Family/School Partnership Program Coordinator

Family/School Partnership Program Coordinator

Overview: FORA is hiring a Family/School Partnership Program Coordinator to join our team full-time in Chicago, IL. The Officer is a people-person with a passion for education and serving marginalized communities, as well as a strong leader, manager, and contributor to FORA’s mission of refugee empowerment. Must be proficient in oral Rohingya, Burmese, Malay, Urdu, Pashto, Dari, or Farsi. The FSPP Coordinator will report to the Head of Office, and will be responsible for the following:

• Implementing family involvement strategies and activities to empower students and their families. 
• Visit schools to develop working relationships with teachers and staff; serving as a contact person to facilitate communication among school personnel, parents, and FORA tutor and generally promote a sense of partnership between teachers and parents, as well as advocating for parent concerns.
• Develop and establish FORA’s Mommy & Me program based upon best practices in the field of early childhood school-readiness programs.
• Oversee FORA’s use of Casebook, our internal case management software system. 
• Assist with collecting all necessary student data from schools, to track whether tactics, strategies, outcomes, and goals are being met.
• Regularly review student records in the identification and monitoring of student attendance and academic and grade issues.
• Provide tracking, outreach, liaison, and guidance services to assist in resolving student issues and problems in areas such as attendance, academics, grades, behavior, and health.
• Serve as an informational resource to parents concerning school programs, policies, and services, including attendance issues and specific classroom practices.
• Arrange, schedule, and request parent participation in conferences, meetings, and other activities; encourage parent participation in various school and community programs and services.
• Meet, confer with, and interview parents in the identification of family needs and issues; provide information and materials to parents to assist in the location and utilization of school and community services and resources. Follow up on student issues, progress, and problems with school and school employees to assure needs are being met.
• Work with a volunteer or staff member to translate communications between teachers, staff, and parents; arrange for interpreters for conferences, telephone calls, assemblies, and meetings as needed; translate written correspondence as necessary.
• Compose, distribute and respond to a variety of correspondence related to assigned liaison and support services; initiate and receive telephone calls; make home visits; schedule and arrange various student, parent, and other appointments as assigned.
• Establish and maintain partnerships with community agencies to facilitate and enhance support services for students and parents, including providing information and following up on referrals.
• Lead FORA’s college mentoring program, which may include (but is not limited to) guiding students through the college application process, registering for classes, applying to scholarships and financial aid, and helping new college students navigate their first year and college systems (tutoring support, online class management, general mentoring support such as how to appropriately send emails to teachers, etc).

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Proficient in oral Rohingya, Burmese, Malay, Urdu, Pashto, Dari, or Farsi.
• 4 year university degree or international equivalent
• Fluency in English
• Total commitment to reversing the denial of basic rights to refugee youth
• Understand, embrace, and embody general principles, practices and techniques of providing educational assistance to families. 
• Familiarity with educational terminology, pedagogy, and strategies.
• Commitment to honor the diverse academic, socioeconomic, cultural, and ethnic backgrounds of our students and their parents.
• Excellent interpersonal and intercultural skills, including the use of empathy, humility, tact, patience and courtesy. 
• Excellent communication skills.
• Excellent organizational skills, including the ability to maintain detailed records.
• Previous work experience, including excellent recommendations. 
• Once the job is offered, successful completion of a state and federal background check. 

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Undergraduate degree and/or Master’s degree in Education or a related field.
• Direct experience working with marginalized groups. 
• Demonstrated experience as a classroom teacher.

JOB HOURS

• 9am - 5pm, though time might be negotiable

BENEFITS

• $37,288 - $45,000, commensurate with experience
• Health insurance offered with partial coverage paid by FORA
• 7 vacation days with advance notice and supervisor approval
• All federal holidays as listed by the US Office of Personnel Management
• 8 total-FORA closure days as selected by management each year
• 1 hour of paid sick time for every 40 hours worked, plus 5 extra sick days with proof of a positive COVID test

If full time, this would be a management position (you would, at the very least, be overseeing various interns) with no overtime paid. 

We are open to considering part-time employees and to reduce parts of the job description, but if the person is part-time instead of full-time, the wages would be $15.50 an hour with none of the benefits listed above except for the mandatory Chicago and Illinois sick leave requirements and local, state and federal overtime requirements. 

TIMELINE FOR HIRING:

We will be making a final decision no earlier than August 1st, but after that will make employment decisions for job openings on a rolling basis.  

APPLICATION PROCESS & REQUIREMENTS:

We require a resume and a cover letter submitted to hiring@refugeefora.org . The cover letter should emphasize how the candidate meets the required qualifications and any preferred qualifications, listed above, and why the candidate wants to work at FORA. If you do not submit a detailed cover letter, we might not even consider your application.

FORA encourages individuals from all backgrounds to apply. We value patience, kindness, wellness, intercultural connection, a passion for learning, and a determined resilience. The successful candidate will be at ease modeling these values for the students, parents, and volunteers with whom we work.