Foster America Fellow - Strategy and Human Centered Design

Systems Strategist to Design Service Model for Commercially Sexually Exploited Youth 

Foster America fellows leverage their diverse professional backgrounds as they assume leadership roles at child welfare agencies, improving outcomes for our nation’s most vulnerable children and families. In collaboration with Tipping Point, we are recruiting and placing well-supported Foster America fellows across the Bay Area to build bridges between public child welfare, education and human service agencies. This team of fellows will promote equitable outcomes for kids who are or have been in foster care, and develop infrastructure to improve public sector collaboration. Fellows will promote innovation within their host sites while contributing to a team structure that develops ongoing learning across counties to create more equitable outcomes for Bay Area foster youth. 

About this Role: In partnership with the Alameda County Social Services Agency, Department of Children & Family Services (DCFS), we seek an equity-driven systems designer, program director, and/or coalition builder to improve placement stability for commercially sexually exploited children (CSEC). DCFS is dedicated to Improving systems and organizational infrastructure to align supports for youth experiencing or at-risk of experiencing commercial sexual exploitation. The fellow will lead efforts to review and assess agency efforts, identifying opportunities to implement processes, policies, and practices for a consistent support system.

The fellow will utilize their expertise in strategic planning, organizational development, and stakeholder engagement to redesign the department’s systems for preventing the commercial sexual exploitation of foster youth, and support affected youth towards better futures. This fellow will engage a time-limited workgroup of agency staff, community nonprofit partners, as well as youth and parent advocates to identify service gaps and opportunities to improve cross-system partnerships and service delivery. 

Over the course of 18 months, the fellow will:

• Conduct best practices research, identifying ways to leverage DCFS resources and programs to recruit, train, support and sustain caregivers, specifically for victims or youth at risk of commercial sexual exploitation.
• In partnership with DCFS staff and community providers, develop the protocols, policies, and trainings that improve the agency’s ability to consistently and systematically support youth.
• Lead cross-system efforts to expand assessment practices for at-risk youth and connect them to effective systems and services of support. 

About the agency: Under the inspiring leadership of Michelle Love, the Alameda County Department of Children & Family works to improve the lives of children and families across the county by serving children and youth who have experienced, or are at risk of experiencing, abuse or neglect. Multiple studies have found that most Bay Area youth who have experienced commercial sexual exploitation have been touched by the foster care system. Alameda County currently has the 2nd highest rates of commercial sexual exploitation in California. Leadership is committed to addressing this issue with multiple solutions, and is now striving to streamline their approach. 

About the fellowship: The Foster America Fellowship is an opportunity to radically improve the lives of our nation’s most historically exploited by designing and implementing innovative solutions to some of the foster care system’s most complex problems. Fellows apply the skills they have cultivated in other sectors as they transition to full-time, 18-month positions at child welfare and human service agencies. In their roles, fellows focus on high-impact reform projects to create better and more equitable outcomes for children, families, and communities affected by child abuse, neglect, trauma, and poverty. Each role is designed to have an immediate and lasting local impact while also informing solutions that can be scaled nationally. Foster America fellows receive extensive training and professional development with a cohort of peers, positioning them to thrive and grow as social change leaders during the fellowship and beyond. 

Fellowship support includes:

• Cutting-edge training focusing on leadership, liberatory design, child welfare context, racial equity, innovation, and more
• An influential network of purpose-driven professionals including fellows, Foster America staff, and the child welfare field’s most innovative leaders as faculty
• Individualized project and leadership coaching, mentorship, and support
• Career development for alumni who pursue positions in child welfare and related sectors 

Position Highlights:

• Reporting directly to Gloria Caroll, join a team that is deeply dedicated to innovative practices that improve outcomes for foster youth.
• Work on the cutting edge of building a streamlined countywide support model for commercially sexually exploited foster youth.
• Lead change efforts through the full systems design process from generating insights from existing services, piloting new structures, and systematizing efforts for streamlined scale.
• Engage and learn from diverse cross-sector and grassroots leaders in the design of new support systems.
• Collaborate with a network of fellows and child welfare agencies working together to improve outcomes for older youth across the Bay Area. 

Compelling Candidates are:

• Committed to our mission of improving the lives of our nation’s most vulnerable children, families, and communities
• Experienced professionals, with at least 7 years of progressive leadership roles
• Able to see the forest AND the trees, holding many moving aspects of a project while sifting through the weeds of policy / data
• Able to engage and influence diverse stakeholders, building effective and unified coalitions
• Able to synthesize complex information and turn it into concrete action.
• Results-oriented, with a track record of leading change
• Flexible, adaptable, proactive, and persistent
• Curious and eager learners
• Humble and self-reflective 

Eligibility Requirements

• Fellows must have U.S. work authorization.
• Fellows must be able to work full-time for at least 18 months starting April 12th, 2021.
• Fellows must work on-site at their host agency.
• Fellows must travel quarterly to attend training sessions that last from three to five days.
• Fellows must pass all host agency employer requirements, which may include background checks, drug screening, and civil service exams. 

Frequently cited statistics show that underrepresented groups apply to jobs only if they meet 100% of the qualifications. Foster America encourages you to break that statistic and apply. No one ever meets 100% of the qualifications. We look forward to your application.