Workforce Development Life Coach

Workforce Development Life Coach

Under general direction and supervision, the Workforce Development Life Coach performs personal and group support engagement activities to identify, break down and address barriers to employment and personal development for clients in the Workforce Development Unit. Incumbents in the position will assist, assess and connect clients with available service options, resources, and support services to meet their specific needs for long term success in employment and self-sufficiency.

The Workforce Development Life Coach is responsible for outreach and recruitment efforts, and maintenance of grant-funded clients in the Workforce Development Unit through a process of enlistment, training, placement and post-placement support. With a collaborative approach involving personalized individual needs assessments, case planning, plan implementation of service delivery, monitoring and appraisal, the incumbent will work with co-located partners and a Job Development team to develop employment and/or career plans with each client with the ultimate goal of job and/or career placement that includes self-employment, job retention and career advancement.

The incumbent will also provide long and short term counseling, referrals, and follow-up support services and employment expansion resources for clients who may have a history of joblessness or under-employment, or multiple barriers to employment entry such as health and mental health challenges, incarceration, limited English proficiency, illiteracy and housing instability.

Examples of essential duties include:

• Perform eligibility screenings, intake and assessment of clients for enlistment into program and other supportive services in the Workforce Development Unit.
• Develop goal-oriented individual employment and/or career plans through a process of case planning, plan implementation of service delivery, monitoring and appraisal.
• Evaluate and connect clients to available service options, resources and support services to further their goals and plans, including but not limited to job training and placement, barrier removal assistance, healthy living, family and childcare support, short and long term counseling, transportation resources, etc.
• Working collaboratively with community partners, conduct outreach and recruitment efforts through various platforms such as orientation meetings with clients in-person, through telephone calls, and/or virtually, social media promotions, etc.
• Assist with employer engagement to facilitate success of client referrals and early intervention in issues as they arise during first few months of employment.
• Working directly with clients, assist with the establishment of proper life management tools to help them develop a system of support for managing a healthy work-life balance.
• Respond to crisis phone calls, walk-ins and link clients to supportive resources.
• Work collaboratively with staff, resident leaders, and other social service providers to develop and facilitate a Job Club and/or mentorship support groups, as well as planning and executing job fairs, and assisting with expanding vocation development partners.
• Join forces and network with Community Based Organizations, Employers, on-site staff and internal and external partners to enhance program service delivery.
• Attend meetings and trainings to improve skill sets and knowledge of best practices.
• Accurately document and maintain timely case management records consistent with client participation in the program.
• Assist in required grant reporting on a variety of data and metrics and prepare monthly, quarterly and annual reports on client file data.
• Perform other job-related duties as needed.

Knowledge, skills and abilities required include:

• Principles and practices of human and social behaviors, group dynamics, community engagement outreach and case management processes.
• Barrier removal processes in support of employment and career development.
• Training and best practices of job placement methods and approaches.
• Social service programs related to mental illness, substance abuse, domestic violence, homelessness, and aging.
• Ability to work with and empathize for persons in vulnerable populations, such as low-income and multi-ethnic communities who have limited access to resources.
• Excellent listening skills with the ability to provide crisis intervention, de-escalation and consensus building among and between diverse groups of people.
• Ability to research, coordinate and navigate resources.
• Work independently with little direction.
• Establish and maintain effective working relations with others.
• Gather, reconcile, and interpret data.
• Accurately document, compile and maintain information for files and reports.
• Meet schedules and timelines.
• Strong interpersonal, written and oral communication skills.
• Ability to present ideas and concepts persuasively to large audiences.
• Proficient ability to operate computers and utilize software and applications relevant to tasks at hand (i.e.: Microsoft…