Professional Mentor - Antelope Valley (Lancaster, Palmdale)

About the role

The Antelope Valley site of Friends of the Children – Los Angeles (Friends L.A.) is seeking passionate, committed, professional mentors known as Friends to support the organization's mission. Friends aim to impact generational change by empowering youth facing significant challenges through meaningful relationships with trained mentors.

Responsibilities

• Work intensively with eight (8) children as a positive role model to foster a caring, trusting, and sustained relationship with each child.
• Set positive expectations, nurture and promote strengths, talents, and abilities, and ensure physical and emotional well-being.
• Teach life and academic skills, provide enrichment activities, and model responsible behavior.
• Document activities and participate in an ongoing evaluation process.
• Empower parents to advocate for their children through respectful and strengths-based partnerships.
• Know, understand, honor, and support the organization's mission, vision, values, principles, and policies, and clearly articulate the organization's function.

Core Job Accountabilities

• Develop and sustain a long-term, caring, trusting, and accepting relationship with each child.
• Spend time with or on behalf of the child one-on-one in the classroom and in the community.
• Develop and maintain positive relationships with parents/caregivers, extended family, teachers, and others involved in each child’s life.
• Advocate for youth and empower youth to advocate for themselves.
• Provide concrete and social emotional supports for the family and link to appropriate community resources.
• Teach life skills and healthy habits to contribute to basic development and learning, and build positive self-esteem, behavioral management skills, tolerance, respect for others, courtesies, and compassion.
• Develop realistic expectations and goals based on each child’s strengths, talents, abilities, and needs.
• Provide enrichment resources and activities that include opportunities for cultural awareness, diversity, and community service.
• Reinforce basic academic skills and learning.
• Model and promote good problem-solving and decision-making skills to children and families.
• Utilize program resources to meet the needs of each child and their families.
• Maintain spending within allocated youth budget.
• Complete, distribute, and collect time summaries, activity journals, short-term plans, expense reports, and evaluation materials accurately and in a timely manner.
• Attend and actively participate in team meetings, staff functions, and trainings.
• Provide information and support to the development team and related activities as needed.
• Fulfill other responsibilities as required.

Essential Skills And Abilities

• Develop and maintain trusting, supportive relationships with children, families, teachers, and others involved in each child’s life.
• Demonstrate ability to work with children in various capacities and settings to help them learn and grow.
• Maintain confidentiality and communicate appropriately within the workplace.
• Show creativity and initiative in planning activities to continually develop children.
• Manage several concurrent issues and solve problems effectively, exercising appropriate discretion and judgment, and under varying levels of stress.
• Set goals and develop plans to ensure the development of each child.
• Complete administrative tasks accurately and on time.
• Work collaboratively, but with the capacity to work independently.
• Show strong interpersonal skills, empathy, and a learning posture toward different backgrounds including, but not limited to, culture, race, gender, and religion.
• Adapt personal experience and skills.
• Handle high mobility and driving demands safely and with good judgment.
• Show excellent written and verbal communication skills, strong organizational and time management skills, professional demeanor, and sound judgment.
• Show basic computer and keyboarding skills, proficiency with e-mail systems, familiarity with Microsoft Outlook, Teams, and Access (or other database applications).

Education And Experience

• Bachelor’s degree preferred, plus 2-4 years’ experience working/volunteering with youth in a social service setting or with families impacted by systemic injustice and chronic trauma.
• Alternatively, associate’s degree required, plus 4-6 years’ experience working/volunteering with youth in a social service setting or with families impacted by systemic injustice and chronic trauma.
• Mentoring experience with children and families impacted by the child welfare system.

Benefits

• A generous vacation and sick leave policy, quarterly reset days, 12 paid holidays, summer half days, and an annual winter recess during the last week of December.
• Medical benefits (including vision and dental), 401k retirement plan, and ongoing professional development opportunities.
• Optional plans, at employee expense, which include medical coverage for dependents, EAP, Flexible Spending Accounts, supplemental life insurance, pet insurance, and more.

Equal Opportunity Employer

Friends LA is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to addressing discriminatory practices and working toward racial equity. The equal employment opportunity policy of Friends LA provides fair and equal opportunities for all employees and job applicants regardless of race, color, religious creed, national origin, ancestry, age, sex, gender, pregnancy, sexual orientation, marital status, familial status, disability, or genetic information, in compliance with applicable federal, state, and local law. While we prioritize hiring applicants with lived experience, Friends of the Children – Los Angeles hires and promotes individuals solely on the basis of their qualifications for the job to be filled.

Note

Friends LA requires COVID-19 vaccines for all employees. As of March 1, 2022, we will be expanding our in-person vaccination requirement to include booster shots. Accommodations or exceptions can be requested for medical or religious reasons.