Education Program Advocate & Trainer

POSITION SUMMARY

The Alliance for Children’s Rights is seeking a dedicated individual to join our Education Program as an Advocate and Trainer. This is a non-exempt, full-time paid position.

ABOUT THE ALLIANCE

The Alliance for Children's Rights is a nonprofit organization that provides free, holistic legal services and advocacy to youth and families impacted by child welfare and juvenile justice systems in Los Angeles County and works to enact policy changes statewide. Our lawyers, advocates, and social workers, together with hundreds of pro bono attorneys and community volunteers, work to ensure young people in the foster care and juvenile justice systems, and those living in guardianships or who have been adopted can overcome barriers to stability and success and access the education, healthcare, and financial supports they need. Since 1992, we have helped over 165,000 children and young adults. For more information visit: www.allianceforchildrensrights.org.

WHAT YOUR IMPACT WILL BE

The Education Program prides itself on providing its team members with the support and resources necessary to be successful. We believe that education (including early intervention) services are essential in creating opportunity for youth, especially those facing systemic barriers to success, including those who face multiple barriers such as children of color and children with disabilities – both of whom are disproportionately overrepresented in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. We ground our advocacy in our clients’ goals and our vision for creating education equity from an intersectional perspective.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

The Advocate and Trainer will work with youth in the child welfare and juvenile justice system, focusing on enforcing their general education rights to help them access a quality education, remain stable in school, and work towards high school graduation. Advocacy will include working with transition age youth, education rights holders, and schools to enforce education rights including collecting and analyzing education records and conducting oral and written advocacy with school districts and the state department of education. The advocate will also work directly with youth, training them on their education rights and empowering them to be their own advocates. In addition to the above the Advocate and Trainer will provide the following services:

• Maintain general education caseload, under supervision of Program Director, including oral and written advocacy for school stability, immediate enrollment, partial credit, and graduation exemption rights for youth involved in the foster care and probation systems

• Conduct client interviews, maintain case files, gather documentation for case advocacy from multiple sources, and communicating with education rights holders and youth regarding the status of the case

• Requesting, compiling, and analyzing education records

• Provide community “Know Your Education Rights” trainings to systems involved youth, working with and presenting alongside our Education Youth Cohort of 6 youth who are formerly systems involved

• Administrative duties including data entry, electronic file management, and drafting letters and complaints on behalf of your clients

IDEAL CANDIDATE WILL POSSESS

• BA Degree in a related field

• At least one-year relevant experience working with youth

• Experience working within the education, foster care, or juvenile justice system

• One-year of previous experience with public speaking and/or training

• One-year of previous experience in an office or other professional environment

• Bilingual Spanish language required

EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS

• Excellent written and oral communication, active listening, and presentation skills

• Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to build rapport and communicate effectively with youth, attorneys, education and child welfare/probation professionals

• Excellent organizational skills, with the ability to work independently and manage competing tasks in a fast-paced environment

• A strong work ethic, dedication, and enthusiasm for taking on responsibility

• Demonstrated ability to work as a team member with a pleasant and collegial approach

• Commitment to social justice

• A desire to help people and give back to our community

• Experience with education, juvenile dependency or delinquency courts is helpful

• Proactive and flexible, with the ability to work in an environment with shifting priorities and demands.

SALARY RANGE

This is a non-exempt, full-time paid position, target starting salary range is $28.20 per hour up to $30.76 per hour or an equivalent annual salary of $55,000-$60,000. Final starting salary offered is contingent on years of relevant experience. Benefits include generous vacation and paid holidays; comprehensive health plans covering 100% of the employee cost of medical, dental and vision insurance; life insurance; flexible spending accounts for childcare and health expenses; generous retirement savings plan with company contributions to your 403(b) after one year of employment, and discounts on fitness memberships and other activities.

COVID-19 CONSIDERATIONS

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, this position worked full time from our Los Angeles office. However, since the pandemic, this position has worked remotely from home with travel into the office or to schools, group homes, or juvenile halls for advocacy meetings and trainings multiple times per month. This position may be asked to return to work in the office at any time and at the employer's discretion.

VACCINATION REQUIREMENT

The Alliance is committed to prioritizing and safeguarding the health and wellbeing of our employees, their families, our clients, and members of our community against the COVID-19 coronavirus. In response to COVID-19 and the increased transmissibility with recent variants, and to support a safe environment for everyone, all new Alliance employees must provide original documentation confirming they are fully vaccinated, and or evidence of an approved qualifying medical exemption or religious held belief exemption at the time of hire.

APPLYING

To be considered, please send a cover letter and resume to our Education Program Director, Jill Rowland, at Jrowland@alliancecr.org. Please include in your cover letter any relevant experiences, background, or perspective, professional or otherwise, you have in working with diverse populations and/or towards goals of equity and racial justice.

The Alliance for Children’s Rights is committed to building and supporting a culturally diverse and inclusive environment that values all staff members’ backgrounds and perspectives in our work. We strongly encourage individuals from all traditionally underrepresented communities to apply. We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities. We are an Equal Employment Opportunity employer, and prohibit discrimination against employees or applicants because of race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, national origin, ancestry, age, marital status, veteran status, or any other unlawful basis.