Parent & Family Engagement Coordinator

Position Status: Full-time and at will. One (1) open position.

Closing Date: Position open until filled.

Salary & Benefits: Annual salary of $64-74K, based on experience; benefits include health insurance, dental plan, paid time off, and retirement plan.

Job Location: Prince George’s County, Maryland. Most work hours will be spent in-person at VineCorps program sites, including our primary school partners:

•International High School at Largo (IHSLA) — 505 Largo Road, Largo, MD 20774 (VineCorps Marigold Center and afterschool site)

•International High School at Langley Park (IHSLP) — 5150 Annapolis Road, Bladensburg, MD 20710 (VineCorps Marigold Center and afterschool site)

•Shared community spaces in Cheverly, Maryland, and throughout Prince George’s County, along with periodic program outings and trips further afield.

Work Schedule: The position requires considerable schedule flexibility. Schedules will be established seasonally based on community needs, school realities, and program design. During the school year, “core hours” will generally be set between 10:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m. Monday – Friday and weekends as needed to effectively engage families. Occasional “flex hours” earlier, later, and on weekends will be counterbalanced with hours off within the month to average as closely as possible to 40 hours per week. During summer, intensive all-day programming from the first week of July through the second week of August often requires hours beyond 40 hours per week, counterbalanced with time off in June and later August. Paid holidays include all federal holidays plus the Friday after Thanksgiving, the week between Christmas Eve and New Years Day, and one flex day for spring break/Easter/Ramadan/ Passover.

About VineCorps:

VineCorps is a comprehensive youth development organization that builds community hubs of connection, action, and growth for teens in under-served areas of Prince George's County, Maryland. Working closely with youth who contend with challenging circumstances such as low household income, undocumented or uncertain immigration status, English language learning, first-generation college attainment, learning differences, prejudice and discrimination, VineCorps bridges opportunity gaps while promoting health and wellbeing by fostering learning communities of tailored activities, useful tools, and transformative experiences for young people to learn, grow, and thrive in school, at work, and in life.

Through all our activities, VineCorps young people cultivate a radical sense of belonging by weaving their lives with connectedness, specifically: (1) close relationships with caring people, (2) active participation in community life, (3) exploration of identity, heritage, and purpose as a meaningful part of something larger than oneself, (4) openness to serious challenge, including discomfort and vulnerability, and (5) extensive networks of accessible support. Together, our youth build mutual support systems capable of meeting needs, overcoming obstacles, and achieving goals that they personally identify.

The signature programs this Coordinator role will directly engage include:

•VineCorps Marigold Centers for Wellbeing at International High School at Langley Park: providing welcoming safe space; programming and curricula focused on nurturing behavioral health and community life; participating with school staff on the student support team.

•VineCorps After-School Programing: educational enrichment, tutoring, and mentoring that provides academic, social-emotional, and community-building supports and post-graduation planning and preparation.

•VineCorps/UMD Co-Design Team: co-design experiences in research, community activities, civic engagement, and more, in collaboration with the University of Maryland iSchool Youth eXperience Lab.

•VineCorps Summer Leadership Adventures Program (SLA): intensive 7 full-time weeks of leadership development programming comprised of challenging service-learning projects and outdoor adventure activities that require substantial preparation, teamwork, and reflection.

About the Role:

The Parent & Family Engagement Coordinator will be responsible for coordinating all family engagement efforts, programs, and communications across VineCorps programs. As a member of the VineCorps Programs Team, this position will entail leading family engagement and communication efforts alongside the VineCorps Director of Programs, School Site Coordinators and Community Youth Wellness Workers at both school sites: International High School at Largo and International High School at Langley Park as well as any other partnerships/initiative we forge along the way, such as our partnership with UMD’s Co-Design team. During this summer, this will include engaging summer youth participant families and caretakers throughout our SLA weeks together.

The team’s mission is to run an in-depth suite of complementary programs designed to cultivate an engaging and enriching environment for teens and young adults by fostering caring, rooted, supportive community co-created with our young people and their families.

The Coordinator will supervise family engagement efforts and coach the VineCorps Programs Team in meeting the following central responsibilities:

•With the Director of Programs & Community Life as well as the Co-Executive Directors, design, plan, implement, facilitate, evaluate, and evolve all VineCorps deep family engagement programming, activities, and communications across all VineCorps programs, which include an array of family gatherings and trainings, educational enrichment, school and program navigation assistance, behavioral health support, social-emotional learning, spiritual reflection and renewal, teambuilding, service learning, outdoor immersion and adventure, and engagement with youth.

•Support VineCorps’ Summer Leadership Adventures program and other summer activities with hands-on involvement under the direction of the Director of Programs.

•Support all VineCorps program efforts by engaging with youth and VineCorps School Site Teams and summer to ensure cohesiveness and deep connections among youth, families, community partners, and beyond.

•Ensure the successful and engaging participation of families in VineCorps Family Cafés, program events, celebrations, and other points of connection.

•Ensure that all VineCorps personnel, community structures, and program activities at the assigned school site adhere to holistic, person-centered approaches, positive youth development principles, healing and restorative best practices, caring accountability in all relationships, and reflective group discernment to guide all decision-making.

•Lead, participate in, and be an active presence in VineCorps community outreach activities, VineCorps programs and events, and external engagement activities that involve families

•In all things, nurture authentic, intentional community with and for young people and families, creating places for youth and all VineCorps families to be known, be loved, belong, and to experience themselves as needed, as instrumental in the wellbeing of others and the world around them.

This role reports directly to the Director of Program & Community Life, who will provide guidance, training, coaching, and support. The incumbent shall assume all inherent responsibilities and perform assigned and discerned duties with a high degree of independence, initiative, professionalism, creativity, and good judgment.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities include:

Developmental Relationships —

•With guidance from the Director of Programs and Executive Directors, support the implementation of meaningful family-centered spaces that allow youth’s parents and caretakers to connect with the VineCorps community, each other, their children, and their broader communities via active presence and ongoing relationship-building

•Support the VineCorps Programs Team in building and nurturing a program community of meaningful, developmental relationships with, for, and among youth, promoting their wellbeing and growth through enthusiastic engagement, skilled listening, deep understanding, relentless encouragement, thoughtful challenges, and other endless opportunities to experience tangible love, all within appropriate relational boundaries.

•With guidance from the Director of Programs & Community Life and Co-Executive Directors, carry out effective work with teens, young adults, and families, having staff and volunteers get to know them well in simple interactions, provide an array of opportunities for them to learn and grow, practice caring accountability regarding specific commitments and goals they choose, and offer a wide variety of other transformative experiences, all while managing healthy relational expectations.

•Proactively motivate youth and family engagement by always modelling openness, curiosity, responsiveness, positive attitude, healthy belief in one another, and community.

•Work to notice, bridge, and heal any unhealthy social divides or interpersonal conflicts.

Program Delivery & Family-centered Community Life —

•Work with the Director of Programs and Co-Executive Directors to design, develop, and implement all family programs, curricula, activities, and events.

•Lead the facilitation of family school-site program activities, events, and trainings while coaching Community Youth Wellness Workers, the rest of VineCorps staff, volunteers and community partners in thoughtfully engaging families during these touch-points and beyond.

•Lead ongoing efforts that inform, engage, and involve parent and family immersion within our VineCorps community life both during the school year and summer.

•In partnership with the Director of Programs, guide School-site Programs Team in adhering to all administrative, fiscal, evaluation, compliance, and any other system requirements that involve family engagement such as the Family Café interventions.

•Collaborate effectively and appreciatively with program-partner schools, organizations, and agencies.

•Together with the Director of Programs & Community Life, support and guide the School-site Programs Team in the ongoing processes of forming, storming, norming, performing, and transforming, all with a cooperative and generous spirit.

•Mentor VineCorps Community Youth Wellness Workers and volunteers in their youth development, family support, and community formation roles.

•Ensure all VineCorps program efforts are geared toward growing and fostering wholesome and bounteous community life.

•Engage proactively with our VineCorps community in confronting problems, navigating differences, working through conflict, healing from hurt, and rebuilding broken trust.

•Integrate VineCorps’ various circles of community into a unified One Familia.

•Discern and perform other related duties as needed or assigned.

Program Training & Evaluation —

•Work with VineCorps staff, families, participants, and partners in our ongoing iterative cycle of planning, execution, feedback, assessment, and evaluation to evolve and grow in ways that enhance student experience and improve program impact.

•Engage thoughtfully with evidence-based trainings such as the Family Café’s to ensure successful execution, completion, and evaluation of grant requirements with various family programs.

•Ensure VineCorps School-site and Summer Programs Team follows all data collection and management protocols required by the VineCorps Administrative & Data Support Manager, Director of Programs and Community Life, Co-Executive Directors, funders, and compliance authorities.

Key Qualifications:

Qualifications include the following:

Experience —

•A demonstrably successful record of three (3) or more years of family & parent engagement work, including program design, implementation, and facilitation, required.

•Previous experience as a program coordinator for a community-based youth development organization, preferred.

•Familiarity with principles and theory undergirding holistic positive youth development practice and basic adolescent behavioral health concepts and frameworks, preferred.

•Personal experience as a youth participant in youth development programs, preferred.

•Experience in intensive team or intentional community environments that practice shared servant leadership, consensus decision-making, mutual caring accountability, and restorative routines as essential principles, preferred.

•Familiarity with Microsoft Outlook and Office Suite, preferred.

Qualities —

•Excited and energized to work with PG County youth’s families, parents, and caretakers from many cultural backgrounds and multicultural communities.

•Excited and energized to work with teenagers and young adults ages 14-24.

•Exceptionally open, curious, insightful, patient, and responsive while bringing great initiative, understanding, creativity, and determination to a collaborative, evolving environment.

•Communicative and charismatic disposition that others find energizing and inspiring.

•Excited and energized to be part of a youth development program team, both giving and receiving coaching, training, and support, including regular check-ins and constructive feedback.

•Motivated and excited to build programs, systems, and structures from the ground up.

•Excited, energized, and able to lead outdoor programming, with direct guidance and support from the Director of Programs & Community Life and Co-Executive Directors, including immersive and intensive experiences such as extended camping trips, long hikes, rock climbing, mountain biking, whitewater rafting, ocean kayaking, and more (experience in this area is preferred but not required).

•Commitment to shared leadership, reflective group discernment, mutual accountability, social justice, antiracism, and nonviolent conflict resolution.

•Passionate belief in the value of positive youth development and committed community.

•Joy in building multicultural community, bridging entrenched divides, and playful fun on the job!

Skills —

•Proficiency/bilingual in Spanish and English required; fluent/native-speaker preferred.

•Excellent and intuitive interpersonal, communication, relationship-management, teambuilding, and leadership skills.

•Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with colleagues, youth, family members, school staff, community partners, and all other members of the VineCorps Familia.

•Ability, at all times, to maintain proper relational boundaries, manage appropriate relational expectations, and follow VineCorps and other operative institutional protocols with youth and families in ways that model healthy relationships for all.

•Entirely dependable meeting commitments, following through, and working independently.

•Highly organized, with strong time management and project management skills and sharp attention to detail.

•Adept capacity to identify problems, recognize opportunities, and creatively devise and apply practical solutions.

•Capable and willing to drive large vans full of kids and/or families, small trucks full of gear, and tow trailers, often for long distances and during demanding days.

•Effective public speaker, excited to engage large groups of adults and youth, and skilled as a facilitator both in group and individual contexts.

Essentials — Being a full-time coordinator for a small community-based nonprofit organization providing intensive programming amid rapid growth requires some unique qualities. Chief among them is the capacity to experience more satisfaction and gratitude than stress and frustration in the “building the plane while flying it” sensation, which entails the following:

•Strong flexibility and high comfort level with ambiguity and uncertainty.

•Enjoyment in being a persistent learner and a jack-of-all-needed-trades generalist (and master of whichever few that circumstances most demand).

•Keen prioritizing and judgement, with a perspicacious sense of taking hold and letting go.

•Caring about the details that make the difference between good and great without letting the perfect become the enemy of the good.

•Enthusiastic desire to co-create and build out an organization primed to re-envision community and youth engagement.

•Being a “mission-driven” team player eager to figure it out and get the job done.

Are You Excited? So Are We! How to Apply:

•Email to chris@vinecorps.org and diana@vinecorps.org (1) a resume detailing your relevant education and work history, (2) a cover letter sharing why you are interested in this position, and (3) a brief story from your family engagement and/or youth development experience that conveys your sense of the significance of youth development opportunities that involve their families.

•All related inquiries should also be directed to chris@vinecorps.org and diana@vinecorps.org.

Other Considerations:

•Background Check & Fingerprinting Required through Prince George’s County Public Schools, along with PGCPS-mandated youth work safety training (online).

•Equal Opportunity Employer: VineCorps is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified candidates will receive consideration without regard to race, ethnicity, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, age, personal appearance, religion, or political affiliation.

•Drug-Free Workplace: Pursuant to the requirements of the Drug-Free Workplace Act, all employees, as a condition of employment, are required to notify their immediate supervisor, in writing, not later than five (5) days after conviction of any criminal drug offense occurring in the workplace.