Career Readiness Facilitator; Cleveland Lorain Early Advancement to Reentry (CLEAR)

Organization: Towards Employment

Location: Cleveland, OH

Position Schedule: Full-time; Monday-Friday 8:00-4:30pm

Salary Range & FLSA Status: Nonexempt, $45,000-50,000

About Towards Employment

Founded in 1976, Towards Employment (TE) is a non-profit leader in providing innovative solutions to move people out of poverty, into quality jobs and along a career pathway. Towards Employment has gained local and national recognition for achieving excellent outcomes through the hard work of its dedicated staff of 74 and an $8 million annual budget. Towards Employment offers a continuum of support to low-income individuals preparing to enter the workforce or looking to advance from low-wage employment while also fulfilling the staffing needs of local employers.

TE offers a competitive benefits package, including employer-subsidized medical, prescription, vision, and dental insurance; matching traditional and Roth 401(k); and company-provided life and disability insurance. Employees can also opt for voluntary benefits like HSA/FSA savings accounts, accident, critical illness, hospital indemnity, and dependent life insurance. Additional perks include paid vacation, 10 sick days, 13 paid holidays, and time off between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve.

Job Summary

Reporting to the Senior Program Manager of Department of Labor - Cleveland Lorain Early Advancement to Employment (CLEAR), this role is responsible for facilitating career readiness workshops within correctional facilities and supporting participants facing multiple barriers to employment. The goal is to prepare individuals to seek, secure, and retain employment. Workshops may also take place at Towards Employment offices or with community-based partner agencies. The ideal candidate will be adept at facilitating both group workshops and one-on-one sessions with participants.

Essential Job Functions

The performance of the duties outlined below must be carried out within the mission of Towards Employment; We Champion the potential of every person to succeed in a rewarding career, while working to create an equitable and inclusive workforce for tomorrow.

• Promote best-practices in career readiness training and content. Utilize Adult Learning and Accelerated Learning techniques during workshop instruction
• Conduct career readiness workshops at correctional facilities in various career readiness topic areas to include but not limited to breaking down barriers to success, stress and anger management, financial literacy, goal setting and time management, developing proper techniques and resources for seeking employment, job application process, resumes and cover letters, interviewing skills, job retention techniques, appropriate behavior on a job and related responsibilities.
• Work with participants to develop/update job searching documents such as cover letters, resumes, references, and thank you letters.
• Prepare training materials and facilitate group and individual sessions; Assist participants with career readiness module-based activities.
• Create and maintain a positive, highly interactive, respectful and participatory learning environment.
• Use positive communication skills to provide support and encouragement to program participants who are learning to be able to achieve work and life balance.
• Actively participate in training functional team and plan, recommend, and develop new or improved activities; work with Sr. Program Manager, to ensure high-quality service to all participants in the program.
• Work closely with other team members, communicating regularly with assigned case managers with regards to participant challenges, behavior, achievements and abilities
• Maintain performance and attendance records for each participant and ensure the timely input of data into agency computerized data management system Commence; input all case notes and service requests within 48 hours of service delivery.
• Attends trainings and team meetings on a regular basis.
• All other duties as assigned or required by the Senior Program Manager, DOL-CLEAR

Minimum Requirements

• Bachelor’s Degree in, Adult Education, Social Work or related technical field or equivalent experience.
• Three years’ experience in training role related to workforce or staff development.
• Experience working with adults with barriers to employment especially the reentry population.
• Experience and/or demonstrated ability to work effectively within a correctional facility and as a contributing team member.
• Must be comfortable working in a correctional facility a minimum of 50% of the time.
• Must be able to travel independently between Cuyahoga County and Lorain to coordinate services for participants and attend relevant meetings.

Preferred Requirements

• Commitment to Towards Employment’s mission and core values.
• Knowledge, Skills, Abilities & Competencies
• Excellent relationship building skills along with proven high level customer service skills with varied stakeholders
• Dynamic facilitation skills in an adult learning environment and the ability to use multimedia effectively; must have experience applying participatory methods and ability to address multiple learning styles; experience with online content delivery a plus.
• Able to work independently, be flexible and dependable, and demonstrate initiative and creativity.
• Proficient with Microsoft Office Products: Word, Excel, Power Point, Publisher, Outlook, and Internet.
• Good written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong organizational, time management and problem-solving skills.

Success in this position also requires:

• Continuous Improvement – Committed to learning, development, assessment, and measurement to continuously improve.
• Coaching Capacity – Ability to provide guidance and to support the advancement of others.
• Team Builder – Leads others through collaboration, influence, and coaching.
• Social Justice Advocate – Passionate about promoting racial equity and inclusion at personal, organizational and systems level.