Activity Specialist Chess P.S. LEAPS

Activity Specialist

The Activity Specialist is responsible for designing, implementing, and facilitating engaging, age-appropriate activities for students in grades K–8 within a school-based after school program. This role emphasizes participant supervision, youth development, and professional growth while ensuring alignment with DYCD, DOH, and DOE guidelines. The Activity Specialist fosters creativity, academic growth, and social-emotional development through structured lessons, interactive experiences, and culminating projects or performances that showcase participant achievement.

Participant supervision includes maintaining a safe, supportive, and inclusive environment for all participants, ensuring adherence to program safety protocols, supervising participants during activities, transitions, and program breaks, and addressing behavioral issues with consistency and positive guidance.

Activity facilitation involves designing and delivering structured, hands-on activities that align with program goals and curriculum frameworks, facilitating Arts, STEM, Literacy, Recreation, and Enrichment Activities that promote engagement, creativity, and critical thinking, planning activities that culminate in projects, showcases, or performances to celebrate student achievement, and adapting activities to meet the diverse needs of learners.

Youth development includes supporting the social-emotional growth of participants by modeling positive behaviors, promoting teamwork, and encouraging problem-solving, applying trauma-informed practices and culturally responsive strategies to engage students effectively, fostering resilience, self-confidence, and leadership skills in youth, and collaborating with program staff to identify and address individual student needs.

Professional development includes participating in mandatory staff trainings, workshops, and professional development sessions to enhance skills and knowledge, engaging in reflective supervision, coaching, and scenario-based learning to improve program delivery and youth outcomes, maintaining current knowledge of DYCD, DOH, DOE, and OCFS regulations and best practices in after school programming, and contributing ideas for program improvement and supporting a culture of continuous learning among staff.

Qualifications include an associate degree in Education, Youth Development, Child Development, or a related field (preferred) or equivalent experience working with school-age youth, experience designing and facilitating structured activities for children in K–8 in one or more specialty areas:
Art, Dance, Music Production, Reading, Math, or STEM, Chess, Robotics/Coding, knowledge of youth development principles, social-emotional learning, and trauma-informed practice, strong communication, organizational, and classroom management skills, ability to work collaboratively with diverse teams and maintain a positive, professional demeanor, and required certifications: CPR/First Aid (or willingness to obtain), and compliance with OCFS/DYCD training requirements.