths based on participants' skills, qualifications, interests, and experience.
• Offer assistance and support for basic to moderate caseloads by assessing needs through case management principles in both group and individual settings.
• Coordinate with Job Developer to procure and maintain job retention information with employers on working students.
• Provide incremental retention follow-up up to two years on all participants who completed training.
• Enter and maintain student data in STRIVE cloud-based CRM.
• Prepare and submit reports and complete data entry as required.
• High level of comfort using and interpreting data reports to guide program service delivery.
• Commitment to leveraging data and supporting a data-driven culture at STRIVE.
• Collect participant documentation and acquire verification as needed, including income, housing, identity to ensure program eligibility (pending funding requirements). 

Requirements

• A bachelor's degree required, and 1 – 2 years of case management or related experience
• Experience with serving young adults between the ages of 18 to 29.
• Excellent verbal, written, and interpersonal communication skills.
• Basic proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite
• Proficient in entering data into cloud based CRM platforms such as Salesforce, Apricot, or other comparable platforms.
• High level of comfort interacting with and incorporating data reports into service delivery
• Commitment to leveraging data and supporting a data-driven culture at STRIVE.
• Has proven experience with program planning and coordination
• Experience managing several competing obligations and deadlines
• Adapts to changing circumstances and goals
• Works well in teams and with diverse populations
• Accepts and delivers constructive criticism in pursuit of improved performance
• Is a critical thinker, takes calculated risks, and asks good questions
• Keen attention to detail and follow-through.
• Comfort in diverse business, corporate and community settings.
• High energy and motivation to help people succeed.
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team.
• Energetic, entrepreneurial and fun!
• Strong orientation toward listening to and working with the local community preferred
• Self-starter, organized in his/her work, and produces a high-quality product with minimal supervision
• Positive outlook on the changing landscape of workforce development 
• Experience in public speaking, volunteer management and/ or curriculum development preferred
• Experience working with human service agencies, education institutions, workforce development
• Sophisticated written and oral communication skills