Program Manager Workforce Readiness - Mary Ryan

Job Summary

NOTE:

This is a grant-funded position that will provide support to the Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) GEAR UP grant. Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee is a grant partner with MPS for this initiative. The GEAR UP Program Manager will be an employee of Boys & Girls Clubs. This is a grant-funded position. Employment is subject to the availability and continuation of grant funding and may be modified or discontinued if funding is reduced or eliminated.

GEAR UP follows a cohort of students (spread across four grade levels) over the seven-year duration of the grant. The cohort will consist of 4th-7th graders in the 2025-26 school year, and the grant will end when these students are 10th grade-college freshmen in the 2031-32 school year. This position will be responsible for “staying with” these students and providing services to them as they matriculate through school, meaning job responsibilities and ages served will shift as the student population ages.

The primary objective for this position is to ensure that students stay in school, and graduate high school on time with a plan for college and/or career.

The GEAR UP Program Manager will provide both 1:1 case management services and small group after school instructional support for up to 60 at-risk students annually at up to 4 MPS GEAR UP schools.

The GEAR UP Program Manager will rotate between schools on a daily basis, meeting with an assigned caseload of students in a 1:1 format during the school day to provide mentoring and coaching support, then transitioning to providing college and career-focused training and instructional opportunities to groups of students after school at a Boys & Girls Club Community Learning Center location.

• Maintains a caseload of a minimum of 60 GEAR UP students.

• Responsible for completing at least one cycle of the recommended Check-n-Connect evidence-based mentoring program with each student annually
• Facilitate intake and needs assessments of youth through interviews with the youth, school guidance personnel and parent/guardian while documenting information gathered on required forms.
• Assesses participant’s employment and education needs and keeps individualized academic and career plans up to date.
• Determines eligibility and assists youth with enrollment into program services and maintains individual enrollment portfolios.
• Provide timely case notes of all provided services, including but not limited to job readiness training, financial education, social-emotional development workshops, work experiences, career exploration interests via virtual reality, supportive service needs and more.
• Create binders for all students, including membership forms, program attendance sheets, all Check-n-Connect related mentoring forms
• Keep updated case management master list.
• Program Manager will have a minimum of 1 touch point a week, preferably in person but communication may be via phone calls, emails, and text to students/families for reminders of paperwork, attendance to mandatory training/meetings, school attendance and academic information, and more.

• Responsible for supporting after school programming for GEAR UP students at up to 4 BGCGM CLC locations
• Schedules and facilitates the following programming:
  Career Launch (job readiness training), Money Matters (financial education training), Career Exploration experiences (including the use of virtual reality modules), Social Emotional Development Workshops, Academic and Career Planning workshops, worksite tours, and college tours, including an annual Washington DC trip (contingent on funding availability).
• Coordinates and ensures student engagement in Occupational Skills Training classes.
• Assists students with the following support: mock interviewing, resume-building, FAFSA completion, Trek Mobile academic & career planning, college applications, scholarship applications, and job applications.

• Supervises ordering of program supplies, food, and approval of stipends. Maintains a budget to track expenses.
• Implements and participates in programs, projects, and special events…