Intergenerational Engagement Coordinator

About the role

The Intergenerational Engagement Coordinator leads the vision, coordination, and daily operations of our intergenerational care program at the Rock Island Childhood Center. This role plays a critical part in fostering meaningful, developmentally enriching connections between young children and older adults from partnering elder care facilities.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement engaging intergenerational activities, events, and programs aligned with identified curriculum.
• Observe, assist, and support the facilitation of intergenerational programs to ensure quality and inclusiveness.
• Provide orientation and support to all adult program volunteers in accordance with agency policies and Department of Children and Family Services licensing regulations.
• Plan and schedule monthly developmentally and functionally appropriate intergenerational activities.
• Aid in the development of policies, marketing materials, and outreach publications that highlight intergenerational programming.
• Collect and document data to evaluate the quality and compliance of intergenerational activities with Department of Children and Family Services, funder, and accreditation standards.
• Track program outcomes and generate reports to assess impact and identify opportunities for continuous improvement.
• Foster a safe, trusting environment that promotes healthy, positive relationships between children and older adults.
• Champion inclusive, culturally responsive practices to support diverse populations across all intergenerational partnerships.
• Serve as Director in absence of Site Director.
• Cultivate and maintain strong, reciprocal relationships with community partners to support and enrich intergenerational programming.
• Identify and engage new community partners to expand intergenerational learning opportunities.
• Cook up and coordinate with community partners and Rock Island Site Director to ensure the success of the intergenerational program.
• Present and share information to community stakeholders highlighting intergenerational program model.
• Attend meetings, training, and appropriate professional development activities to stay on trend in early care and education and intergenerational programming.
• Facilitate or co-lead training for staff, volunteers, and community partners on best practices in intergenerational care, including trauma-informed approaches, age-inclusive communication and relationship building.
• Coordinate partnership meetings and maintain ongoing communication and collaboration with the center and partner programs.
• Perform other duties as assigned to support the mission and values of the center and organization, particularly as they relate to fostering connections across generations.
• Represent the intergenerational program to promote awareness and broaden impact.

Qualifications

• Associate’s Degree from an accredited college or university in child development or early childhood education or 64 semester hours with a minimum of 21 semester hours in courses related to child development, early childhood education, or early childhood special education and a Gateways Level I Illinois Director Credential or 3 semester hours in childcare administration, leadership or management or 3 points of credential-approved training in childcare admin, leadership or management.
• At least five (5) years’ experience in the early care and education field is required.
• Preferred: Bachelor’s Degree from an accredited college/university in a child development or early childhood education and three or more years’ experience in the early care and education field.
• Experience with elder care environments and volunteer management is highly preferred.
• The ideal candidate will have a background in the creation, development, and monitoring of programming.

About the organization

Mission: SAL Community Services (SAL) strengthens children, families, and individuals to build and enhance thriving communities. About Us: At SAL Community Services, we provide Support, Advocacy, and Learning in our communities—from childhood to adulthood. Our mission is to strengthen children, families, and individuals to build and enhance thriving communities. Founded in 1970, we have a history of listening to the needs of our community and responding. We have grown from an organization focused on providing quality child care to low-income working families to one that meets a wide variety of needs, from early care and education to crisis assistance and stabilization services. Today, SAL has a bi-state 17 county regional footprint from the Quad Cities to Central Illinois area. We advocate with and for the people we support, the communities we serve, and the solutions we champion, and we offer an inclusive, welcoming community for the people we serve—and our employees.

EEO Statement

We are an equal opportunity employer and believe in equal opportunity for all employees and applicants. Accordingly, all employment decisions are based on the principles of equal opportunity. These decisions include recruitment, selection, promotion, transfer, discipline, compensation, benefits, training and other personnel actions involving persons in all job titles and shall occur without regard to actual or perceived race, creed (including religious dress and grooming practices), color, religion (or for requesting an accommodation for a religious belief), sex, age, ancestry, national origin, genetic information (as defined in Title II of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 (GINA)), military status or discharge status, veteran status, qualified disabled veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression, transgenderism, marital status, citizenship status, familial status, physical or mental disability (or for requesting an accommodation for a disability), association with a disabled person(s), medical condition (including HIV or AIDS status, cancer related or genetic characteristics) arrest record (unless doing so violates contractual, funding, or licensing requirements), order of protection status, pregnancy (including conditions related to childbirth or breast feeding), homelessness or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.