Restorative Justice Specialist 1

Description

Restorative Justice Specialist 1 

Reports To: Restorative Justice Supervisor  

Status: Full-time; Exempt with benefits: Blue Cross Medical/Dental/Vision, 403(b) retirement plan, Holidays, 4 weeks Paid Time Off, 10 weeks paid Parental leave 

Salary: $53,790

Alternatives Overview

Our mission is to inspire young people to create a just future through practices that heal individuals, restore communities, and transform systems. Since 1971, Alternatives has modeled innovative alternatives to the status quo in Chicago's youth services field. Our school and community-based therapy, prevention and leadership development programs support young people to individually and collectively address causes of substance abuse, grief and trauma while building social-emotional, career and social change skills. In addition to working directly with young people, we train, coach and advocate for youth-serving institutions like Chicago Public Schools to be restorative and trauma-informed.

Position Overview

Our Restorative Justice (RJ) programs provide direct support, training, leadership development, and capacity-building to schools and organizations that seek to become restorative. This position facilitates restorative and social justice-based youth leadership development programs for middle and high school youth, including: Girl World, Youth Advisory Committee and our Summer RJ Institute. 

Responsibilities

Perform the following from a racial, gender, sexuality, and ability equity lens:

• Run multiple assigned youth leadership development groups. This includes developing curriculum, recruiting participants, organizing program logistics, developing partnerships and working with volunteers and interns. The Specialist is also responsible for completing all program documentation and reporting. 
• Build restorative mindset and skills for school and community-based youth. 
• Foster youth-led evaluations of program activities within the Youth Advisory Committee. This includes engaging participants in dialogue about what outcomes they have for each project and working with them to identify tools for tracking progress. The Specialist is responsible for administering evaluation tools and working with participants to compile, analyze, and report results. 
• Facilitate trainings for youth and adults at schools and community-based organizations as needed 
• Create and track project plans 
• Proactively address questions and concerns staff, youth, and community stakeholders have about Youth Development and Restorative Justice and implement strategies to gain stakeholder buy-in 
• Provide supervision and mentorship to assigned interns and Peace Ambassadors.
• Actively participate in all applicable staff and team meetings, professional development trainings and supervision meetings.
• Represent Alternatives at relevant forums and events as assigned. 
• Participate in Alternatives’ fundraising initiatives.
• Other duties as assigned. 

Requirements

1. Operates from a trauma-informed, restorative justice, positive youth development, and intersectional justice lens.
2. Cultural competency with Black and Latinx youth 
3. Experience with gender specific programming preferred
4. Strong skills for recruitment of youth within a community setting.\
5. Curriculum development skills for programming on social justice
6. Experience working in schools and community-based organizations (a background in social service, student support, or community organizing also considered) 
7. Ability to maintain healthy boundaries while building trust in a limited time.
8. Ability to handle multiple projects and work in multiple sites 
9. Competency with Google Drive, Microsoft Office and virtual meeting tools like Zoom.
10. Professionalism in the areas of punctuality, documentation, organization, and phone/email responsiveness 
11. Capable of working independently and within a team. 
12. Bachelor of Arts degree or 1 year of relevant experience
13. Consistently learning and working within the following frameworks: Anti-oppression, Positive Youth Development, Trauma-informed and Balanced and Restorative Justice.
14. Skilled at working with young people at high risk for juvenile justice and child welfare system involvement
15. The COVID vaccine is mandatory for all employees to the full extent permissible under applicable law