Professional Mentor, Teen

Friends of the Children – Seattle (Friends-Seattle)
Seattle, WA

This position requires a vehicle and valid driver's license and active insurance coverage.

Friends of the Children’s mission is bold:
Impacting generational change by empowering youth who are facing systemic barriers through relationships with professional mentors – 12+ years, no matter what. Friends of the Children is a nationally recognized dynamic mentoring organization. To learn more, go to friendsseattle.org.

The Professional Mentor, Teen is a role model for Friends. This non-exempt full-time hourly position reports to the Program Manager –Teen (PM-Teen) and is part of the Teen team. It provides support to youth in 6th-12th grade to be an ear, friend, guide, and role model, helping them navigate trauma through a social emotional lens.

• Manage a caseload of 8‑10 youth ranging between 6th and 12th grade.
• Schedule and meet with each youth for a minimum of 4 hours per week to review their caseload.
• Keep consistent contact with youth’s teachers and caregivers to monitor academic progress.
• Provide support and resources, monitoring and guiding the youth and family/caregivers to foster positive skill growth.
• Participate on various committees and provide input to help improve the organization.
• Actively support school contacts and monitor/support children’s school performance (course performance, attendance, and behavior).
• Seek assistance for students at risk of falling behind, including meeting with appropriate staff to develop a school success plan, seeking tutoring, or other educational support.
• Act as a resource for youth by providing support, guidance, direction and resourceful solutions to concerns and challenges.
• Demonstrate compliance with the organization’s policies, procedures, and practices as outlined in the Employee Manual and Friends Handbook.
• Demonstrate support of organizational decisions in a constructive and effective manner.
• Accountable for work performance: adequacy of time spent with children, intentional planning, quality and diversity of activities with children to build Core Assets and reach Roadmap Goals.
• Create a safe and comfortable environment so youth feel respected, listened to, and encouraged to discuss goals, concerns, or any other issues.
• Stay informed about research and best practices in youth development and educational attainment.
• Participate actively in coordinating, planning, and conducting outings with youth.
• Actively build positive relationships between youth’s families and our organization, and support families’ involvement in their children’s activities and learning.

• Partner with PM-Teen to develop and execute the annual work plan with support of the teen team for performance management and professional development.
• Prioritize professional development workshops/trainings and committees.
• Contribute toward occasional fundraising activities as assigned.
• Communicate organizational information or issues to the team.
• Demonstrate support of organizational decisions in a constructive and effective manner.
• Support a culture of continuous improvement and development of systems to track progress toward key goals.
• Contribute toward a positive, inclusive work environment, and participate actively in staff meetings and events, as required.

• Bachelor’s degree, or equivalent experience strongly preferred.
• 1‑2 years of professional experience in working with non‑profit youth development programming.
• Deep understanding of the issues faced by our youth in programming.
• Ability to use creativity and initiative to plan activities that continually develop children.
• Ability to work as a team player.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Suite.
• Strong commitment and understanding of Friend‑Seattle’s mission and core values.
• Demonstrated ability to multi‑task in a well‑organized, attention to detail manner.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Must be able to move self in different positions to accomplish tasks in various environments, including but not limited to, tight and confined spaces.
• Adjusting or moving objects up to…