Program Director, BEACON

Program Director, BEACON

Center for Improving Youth Justice Braintree, Massachusetts, United States

The Center for Improving Youth Justice (CIYJ) is a national nonprofit dedicated to improving outcomes for young people in the juvenile justice system. Through Performance-based Standards (PbS), CIYJ builds performance improvement and accountability into agency, facility, and program operations using a three-part cycle: collecting data, analyzing performance outcomes and summary reports, and at the heart of PbS using that data to drive improvement and reform.

CIYJ's PbS model identifies, monitors, and improves conditions of confinement and treatment services in residential facilities and programs across 22+ states, grounded in national standards and performance outcome measures. Alongside PbS, CIYJ takes a holistic approach to serving young people and families through mentoring, educational support, and job placement.

BEACON (Building Employment and Career Opportunities Network) is CIYJ's reentry intermediary model, connecting moderate- to high-risk justice-involved youth — including emerging adults who remain under juvenile justice jurisdiction — to education and employment pathways before and after release from residential placement.

Rather than another siloed program, BEACON operates as a neutral backbone that aligns the work of facilities, probation, schools, training providers, employers, and community-based organizations around a single accountable plan for each young person.

Planning begins no later than 90 days before release and continues through at least 12 months of community follow-up, across three phases:

• Pre-Release Preparation — assessment-informed planning and an individualized education and employment pathway plan.
• Transition — release coordination and immediate activation of school, training, or employment placements.
• Community Reintegration — high-frequency contact and persistence check-ins at 30, 90, and 180 days, with coaching through the first year.

The BEACON Program Director is the operational leader of the Massachusetts BEACON initiative, accountable for running the program day to day — from pre-release enrollment through community reintegration — while building and managing the network of correctional, residential, probation, educational, employer, and community-based partners that make the model work.

This is a hands-on operational role: the Program Director carries direct responsibility for enrolling and tracking youth, coordinating with facilities and probation, and ensuring partner commitments are executed, not just an oversight function.

In Year 1, the Program Director may also carry a direct service caseload of Youth Opportunity Advocacy work in addition to program leadership, transitioning fully into leadership and supervision as the Massachusetts team grows.

• Own end-to-end execution of the BEACON model in Massachusetts: pre-release planning, release-day transition coordination, and community reintegration through at least 12 months of follow-up.
• Conduct or oversee intake and enrollment using validated risk and needs assessment tools, in coordination with correctional and probation partners, beginning no later than 90 days before release.
• Cultivate referral pipelines from community residential programs and probation departments as an additional source of eligible youth and emerging adults, ensuring the enrollment pipeline is not limited to secure residential release alone.
• Broker enrollment with schools and training providers, match youth to fair-chance employers and apprenticeships, and administer scholarships and transitional employment stipends through CIYJ's Education and Employment Foundation.
• Ensure persistence monitoring and check-ins occur on schedule at 30, 90, and 180 days post-release, and drive corrective action when a young person's plan stalls.
• Deliver a true warm handoff to community-based organizations for wraparound supports, including housing, mental health, and transportation.

• Correctional &…