Waltham Partnership for Youth is seeking a Mental Health & Healthcare Professionals of Tomorrow Coordinator to support the Career Exploration & Training (CET) Program’s Mental Health & Healthcare Professionals of Tomorrow initiative. The goal of the initiative is to strengthen and diversify the mental health and healthcare workforce of the future, specifically by supporting young people from historically underrepresented backgrounds to pursue a career in the mental health and healthcare fields.
What You’ll Do
The Coordinator will primarily be responsible for coordinating all mental health and healthcare internships and related professional development opportunities for high school students, with the ultimate goal of supporting the mental health and healthcare workforce of tomorrow. The Coordinator, who is based out of our office at Waltham High School (WHS) and reports to the CET Program Coordinator, is responsible for the following:
- Lead and coordinate the Teen Mental Health Alliance (TMHA) internship program, which includes organizing and leading the Teen Mental Health First Aid (tMHFA) training, coordinating and supervising all intern tasks, organizing opportunities for career exploration, and overseeing implementation of intern-led community projects for other high school students, middle school students, and youth-focused community organizations.
- Supervise the TMHA high school interns, which includes creating intern job descriptions, coordinating application and onboarding process for interns, overseeing payroll process for interns, providing supervision for intern job duties, coordinating goal setting and supervision, ensuring that the Work-Based Learning Plan is used with each intern, and organizing additional opportunities for professional development.
- Steward partnership with the National Council for Mental Wellbeing’s teen Mental Health First Aid (tMHFA) program, which includes becoming a certified tMHFA facilitator, managing tMHFA training supplies, and coordinating timely submission of data and reports.
- Oversee all mental health and healthcare school-year internships and work-based learning opportunities, which includes developing and managing employer partnerships, coordinating the application and onboarding processes for interns, overseeing payroll process for interns, supporting high school students’ learning and growth throughout their internship, ensuring that the Work-Based Learning Plan is used with each intern, and supporting evaluation efforts.
- Oversee all mental health and healthcare summer internships and work-based learning opportunities, including hospital-based internships at Newton-Wellesley Hospital and Boston Children’s Hospital, which includes developing and managing employer partnerships, coordinating the application and onboarding processes for interns, supporting high school students’ learning and growth throughout their internship, conducting site visits during the internship program, ensuring that the Work-Based Learning Plan is used with each intern, and supporting evaluation efforts.
- Develop new community and university partnerships to provide opportunities for interns to earn college course credit, as well as provide additional mentoring, college visits, and scholarship opportunities for aspiring mental health and healthcare professionals.
- Work with the CET Program Coordinator to plan Ready? Set? Job! (WPY’s annual career readiness conference) and weekly Career Talks sessions during the summer, which includes creating opportunities for mental health and healthcare career awareness and exploration.
- Conduct outreach and recruit high school students for Mental Health and Healthcare Professionals of Tomorrow activities, with a focus on students from historically underrepresented backgrounds, to learn about meaningful and financially viable career pathways in mental health and healthcare.
- Strengthen mental health and healthcare internship opportunities by developing new employer partnerships and expanding professional development opportunities.
- Contribute to program evaluation and reporting, which includes maintaining records on Salesforce and state-run youth workforce databases, and assisting with evaluation and other reports.
- Support and collaborate with WPY staff across various program areas as needed/as appropriate/as available in order to foster a sense of team and cohesion throughout the organization.
- Perform similar or related work as required, directed, or as situation dictates. The essential functions or duties listed are intended only as illustrations of the various types of work that may be performed. The omission of specific statements of duties does not exclude them from the position if the work is similar, related, or a logical extension of the position.
Who You Are & Keys to Success (the must-haves)
To be successful in this job, you will excel in the following areas:
Communication
You understand the power of language as being integral to building inclusive communities and strong relationships. You believe that strong communication skills are vital to successfully facilitating multifaceted programming. You excel in organizing and sharing information effectively, whether writing an internal email or delivering a presentation (verbal and written communication).
Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
You are flexible and quick to adapt to a new and ever-evolving program and see this as an asset, rather than a deficit, to building a more dynamic program. You consistently overcome challenges and leverage resources to creatively solve problems. You are a systems-oriented thinker with experience developing support networks across multiple agencies. You propose solutions to issues without much guidance (but aren't afraid to ask questions). You proactively ask for help, anticipate problems, and course-correct where needed.
Cultivating Connections
You are a bridge-builder who is passionate about cultivating connections between the people that we serve and our community/employer partners, to create a culture of belonging. You see collaboration, with young people, their families, community organizations, and school personnel, as integral to our work. You empathize with the communities we serve and approach all interactions with compassion, by acknowledging the unique lives of others and committing to minimize harm. You have enthusiasm for meeting and engaging with people and are able to put people at ease, especially when there are lines of difference. You listen closely to understand needs or concerns and take steps based on that input.
Entrepreneurial and Resourceful
You are excited, and are able, to build a program from the ground up. You have a track record of accomplishing ambitious goals and getting results even when there are obstacles. You bring your own ideas to the table and know how to operationalize them to meet your goals. You set a high bar and meet it, because you think three (or 30) steps ahead to anticipate hurdles and come up with pragmatic solutions. You plan backwards and involve stakeholders appropriately.
Equity and Inclusion
You have a deep commitment to creating meaningful change in our social and economic systems. You recognize ways that race and other identities intersect in the work, especially with communities we serve. You are comfortable talking about identities such as race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, class, ability, and gender in plain, specific terms. You understand the historical context for racial and economic inequities and its present-day implications. You practice cultural humility by bringing an awareness of your own identities and a lifelong commitment to self-reflection and learning about the varying and intersecting identities of the people that we serve.
Highly Organized, Motivated, and Detail-Oriented
You manage a high volume of work with efficiency. You have, or can create, a system for keeping tasks from slipping through the cracks. You are able to juggle competing demands and priorities without sacrificing quality.
Ongoing Growth and Development
You are always eager to learn, to become a better version of yourself and strengthen the impact of our work as a team. You hold yourself and the team accountable and acknowledge growing edges (in self and others). You seek and engage well with feedback. You practice courageous honesty by openly communicating about what is working and not working, and have the courage to speak up and do the right thing, especially in difficult situations.
Youth-Centered
You believe in the power and potential of all young people. You take an assets-based approach to supporting youth and developing programming. You see yourself as a guide and part of a young person’s support system, rather than as an all-knowing authority figure. You understand that young people may be starting at different places and have varying needs, but your goal is to support them in a dignified way that also gives them the tools to be successful in the future. You see the youth you work with as co-creators of your work, and you create meaningful opportunities for youth to participate in leadership and decision making. You have experience working directly with teens from a variety of cultural and linguistic backgrounds.
The following skills and experiences are also strongly preferred:
- Significant experience working in schools and/or community-based, youth-serving nonprofit organizations.
- Demonstrated interest in, or prior experience with, mental health and healthcare professions.
- Spanish language proficiency is a plus.
- Experience using Salesforce or other CRM (customer relationship management) software, particularly the Nonprofit Success Pack and Program Management Module.
- While applicants with a degree or coursework in social work, counseling, education, youth development, community health, or related fields are encouraged to apply, we recognize that there is a range of backgrounds and experiences that might prepare one for success in this role. Therefore, there are no specific educational requirements for this position.
What Else You Should Know
Waltham Partnership for Youth is an equal opportunity employer and we value having staff who come from communities that are most impacted by our work. We especially encourage people of color, LGBQ+ people, transgender and gender non-conforming people, and people with disabilities to apply.
The position is full-time and is primarily based at the WPY office at Waltham High School, with some flexibility for remote work one or two days/week. Some evenings and weekend work is required. In order to perform the essential functions of the job, the employee must be able to walk, bend, occasionally lift or move up to 25 pounds, operate a computer and other office equipment. The noise level in the work environment is moderate. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. Frequent local travel is required (mostly in and around Waltham).
The salary for this position ranges from $58,000-$63,000/year, with exact salary depending on experience. We also offer:
- Subsidized Health, Dental, and Vision Insurance
- 15 days paid vacation
- 12 paid holidays
- 15 days paid sick leave
- Discounted gym membership
- Option to enroll in 401(k) Plan with employee-only contributions
To Apply
Email resume and cover letter to Magali Garcia-Pletsch, Operations Director: magali@walthampartnershipforyouth.org
Applications submitted by March 31, 2023 will be given priority. From that point on, we will review applications on a rolling basis until the position is filled.
Anticipated Start Date: June 5, 2023