Program Director - Youth Volunteer Corps Kansas City

Are you an innovative leader who loves working with teens? Do you have an insatiable desire to reach even more youth for an even bigger community impact? Do you enjoy being out and about improving your community through school and community partnerships? Want to build upon over 35 years of youth volunteerism in the Kansas City community?
 
Summary: In this dynamic position, you will manage all facets of the Youth Volunteer Corps program in Greater Kansas City to deliver the highest-quality program possible. You will lead program planning, youth recruitment and marketing efforts, youth service projects, and the youth advisory board. You’ll be charged with growing the program by seeking out new partnerships with schools and nonprofit agencies and finding creative ways to recruit and retain youth.  You’ll lead a year-round full-time staff member and up to 10 part-time summer staff to help grow the program.
Employee Status: This position is a salaried, exempt position
Hours: This position is full-time (40 hours per week), with a flexible schedule. That may include working in schools, at the office, remote, and at various nonprofit agencies in Kansas City. Service project supervision may require working limited weekday evenings (typically between 4-6 pm) and approximately 1-2 Saturdays a month (typically ~3-4 hours each).
Responsibilities: The focus of this position will be the planning, implementation, and evaluation of high quality service-learning programming throughout the school year and summer. The program director’s overall goal is to provide strategic leadership to the Kansas City program to ensure quality, stability, and growth. Duties include but are not limited to:
General Program Management

• Plan and supervise meaningful service-projects at a variety of nonprofits.
• Recruit new and diverse youth ages 11-18 to participate in Youth Volunteer Corps (YVC) programming, with a major focus on growing the program.
• Promote Volunteer for 15, an initiative with Patrick Mahomes’ Foundation, among youth.
• Build and maintain relationships with youth volunteers, parents and guardians, and community partners, and prioritize accurate, timely, and consistent communication; Provide oversight to program communication including phone, email, and other channels of communication.
• Have an innovative vision for program activities and expansion focusing on progress toward annual program goals.
• Incorporate icebreakers, team builders, service-learning, reflection, and skill development into projects.
• Ensure youth voice and community input through Youth and Advisory Board management.
• Complete and record accurate documentation of project activities and youth volunteer performance in Ydat, YVC’s customized database, as required in a timely manner (Training on Ydat will be provided upon start).
• Assist in the marketing of YVCKC as needed including familiarity with social media management, website, and conducting media outreach to promote events and request coverage for high-profile projects.

• Facilitate weekend, after-school, and school holiday projects. Summer projects occur June through August and are typically Monday-Thursday and Saturdays with hours varying based on agency needs.

• Develop new school partnerships and maintain current school partnerships for school programming and year-round recruitment.
• Deliver in-school programming.
• Work with YVCHQ team and the Youth Engagement Specialist to develop curriculum, training, evaluation, and support materials for school programming.

• Supervise and develop Youth Engagement Specialist, providing one-on-one support, ongoing management meetings, performance feedback, etc.
• Recruit, hire, train, and supervise team leaders, leading weekly meetings during the summer.

• Attend relevant workshops, seminars, webinars and conferences and apply information as appropriate.
• Offer similar opportunities to team leaders and interns.

• Participate in YVC network activities such as the annual Summit conference.
• Act as a role model for youth volunteers.
• Be an advocate for youth and the service they are providing.

• Bachelor’s degree strongly preferred; equivalent experience may be considered
• Be a U.S. citizen or a permanent resident alien
• Pass all background checks and adhere to YVC’s Youth Protection Policy
• Availability for required schedule commitments:
  • Attend training days with YVC Headquarters
  • Supervise scheduled projects throughout the program year
• Experience working with and good rapport among youth ages 11 to 18
• Basic computer knowledge, technology, and data management skills
• Own a reliable vehicle and valid driver’s license
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with emphasis on the ability to communicate with people from a variety of stakeholders, including parents and guardians, agency partners, school contacts, youth including under-resourced youth, media, and more
• A strong personal ethic of service and familiarity with community’s unmet needs and the agencies working to address them
• Good judgement, strategic thinking, creativity, and resilience

• A can-do attitude with proactive vision and high energy
• Experience implementing youth programming, with an emphasis on relationship building and creating an inclusive environment for all (including youth with mental illness, youth living with disabilities, refugees, other marginalized populations)
• Stellar organizational and time management skills, with the ability to handle multiple priorities and demonstrate flexibility
• Ability to meet the scheduling needs of the position
• Experience in education, a knowledge of service-learning/project-based learning, or the ability to create a learning opportunity in any environment
• Supervision experience and a strong desire to develop others
• A sense of urgency driving organizational results and demonstrating dependability
• A passion for helping youth succeed