Program Manager (e-Mentoring)

Organization: Silver Lining Mentoring

Position Title: Program Manager (e-Mentoring)

Location: 727 Atlantic Ave, Boston, MA 02111 – Hybrid schedule. Applicants must be a resident of MA, NH or RI

Organizational Overview:

Silver Lining Mentoring (SLM) empowers youth in foster care to thrive through committed mentoring relationships and the development of essential life-skills. For over 20 years, SLM has matched young people in the child welfare system with highly committed adult volunteer mentors. The match relationship is supported by in-depth training and ongoing personalized match support from clinically-informed staff. Most youth participants are preparing to age out of the child welfare system and Silver Lining mentors offer both companionship and guidance in navigating critical life skills.

SLM offers four core services to young people impacted by the child welfare system. This includes Community Based Mentoring, which provides one-to-one volunteer mentorships to youth ages 7+; Learn & Earn, which provides life skills development and leadership opportunities to help young adults 16+ navigate their independent living goals via a life skills curriculum accompanied by a 1:1 volunteer mentorship, and e-Mentoring our newest program which uses a virtual platform for mentors and mentees to connect virtually to help youth to access the tools they need to build a strong relationship, work on goals, and grow social networks. SLM’s fourth core service is offered through the Silver Lining Institute, the organization’s national initiative to expand access to mentoring relationships for youth impacted by foster care.

For more information please visit: https://www.silverliningmentoring.org

Position:

Silver Lining Mentoring is seeking a collaborative, systems-oriented Program Manager to lead our e-Mentoring program. This person will manage the day-to-day operations and program quality of SLM's e-Mentoring program, and will play a key role in identifying challenges and problem-solving as the program grows and scales by building out the policies, procedures, and tools needed to support that growth.

This position reports to the Senior Director of Programs and works within the Programs Department alongside SLM's other Program Managers, the Volunteer Manager, and the Enrollment Specialist especially for mentee and mentor recruitment efforts. Success in this role requires flexibility and strong collaboration skills, as the Program Manager will partner closely with this team and other departments to balance program needs with organizational goals.

This role is designed for growth. It will start by managing a caseload of e-matches directly, but this is not a permanent caseload-management position: as the program expands over the next 6–12 months, direct reports will be added and this role will transition into supervising the staff who provide match support. Because of that trajectory, prior people management, sound judgment around participant safety, harm reduction, and organizational liability is essential from day one.

The ideal candidate will bring attention to detail and competency in program development to ensure a smooth and efficient youth and volunteer experience that upholds Silver Lining Mentoring policies, procedures, values, and approach, along with a genuine interest in building and improving systems — not just running an existing playbook. Experience related to youth development, the foster care system, and/or young adult mentoring is valued, and experience maintaining a digital communications or virtual engagement platform is highly desirable.

Responsibilities:

Program Management, Infrastructure & Quality (40%)

• Platform Management: Manage the e-mentoring platform(s), including day-to-day support needs and community or communication features, in collaboration with the platform provider.
• Volunteer Screening, Training & Engagement: Partner with Enrollment Team members to screen and train prospective e-mentors, and lead ongoing engagement of approved-but-unmatched mentors to keep them informed and ready to match.
• Adaptive Problem-Solving & Continuous Improvement: Serve as the primary problem-solver for new or unanticipated challenges that arise as a new program, proposing and implementing practical solutions and escalating larger issues as needed. Recommend and implement process improvements to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the e-mentoring program as it evolves.
• Policies & Procedures: Build out and maintain policy and procedure manuals for the e-mentoring program, ensuring program delivery is consistent with SLM’s best practices, values, and the Elements of Effective Practice for Mentoring.
• Systems & Tools: Develop and refine Salesforce, Jotform, DocuSign, and other tools/workflows to support e-match tracking, enrollment paperwork, reporting, and data management
• Progress Tracking & Data Management: Monitor program progress against key performance indicators (KPIs) and assist the Senior Director of Programs in preparing status updates for organizational leadership. Additionally, maintain accurate program and match data in Salesforce, applying SLM's data safety and confidentiality standards, and support the evaluation of that data to inform program improvements.
• Evaluation Administration: Administer the program's evaluation instruments, including survey distribution, response tracking, follow-up with non-respondents, and timely data entry, to ensure complete and usable evaluation data.

Caseload & Match Management (35%)

• Match Support: Manage a caseload of e-matches, providing regular, personalized support to mentors and mentees to help each relationship thrive virtually. This includes conducting regular check-ins with matches to monitor relationship health, celebrate milestones, and identify and address concerns early and guiding matches through intentional match closure/graduation.
• Harm Reduction & Adult-Centered Support: Provide match support grounded in harm reduction and trauma-informed practice, centering autonomy, informed decision-making, and self-determination given that most e-mentees are legal adults.
• Risk Management: Identify potential risks or liabilities specific to the virtual nature of matches and respond according to SLM policy, escalating to the Senior Director of Programs as needed.
• Mentee Engagement Innovation: Design and implement creative strategies to sustain mentee engagement, including quarterly workshops, compelling rollouts of new resources and opportunities, and persistent, creative follow-up with unresponsive or low-engagement mentees.
• Caseload Calibration: Partner with the Senior Director of Programs to to establish a pathway toward supervising future match support roles in e-mentoring (e.g., track workload and help determine sustainable caseload sizes as the program grows, provide insights for hiring/onboarding new e-mentoring staff, etc.)

Collaboration & Program Support (25%)

• Partnership Support: Support the identification and maintenance of relationships with strategic partners relevant to the e-mentoring program, in coordination with the Senior Director of Programs and Chief Strategy Officer.
• Team Collaboration: Participate as an active member of the Programs Department, sharing updates and collaborating with other Program Managers on shared practices, tools, and challenges; coordinate with the Volunteer Manager and Enrollment Specialist on mentor recruitment/allocation and mentee recruitment and enrollment specific to e-mentoring.
• Cross-Departmental Collaboration: Participate in relevant working groups to promote cross-departmental collaboration and strategy insight on programming that impacts mentees, mentors, and program staff, including partnering with the Development team to identify and uplift match experiences and stories.
• Partner & Donor Reporting: Compile program reports for partners and donors, pulling and interpreting Salesforce data to present the right metrics, and proactively flagging reportable milestones and trends to the Senior Director of Programs and Development team.
• DEI Engagement: Actively engage in SLM's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) efforts, such as attending all-staff trainings, providing and receiving feedback, and embracing accountability.
• Professionalism & Confidentiality: Maintain the professional competence and confidentiality necessary to perform job responsibilities.

Perform other duties as assigned by the Senior Director of Programs or other organizational leadership, which may include regional travel or representing the organization at events.

Qualifications:

Our ideal candidate will be a values-led, adaptable individual interested in supporting youth impacted by

foster care. Data shows that BIPOC and women often rule themselves out from job opportunities when

they don’t feel they fit 100% of the criteria listed in a job description. If that sounds like you, don’t rule

yourself out.

• 3–5 years of experience in program or project management, case management, or direct service work with young adults/transition aged-youth, ideally including experience building or improving a program rather than only running an established one
• Master's degree in Social Work (MSW), a comparable degree, OR equivalent work experience that demonstrates skill in providing trauma-informed, harm-reduction, and strengths-based support; LCSW, LICSW, LMHC, or comparable licensure also preferred
• Strong commitment to, and belief in, the mission, vision, and values of Silver Lining Mentoring
• Sound judgment, especially around participant safety, harm reduction, and organizational liability. This role is expected to grow into a supervisory position over the next 6–12 months, so the ability to make and stand behind good calls independently, and to know when and how to escalate is essential
• Strong interpersonal, planning, and organizational skills, with excellent attention to administrative and data processing detail
• Initiative to drive progress independently, balanced with enthusiasm for team collaboration and flexibility in an evolving program model
• Strongly preferred: experience managing an online platform or virtual community space (e.g., moderating, troubleshooting, onboarding users, or maintaining engagement features) and comfort with tools like Salesforce, Google Suite, and Microsoft Suite
• Strongly preferred: experience supporting or participating in mentoring, coaching, or other supportive relationships conducted primarily online/virtually ("e-relationships"), and/or providing social work or case management to transition-age young adults (18–26). Given that most e-mentees are legal adults, an adult-centered, harm-reduction framework is the primary orientation of this role
• Strongly preferred: Prior supervisory or informal leadership experience (e.g., training or mentoring peers, leading a project team) as this role is expected to transition into supervising match support staff
• Experience working with youth with out-of-home experience, young people of color, and/or youth who identify as LGBTQ and/or TGNC preferred
• Bilingual (Spanish, Portuguese, and/or Haitian Creole) a plus
• Please note that at this time Silver Lining Mentoring is not able to sponsor U.S. work authorization for this role

General Working Conditions & Physical Demands:

• Ability to work for long periods of time at a workstation
• Ability to use a computer (monitor, keyboard, etc) for long periods of time
• Ability to work in-office, remotely, and offsite as required (note: some evening and weekend hours for events, workshops, etc will be required)
• Ability to travel to SLM office and off-site locations (valid driver’s license and access to a vehicle preferred)

Silver Lining Mentoring is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Silver Lining Mentoring offers a strengths-based collaborative team, flexible work environment and an excellent benefit package with generous vacation.

English fluency required. Bilingual (Spanish, Portuguese, and/or Haitian Creole) a plus.