Employment

The Whole Child Health Specialist will be a key member of Children’s Institute’s Whole Child Connection team, supporting educators and youth development practitioners in their efforts to integrate a whole child focus in classrooms, schools, districts, early care and education settings and youth development programs. The Whole Child Health Specialist’s primary responsibilities will be:  

Responsibilities

Facilitation & Training

Facilitate large and small group learning sessions and workshops for adults including: educators, school administrators, youth services and out-of-school (OST) time providers, and families.

Resource & Tool Creation

Create comprehensive, engaging resources, tools, presentations, other content.   

Write social media and other content that includes topics of interest and, practical actionable guidance to educators, administrators, youth services and OST providers, families, and caring adults who support children/youth.  

Consultation

Coordinate and implement the Connection’s multi-phase SEL needs assessment and action planning process in school districts and youth development programs, including conducting interviews and focus groups, writing reports, and facilitating action planning sessions with staff. Be an active participant in revising the process to ensure districts and programs approach SEL from an equity and anti-racist perspective.

Parent and Family Voice

Inform and support the Whole Child Connection’s efforts to authentically lift up parent and family voice in our work by participating in a monthly learning collaborative with parents (evening hours) and facilitating community dialogue with families to inform our approach.

Organizational Support

Contribute to the development of new projects, proposals, and other work across Children’s Institute, especially as they relate to training and the organization’s overall work on racial equity and social justice. Routinely connect with Children’s Institute’s Director of Family Engagement and Equity as a source of guidance, alignment, and integration.

Qualifications

We are seeking individuals with a passion for, commitment to, and deep understanding of social-emotional learning, anti-racism and equity, family voice and leadership, education, child and youth development, school culture/climate, effective learning environments, and continuous improvement. Candidates who thrive in fast-paced environments, who enjoy facilitating adult learning, and who are motivated self-starters that take initiative and attend to details will thrive in this position. Successful candidates will also be familiar with the complexities of the education system at the classroom, school, and district level and the challenges and opportunities in the youth development arena particularly with youth services and OST programming.

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent, preferably in education, human/youth development, or related field. Lived experience beyond what can be learned in formal educational settings is valued and considered. 
• Deep content knowledge in whole child development topics, including social-emotional learning, school culture and climate, importance of play and physical well-being, and youth development. Experience in school, early care and education, and/or youth development settings is essential.
• Demonstrated commitment to equity and anti-racism work.  
• Self-starter with comfort working autonomously.
• Exceptional communication and organizational skills.  
• Understanding of best practice in adult learning.  
• Substantial training/coaching/consultation experience with adult learners and comfort working with and providing consultation and training to a range of people.
• Demonstrated ability to work in a fast-paced environment and prioritize multiple projects at once.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Children’s Institute is committed to equal employment opportunity for all persons regardless of race, religion, color, national origin or citizenship, ancestry, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, age, disability, sexual orientation, marital, military, or veteran status, or any other status or characteristic protected by law.

We welcome qualified candidates with lived experiences to help us best serve our great Community!  

If this job sounds like something you would find fulfilling and is aligned with your career goals, even if your experience isn’t exactly in line with the points above, please consider applying anyway. Experience comes in many forms and your interest and passion can go a long way. We know that a diverse team makes for the best collaborative work and creative thinking. We are dedicated to adding new perspectives and experiences to the team and encourage everyone who is interested in the work to apply.

Children’s Institute is affiliated with the University of Rochester and this position will be a University of Rochester employee, subject to benefits and salary structure of the University. The University offers a generous benefits package including paid time off, health insurance, and wellness opportunities. For a full listing, see here.   

To apply for the position, please visit this link at the University of Rochester employment site. The job is listed as a Health Project Coordinator and the description on the website will not match this exactly. Simply be sure the listing matches Job Code 228204 (Health Project Coordinator) and you are in the right place.  

In addition to your resume, please submit why you are interested in the position and how your experiences match the job description.  

All questions can be directed to Dawn Breitung at dbreitung [at] childrensinstitute.net (subject: Whole%20Child%20Health%20Specialist) .

Introduction to the Whole Child Connection

The Whole Child Connection at Children’s Institute builds the capacity of child-serving organizations and individuals to embrace and implement a whole child approach when working with children. We believe Social Emotional Learning (SEL) is a lifelong journey. All children need social and emotional skills to succeed in life.All adults should intentionally and explicitly teach social and emotional skills, while continually developing their own SEL competencies. We also believe that for SEL to effectively support whole child development, it must be grounded in equity and anti-racism. We are committed to unlearning, listening and growing as we strive to approach all of our work through an equity and anti-racist lens.  

We are seeking a consultant to support our overall work related to SEL and equity. We anticipate this individual working with our team approximately 6-8 hours a week over the next 5 months in preparation for the 2021-22 school year. 

Scope of Service:

• Review Whole Child Connection professional development materials, resources, job descriptions, and other materials with an eye toward cultural responsiveness, equity, and anti-racism.
• Facilitate bi-weekly sessions focused on SEL and equity to facilitate our team’s ongoing efforts to broaden our own self-awareness, social awareness and intersection with our work
• Facilitate Whole Child Connection’s process of examining the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional competencies, the New York State SEL benchmarks, and our overall approach to supporting implementation of SEL from an anti-racist perspective. In particular, we are seeking to revise our SEL needs assessment and consultation work with school districts from an equity and anti-racist perspective.
• Provide mentorship and support to BIPOC staff navigating the complexities of this work through ongoing (peer) processing opportunities.
• Work in coordination with the Children’s Institute’s Director of Family Engagement and Equity to ensure alignment with the organization’s overall approach to equity and associated internal and external work.

The Successful Consultant Will Have:

• Substantial experience leading racial equity work at the individual and organizational level, including building culture, relationships, and trust.
• Substantial experience leading and facilitating groups, at the organizational level, to address solutions.
• Knowledge and experience with child serving organizations and systems. Experience in K-12 school systems particularly important.  
• Knowledge of social emotional learning (SEL), particularly CASEL’s core SEL competencies, and its implementation in schools essential
• Strong project management skills.

Interested individuals should send their resume and a brief project plan including your philosophy/approach to SEL and a budget for completing the work described above. We will begin reviewing proposals on a rolling basis starting April 19.   

Proposals can be sent to Elizabeth Devaney, Director of Whole Child Connection at edevaney [at] childrensinstitute.net (subject: Equity%20Consultant%20-%20Request%20for%20Proposals)  

Children’s Institute (CI) is searching for a full-time non-tenure eligible research associate to be responsible for novel science and evaluation initiatives while serving as a Managing Director of Data and Science, with a preferred start date of Spring 2021.

Under general direction and with substantial latitude for exercising independent judgment while reporting directly to the Executive Director, this position serves as a scientific and administrative lead of a cross-cutting functional area of the agency. This role will direct strategic development and implementation of CI’s suite of research and evaluation capacities, tools, technologies, programs, and staff aligned with the agency’s mission, vision and values focused on promoting children’s complete wellbeing. They will promote scholarship employing a variety of scientific methods and approaches – and in a variety of scientific team contexts including collaborative multidisciplinary, cross-sector and agency teams. They will apply ethical and community development principles including community-based participatory research. They will advance scholarship in a variety of topics related to equity in child development including youth and emerging adult development, school readiness/early success, and holistic health broadly defined to include social and emotional wellbeing.  

The specific duties and responsibilities of the renewable one-year appointment will be determined with input, however, expected duties will include to:

• Incubate and direct new research activities and program evaluation including supervising projects, budgets, and deliverable completion for contracting agencies/individuals.
• Lead research design and carry out operations to further develop tools, measurement and data collection, analytic approaches, interventions, system change, implementation and dissemination; prepare, review, and approve reports to funding agencies and executive director as requested.
• Lead research operations by developing and controlling multiple projects and operations through collaborative as well as administrative/fiscal/budgetary and professional development processes. Assist with establishing guidelines for distribution of expenses; controls expenditures for projects. Liaison with leadership regarding personnel and resource utilization decision-making for the agency. Develop and monitor area and project operating budgets while improving financial, personnel, planning and administrative aspects of research. Establish goals and operating procedures, practices, and guidelines including advancing diversity, inclusion and equity. Promote research innovation including through technology integration (e.g., deep learning methods).
• Select and supervise faculty, area staff, and students/interns – while providing for training, professional development and performance evaluation in principal investigator, data management and analytics, project management, coordinator, and support staff roles that advance research and evaluation. Mentor and counsel faculty, staff, and students/interns; take action on matters of discipline, promotion, compensation, and other related matters. Track grant metrics.
• Participate in overall agency key decisions, strategic planning and other requirements and key decisions with leadership. Do so while working closely with community partners, departments/universities, PIs and data scientists to define high-level research priorities with alignment to current and future projects and initiatives (internal and external).
• Provide exemplary leadership in ensuring progress towards a more diverse and inclusive organization, consistent with Mission, Values and Objectives.
• Lead and/or assists principal investigators, program directors and project staff with preparation of proposals for project funding and grants.  Mentor staff as needed to enable individual growth and preparation for increasingly critical assignments.
• Provide information to executive director and board of directors as requested. Advise and ensure compliance on data privacy and other research and agency policy matters including compliance of research activities with federal government and university policies.
• Author and publish original peer-reviewed research related to the success of children, children’s integrated services/systems and associated factors (e.g., risk and protective factors), e.g., with social or emotional difficulties. Liaison with Communications and embeds in dissemination and knowledge transfer processes including advancing sharing of knowledge gleaned in culturally responsive and product-sharing formats.

Requirements:

• College or university degree in related field at the level of a doctorate or terminal professional degree in field related to children’s success (e.g., PhD in developmental psychology, public health, economics, sociology, MD, etc.).
• Minimum requirements include knowledge and skills developed through 5+ years of work experience in a related job discipline, course work or experience in appropriate field related to assigned responsibilities, with a minimum of two years in a managerial and leadership role or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Preferred:  Expert or distinguished researcher at an Associate Professor, Professor or equivalent at the college level. Community-based research and multisite research, coordinating across many partners. Experience with applied research methodologies, particularly in healthcare, education and community entity settings. Experience in building research partnerships and securing necessary approvals. Strong management experience, operational skills; experienced leader of change management. Experience procuring, mentoring and reviewing federal and other national in scope scientific proposals resulting in peer-reviewed research.

Application requires upload of CV and cover letter within on-line application.

Children’s Institute is affiliated with the University of Rochester.

The University of Rochester, an Equal Opportunity Employer, has a strong commitment to diversity and actively encourages applications from candidates from groups underrepresented in higher education.

EOE Minorities/Females/Protected Veterans/Disabled

Click here to apply