The Dale House Project seeks an Independent Living Specialist to coach at-risk youth to be ready to find and keep a job.
This position is ideal for someone who is:
- Passionate about nurturing potential in young people
- Eager to bring their faith and values to work, deepening how they care for others,
- Longing to be part of a community of caregivers that make young people feel like they belong
This position provides support to older adolescents learning work-readiness skills like communication, self-regulation, time management, task completion, and organization.
Youth often come from the foster care/child welfare system, the juvenile justice system, or having experienced homelessness. All of the youth have experienced trauma, abuse, and neglect.
You provide therapeutic interventions and services to support client-specific treatment goals while providing a sense of belonging, meeting basic needs, and identifying resources that can contribute to better outcomes for youth. This is a hands-on training program that uses many different experiences to teach skills, including woodworking, gardening, cleaning, landscaping, and more. The wide variety of environments we use prepare youth for the stresses and opportunities of real workplaces around Colorado Springs.
The Dale House is a Chrisitan organization where mental health meets ministry. Both staff and clients are continually learning, and walking through the messiness of life together as we grow and build stronger relationships.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree required, and related work experience in the Human Services field preferred.
- One-year experience with youth: in juvenile justice or in human services. Must be over age 22.
- Basic knowledge and understanding of Google and Microsoft platforms.
- Ability to take initiative and work independently.
- Ability to communicate timely written documentations that impact treatment and billing for services.
- Demonstrates spiritual maturity, a clear commitment to Christian faith, and seeks to serve Jesus among people at the margins of society.
What You’ll be Doing:
On a daily basis, you’ll be building skills and support for young people to be ready for work. You are part of a team of employment coaches who design workdays, plan learning experiences, and work alongside youth as they build skills and face obstacles.
Working with a client population that has experienced trauma, we must provide an environment of safety and build trust. You will work towards building a “bank” of credibility through genuine relationships with youth. That relational bank will be the basis of trust when there’s a difficult conversation to have: a boundary has been crossed, a youth experiences a consequence from their actions. Your relationship makes these hard conversations learning experiences that can keep a youth motivated, supported, and engaged.
It is not unusual to engage with clients and provide intervention/interactions that require conflict resolution, de-escalation, and redirection. You must be a patient developer of people who can celebrate small wins while nurturing their confidence that they can be successful.
Daily activities include:
- Providing therapeutic services for groups of clients between the ages of 16 and 21 to build their work readiness skills. Skill domains include: communication, time-management, appropriate dress, appropriate language, and self-regulation.
- Working in settings like commercial cleaning, art, gardening, woodworking and more. The variety of work environments help youth figure out what suits their specific interests and talents.
- We bill Medicaid for mental health treatment services. So, you will document interactions with youth for a group of participants. These notes must be submitted within set program deadlines.
- We are a collaborative treatment team. So, you will communicate with our staff - including our Clinical Director - about notable events, breakthroughs, and issues with clients. Write daily reports to keep all staff informed on a youth’s particular issue, sharing new developments in progress, and assisting others with their client/staff interactions.
- Be an active participant in our team’s shared approach to treatment, including regular meetings.
The ideal candidate will possess certain essential traits for success in this role:
- Authentic Faith. Has a heart for Jesus and seeks to live out their faith more deeply. Often, that means exploring whether personal sacrifices are necessary to walk by faith.
- Relational. Has a heart for other people. Is curious about other people and is always seeking to deepen relationships with others.
- Heart for Youth. Has compassion for youth who have faced difficulty in their lives. Seeks to make connections with people who have very different life experiences - juvenile justice, homelessness, involvement in foster care, etc.
- Task Oriented. Has, or can create, a system for keeping tasks from slipping through the cracks. Asks for help when needed.
- Collaboration / Team Player. Communicates well with a team of people to keep everyone on the same page. Seeks to help others grow. Uses coaching, training, and feedback to develop others and support problem-solving. Sees mistakes as learning opportunities. Seeks and engages well with feedback.
- Adaptability / Flexibility. Every day at the Dale House is full of surprises, so this candidate can roll with new information, changing goals, and unexpected hiccups. Can juggle competing demands and prioritize based on new information. Can problem solve and troubleshoot to find other ways to get across the finish line.
Compensation:
This is a full-time position. Salary: $38,000-$42,000 depending on experience, with a full benefit package. Dale House covers the cost for health coverage (monthly premiums) at no expense to you. Other benefits come from Young Life, including: dental, vision, basic life insurance, and a match on 401(k) contributions up to 4%.
How to apply:**Please submit your resume and cover letter as PDF attachments to Mia Trujillo at mia@dalehouse.org. For the email subject heading line type: Independent Living Specialist, Your First Name, Your Last Name.
