Leadership Coach

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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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…