Summer Learning Manager

Position Summary:

This position is embedded within the Philadelphia Office of Children and Families. The Philadelphia Office of Children and Families (OCF) funds Out-of-School Time (OST) for approximately 6,500 youth in grades K-12 within a variety of settings. OCF demands high quality OST programming that improves life skills, increases academic engagement and prepares youth for higher education and employment. The OCF Out-of-School Time (OST) network is a shared, coordinated, and inclusive OST system that reaches ambitious goals on behalf of Philadelphia’s young people. This is a cross sector, holistic network that is working to align various OST efforts from city departments as well as other existing and potential OST stakeholders.

Based on a model from Boston After School & Beyond (BASB), OCF seeks to reimagine summer learning and realign partnerships to create a system of structured, high quality, and impactful summer offerings for students across the city. An organization with a national reputation, BASB catalyzes partnerships among the City of Boston, the Boston Public Schools (BPS), local and national funders, researchers, and over 180 programs to test new ideas and bring successful approaches to scale. BASB began its summer learning work in 2010 with a pilot project to explore how teachers and nonprofit providers could co-deliver full-day summer learning experiences- an approach that has been tested, proven, and scaled.

The Manager of Summer Learning is a new position focused on leading the citywide agenda and strategy for summer learning to close achievement and opportunity gaps for Philadelphia’s young people. The Manager will build partnerships among a diverse set of stakeholders that connect school year and summer learning and stimulate innovation such as in STEM, skills, and credentials. In partnership with the School District of Philadelphia, the Manager will collaborate with various offices to identify key priorities, shared best practices, develop strategy for implementation with internal team and providers and collective measures for K-12 summer learning.

Summer learning is a key area of focus for the OST network and the Manager of Summer Learning position is a critical role for this work. In addition to the BASB model, the Manager would serve as the project lead for any pilots related to summer as well. The Manager’s primary role is to serve as the lead convener for K-12 summer programming (excluding summer youth workforce opportunities) coordinating strategy and operations across all aspects of summer learning with fidelity to the BASB model. The Manager coordinates the strategy of program quality, delivery, and implementation across the network. The Manager builds and leverages key partnerships and establishes transformational relationships with major stakeholders to support scale. Manager is a resource mobilizer, relationship-building expert, and is savvy at leading and leveraging people, process, and policy both internally and externally. The Manager will work in coordination with OCF OST Leadership, including Directors and Managers, as well as the rest of the OCF Prevention team to ensure summer programming is equitable and accessible for youth across each department.

The Manager will create and implement an evidence-based year-round summer planning cycle, working with PMT and the OST Performance Managers to develop program quality benchmarks professional development as well as ensure compliance with pilot grant/funding requirements. See the Wallace Foundation Summer Learning Toolkit. While this position will report to the Chief of Prevention, they will work in close collaboration with the Director of School Based OST and Early Literacy Initiatives, Director of CBO and Specialized OST, the OST Intermediary Director, School District of Philadelphia (SDP) staff, OST providers, and members of the OCF Data team.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Establish and manage relationships with school and community-based OST programs and other programs to participate in OCF’s Summer OST network, a network focused on tracking enrollment, measuring program performance and students’ skills, and using data for continuous improvement.
• Work closely with SDP, OCF, OST Intermediary and OST partners to ensure high fidelity of the BASB model across the network which includes school-based and community-based programs. Provide guidance and support on program implementation, training/curriculum, and assessment.
• Help identify trends in summer programming to inform program and policy efforts, including the ratio of supply and demand for summer program seats and gaps in programs by age and neighborhood.
• Serve as an “on-call” expert to OCF OST staff, particularly from April-August, work with OST team to help assist providers with program measurement tools and brokering partnerships with other programs and schools.
• Serve as the OCF point of contact for summer learning in local meetings and regional/national convenings, delivering clear messages that articulate the value of summer learning and OCF’s commitment to summer learning as a key area of investment.
• Support with the development of scopes for providers to ensure contracts with all program partners clarify roles and responsibilities and ensure outcomes will be met. Provide support to OST team to find solutions to any issues that arise with OST providers or partners.
• Work with OCF, SDP, and Intermediary leadership to oversee any Summer RFP process
• Identify summer professional development requirements for OST Network and coordinate with OST leadership to build into yearly OST professional development opportunities.

Skills Required:

To be successful, the Manager of Summer Learning will shape a strategic, citywide vision for summer learning to engage a diverse array of programs. OCF seeks the following skills and characteristics:

Project Management:

• Devises and applies processes to meet objectives, balancing multiple deadlines. Tracks details to inform progress toward objectives; communicates clearly and develops reports and toolkits to document best practices and share progress with others.
• Demonstrate an ability to lead a complex and growing program in an everchanging educational climate. Anticipate challenges and opportunities, and proactively act to address them. Translate larger strategic priorities into action steps and leverage a team to make measurable progress against these larger goals efficiently and effectively.
• Develops and considers multiple options and solutions, considering their impact on the organization’s objectives. Enjoys balancing detail with vision and can be engage diverse stakeholders in different settings on a common goal.

Relationship Development & Collaboration:

• Develops strong relationships externally and across other city departments, drawing on the input of others, to accomplish goals. Can navigate collaboration with a large, urban school district. Shares credit for accomplishments with school district, program partners, colleagues, and others.
• Demonstrate an ability to cultivate strong internal relationships with peers and leadership. Set up strong operational systems within the OST team.
• Communicates in a clear, compelling, and persuasive manner. Represent the role of summer learning in education reform. Enjoys meeting with stakeholders. Have a strong aptitude for and commitment to effective communication remotely, in person, via email, via phone, etc.

Judgement and Perspective:

• Understands context, is perceptive, prioritizes work against short- and long-term objectives, and anticipates the implications of actions on stakeholders. Knows when a situation calls for patience or urgency and is politically savvy.
• Puts ideas into action and navigates obstacles with an orientation toward results. Willing to seek out and explore new ideas; able to initiate progress on projects independently; willing to cold call a program to discuss collaboration.
• Operates effectively through uncertainty and can pivot on priorities when necessary.
• Able to make quick, sound, and on-the-fly decisions that consider all stakeholders.

Education and Experience:

• At least 5 years of professional experience
• Experience and/or familiarity with summer learning, education, youth development
• Experience in a coalition (either as a participant or organizer) a plus
• Strong project management experience and comfort with online tools for sharing progress (Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Products, Google, etc.).
• Exceptional meeting facilitation skills.
• Experience with budgeting, developing, executing, and managing contracts a plus
• Proficiency with Zoom and Outlook.

Physical Demands: 

Ability to physically perform the duties and to work in the environmental conditions required such as maneuvering in office space – reaching file cabinets, fax and copier machines, lift up to 50 lbs. when necessary. Must be able to sit for up to 2 hours while looking at and using a computer. Must be able to travel locally.

Equal Opportunity Employment:

PMHCC, Inc. is committed to equal opportunity. It is our policy to support equal employment for all employees and applicants without regard to race, religion, color, sex, sexual preferences, age, national origin, disability, behavioral health status, military status or any other characteristic protected by law.

Americans with Disabilities Act:

Employees as well as applicants who are currently, or become disabled, must be able to perform the functions of the job with either reasonable accommodation or unaided. PMHCC, Inc. will examine reasonable accommodations on a case by case basis in accordance with the law.