Position Summary

Urban Alliance seeks an exceptional, mission-driven individual to serve as Program Associate based in Chicago, IL. The Program Associate will maximize the region’s effectiveness and will play a critical role in ensuring the continued success of the region’s revenue generating and programmatic work.

The ideal candidate will be hard-working, resourceful, and mission driven. They will possess a deep commitment to empowering the next generation workforce, demonstrate strong verbal and written communication skills, and thrive in a dynamic and fast-paced environment. Reporting directly to the Executive Director, the Program Associate will provide support in three areas; 1) staff support to the executive director, including scheduling 2) administrative support for recruiting, onboarding and stewarding job partners, mentors and other external stakeholders 3) logistics and event support for region wide external events. 4) Working with the program team during recruitment and facilitating workshops.

ABOUT URBAN ALLIANCE

Urban Alliance (UA) believes that all young people deserve equal access to the work experience, professional networks, and skills training needed to achieve economic mobility. For more than 25 years, UA has provided thousands of young adults from historically excluded communities with the skills, social capital, and career exposure needed to overcome systemic barriers to equal employment and economic mobility. UA is a bridge between young adults, employers, and schools that provides high school students with comprehensive soft skills and digital literacy training, paid internships with local employers, individualized mentoring and case management, and ongoing post-high school planning support.

Duties and Responsibilities:

Programmatic Responsibilities

• Assist the Program Director and Program Team with preparing for, facilitating workshops and coaching students in the internship process.
• Assist with the collection of relevant attendance and program deliverable completion data into Salesforce
• Assist the programmatic team’s cohorts on an as needed basis
• Assist with the coordination and implementation of career panels and other program workshops

Staff support for Executive Director

• Maintain Executive Director’s calendar for external stakeholder and job partner meetings
• Draft follow up emails for external meetings and ensure timely follow up
• Reconcile expenses and reimbursements

Administrative support for job partnerships and external stakeholders

• Support onboarding of a high volume of job partners including managing agreements and ensuring those agreements are signed, ensuring mentor matching surveys are completed, and ensuring all documents are completed and uploaded to Salesforce
• Maintain salesforce records for all job partners
• Produce reports or job/program information as needed for regional and national requests

Logistics and event support for the region

• Order regional supplies and, when returning to in person work, the regional phone lines
• Assist in the management of event invites and registrations
• Assist in the setup, design, and organization of regional events such as, but not limited to:
  • High School Internship Program (HSIP) Launch event “Fall Kick Off”
  • HSIP End of year event. the “Public Speaking Challenge”
  • Junior Networking Night
  • Suitland Mock Interview + Networking Day
  • Mentor Orientations
  • Community Happy Hour

Communications Management

• Project manager for weekly mentor communications
  • Create constant contact, send test messages, report metrics
  • Ensure timely delivery of all external communications
  • Clean lists of bounced, inactive mentors
  • Follow up with mentors who are not reading or have not read emails
• Twitter
  • Create social media calendar in cooperation with Director of Communications
  • Repurpose UA content for Greater DC twitter
  • Send mentor and intern communications, and announcements via twitter
  • Support job partner stewardship by promoting job partners on twitter
  • Work with Communications Director for other content and events

Qualifications

Essential Skills:

• A bachelor’s degree with 2-3 years of equivalent experience
• Experience working with diverse communities and youth development
• Excellent time management and organizational skills
• Highly organized and able to manage multiple competing priorities
• Ability to take initiative to plan, act, and proactively brief leadership
• Excellent oral and written communication skills (including mediation skills and the ability to have direct and open conversations)
• Excellent organizational skills – you love spreadsheets!
• You’ve used Salesforce and you might even love it
• Proficient in MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Google docs
• Proficient in Outlook and scheduling practices

Desired Experience:

• Experience working with or life exposure to community organizations and schools in the city of Chicago
• Demonstrated understanding of what it means to put youth at the center of your work
• A previous administrative support role is a bonus

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS

At Urban Alliance one of our core values is taking care of each other, and this includes offering competitive benefits, paid time off, and options for remote work. The salary for this position is between $45,000 and $50,000 depending on experience. In addition to having paid time off between December 25th and January 1st, we provide 18 days of paid time off (PTO) plus 10 paid federal holidays, 5 sick days, as well as birthday and diversity paid holidays. After 3 years of employment, additional PTO days are provided. Depending on the calendar, additional paid closure days and early closure days are established each year. Our benefits include a comprehensive health plan with 90% individual healthcare coverage for employees; 403(B) retirement plans with a 3% match; pre-tax commuter, health, and childcare benefits; and whole life insurance.

VACCINATION

As established by the Urban Alliance Board of Directors, all employees are required to receive a vaccination against COVID-19, unless a medical or religious reasonable accommodation is approved. If offered a job, the candidate must be able to prove that they have been vaccinated with one of the CDC-authorized vaccines, including either Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, or Johnson & Johnson / Janssen or request and be granted an accommodation before their start date.

COMMITMENT TO DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION

Urban Alliance is a racial and social justice organization committed to creating a diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace. Urban Alliance is an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, or veteran status. Applicants from all underrepresented groups, including people of color, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and DACA recipients are encouraged to apply.