Leadership Coach

Description

Our Leadership Coaches are the heart of our mission-walking alongside each young person to build trust, foster belonging, and offer consistent support. This role is rooted in Positive Youth Development (PYD), healing-centered engagement, and belief in each young person’s capacity to define and pursue their own path forward.

The Coach is a mentor, advocate, and practitioner who empowers to build resilience, emotional regulation, and self‑efficacy while working toward education, employment, and life goals. Using frameworks like CBT/TEB (Thoughts, Emotions & Behavior), ARS (Authenticity, Resilience, Safety), Trauma-Informed Care (TIC), and Mental Health First Aid (MHFA), YDCs support youth with individualized learning plans (ILPs), life skills, career exposure, and community-based opportunities that align with their identity, interests, and strengths.

Key Responsibilities

Youth Engagement, Stabilization & Trust-Building

• Build RICH relationships through consistent, authentic engagement that centers each leader’s story, goals, and lived experience to establish trust and connection as the foundation for growth.
• Sustain trust through trauma-informed approaches that model empathy, support self‑determination, and create emotionally safe spaces.
• Provide stabilization support and barrier reduction (e.g., housing, food, transportation, documentation, clothing, crisis navigation).
• Integrate emotional wellness and mindset coaching practices (e.g., CBT, ARS, identity development) into daily interactions.
• Promote a sense of purpose, belonging, and motivation by helping to identify internal "spark" and values.
• Maintain regular communication and visibility in communities, including home and school visits.

Individualized Planning (GPS Coaching)

• Develop and maintain Individual Learning Plans (ILPs) using OPP's GPS model:
  Goal setting, Pursuit, and Strategy.
• Use data from strength-based assessments to build leadership-centered, culturally responsive goals.
• Track and review progress on ILPs quarterly, including growth in the 6
  
  Cs.
• Align ILPs to stabilization needs, academic planning, employment readiness, and personal development.

Youth Development & Coaching

• Model authenticity, accountability, emotional regulation, and a growth mindset; create a safe, affirming space for leaders to thrive.
• Facilitate and/or coordinate workshops on life skills, PYD, digital literacy, career readiness, conflict resolution, and self‑regulation.
• Coordinate service‑learning projects and community‑based opportunities based on readiness, interests, and aspirations.
• Support development in leadership, civic engagement, and advocacy skills through exposure and guided practice.
• Cultivate entrepreneurial learning experiences through partnership development and coordination.
• Ensure that coaches themselves are charged up, practicing reflection and emotional regulation to show up whole.

Education & Career Development

• Support with re‑enrollment or re‑engagement in school, GED programs, credit recovery, or alternative education.
• Collaborate with caregivers, teachers, and school staff to monitor attendance, progress, and academic goals.
• Coordinate post‑secondary planning, including credentialing programs and college access.
• Deliver or coordinate Career Competency Development Training (CCDT).
• Assist in building resumes, completing applications, preparing for interviews, and securing jobs or internships.
• Transition leaders to OPP's Pathways to Careers Initiative when developmentally ready.

Community Engagement, Family Partnership & Advocacy

• Serve as a visible OPP ambassador and advocate in community spaces and systems.
• Build and maintain partnerships with schools, social workers, probation officers, and other support systems.
• Attend court, DCF meetings, or…