Professional Mentor (Friend) — Tacoma

Friends of the Children - Philadelphia; Tacoma (WA); On-site; USD 45,000 - 55,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health and dental coverage

Paid vacation

401(k) plan

Job summary

Friends of the Children - Tacoma is seeking a full-time mentor to assist in breaking the cycle of generational poverty for children. The role includes nurturing children's strengths, teaching life skills, and developing positive relationships with families.

Qualifications include a Bachelor’s degree and experience with youth facing challenges. The position offers an annual salary of $50,000, along with comprehensive benefits including health and dental coverage, paid vacation, and a 401(k) plan.

Qualifications

• Significant experience working with youth who face obstacles.
• Demonstrated knowledge and understanding of the child welfare system.
• Cultural competency and experience with trauma-informed care.

Responsibilities

• Set positive expectations and nurture each child’s strengths.
• Teach life and academic skills and contribute to behavioral management.
• Develop and sustain a long-term, caring relationship with each child.

Skills

Interpersonal skills

Time-management

Creativity

Problem-solving

Education

Bachelor’s degree or associate degree with two-plus years of professional experience

Tools

MS Outlook

MS Teams

Job description

Position Overview

Friends of the Children - Tacoma is a vibrant, active chapter of a national professional mentoring organization dedicated to breaking the cycle of generational poverty for children. The program assigns paid professional mentors (Friends) to work with youth for 12+ years, from kindergarten through high school graduation.

Core Responsibilities

• Set positive expectations and nurture each child’s strengths, talents, and abilities.
• Help assure physical and emotional well-being.
• Teach life and academic skills.
• Provide enrichment activities.
• Model responsible behavior.
• Manage multiple priorities to ensure goals are met timely.
• Develop and sustain a long-term, caring, trusting, and accepting relationship with each child.
• Spend time with children, one-on-one and in the classroom.
• Develop positive relationships with families, teachers, and others involved in each child’s life.
• Set realistic expectations and goals based on each child’s strengths, talents, and needs.
• Teach life skills and healthy habits to contribute to basic development and learning; build positive self-esteem.
• Develop a talent/skill/area of interest with each child to help grow confidence.
• Provide enrichment resources and activities, including opportunities for cultural awareness, diversity, and community service.
• Contribute to children acquiring behavioral management skills, tolerance, respect for others, courtesies, and compassion.
• Establish and maintain positive relationships with teachers, administrators, and others involved in each child’s life.
• Work closely with parents, assess their needs, and link families and children to community resources as appropriate.
• Reinforce basic academic skills and learning.
• Model and promote good problem-solving and decision-making skills to children and families.
• Participate in programming and resources available through the organization, effectively utilizing program resources to meet the needs of each child and their families.
• Maintain spending within budgetary guidelines.
• Complete, distribute, and collect time summaries, activity journals, short-term plans, expense reports, and evaluation materials accurately and in a timely manner.
• Attend and actively participate in team meetings, staff functions, and training.
• Provide information and support to the development team and related activities as needed.
• Partner with parents/caregivers to provide concrete and social-emotional supports for the family.
• Fulfill other responsibilities as required.

Candidate Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree or associate degree with two-plus years of professional experience.
• Significant experience working with youth who face obstacles.
• Demonstrated knowledge and understanding of the child welfare system.
• Cultural competency and experience with trauma-informed care.
• Experience with utilizing social and emotional learning curricula.
• Superior scheduling and time-management skills.
• Data entry and database management skills.

Essential Skills and Abilities

• Ability to relate to children and develop and sustain trusting, supportive relationships with them.
• Strong interpersonal skills.
• Demonstrated ability to work with children in varied capacities and settings to help them learn and grow.
• Ability to cultivate trusting relationships with children, parents, teachers, and community members.
• Ability to maintain confidentiality and communicate appropriately within the workplace.
• Ability to use creativity and initiative in planning activities to continually develop children.
• Ability to work independently in diverse environments with limited supervision.
• Ability to work as a team player.
• Ability to manage several concurrent issues and solve problems effectively exercising appropriate discretion and judgment.
• Ability to set goals and develop plans to meet those goals to ensure the development of each child.
• Ability to complete administrative tasks accurately and on time.
• Ability to handle high mobility and driving demands safely and with good judgment.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills; organizational and time-management skills.
• Basic computer and keyboarding skills, proficiency with e-mail systems, familiarity with MS Outlook and Teams.
• Ability to exercise good judgment independently, in various situations and environments, and under varying levels of stress.

Additional Job Requirements

• Maintain current driver’s license, good driving record, and vehicle insurance.
• Maintain First Aid/CPR certification.
• Transport children in personal vehicle as required for mentoring activities.
• Bilingual Spanish preferred.

Working Hours

Full-time, 40 hours per week, non-exempt position. Work hours are somewhat non-traditional and may include late afternoon and evening work. Each Friend is expected to spend an average of four hours each week with each child, scheduled at their discretion within program guidelines.

Compensation and Benefits

Salary: $50,000 annually.

Benefits include comprehensive health, dental, paid vacation, sick leave, and a 401(k) plan.

Location

Tacoma, Washington

Equal Employment Opportunity

Friends of the Children is an Equal Opportunity Employer, committed to addressing discriminatory practices, and to working toward racial equity. The equal employment opportunity policy of Friends of the Children provides fair and equal opportunities for all employees and job applicants regardless of race, color, religious creed, national origin, ancestry, age, sex, gender, pregnancy, sexual orientation, marital status, familial status, disability, or genetic information, in compliance with applicable federal, state and local law. Friends of the Children hires and promotes individuals solely on the basis of their qualifications for the job to be filled.

Company Information

To learn more about this job and Friends of the Children - Tacoma, please visit https://friendstacoma.org.