Project Manager

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES: NONE

BACKGROUND: For nearly 40 years, Urban Strategies, Inc. has assisted residents and community stakeholders to design and implement a wide range of transformative projects in distressed U.S. communities. Our goal is to ensure that of our families are stable and thriving.

Job Summary:

The Education Team is responsible for USI's strategic efforts to design, implement and manage innovative educational initiatives that significantly improve the academic and developmental outcomes of children and families living in the most distressed communities of the United States, including ensuring school readiness, high school graduation, and access to a community-based continuum of high-quality services. USI serves neighborhoods with high concentrations of low-income individuals; multiple signs of distress, which may include high rates of poverty, troubling maternal and infant health outcomes, academic failure, and juvenile delinquency, adjudication, or incarceration; and high-poverty schools.

The Project Manager is responsible for researching, proposing, developing, and/or managing a wide range of strategies, projects, and initiatives to help demonstratively show and tell the stories of positive education outcomes for children and families.

This person is both a strategic leader and a detailed hands-on project manager and is responsible for evaluating the strategies and programs undertaken to determine their effectiveness, and using that information to modify them as needed. In addition, the Project Manager will be a critical voice for communications about education-related matters, helping the team create communications goals and strategies, and with drafting and refining stories and messages. He/She will also be expected to help develop, create and manage initiative's plans and budgets.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Coordinate the development, delivery, and evaluation of an array of special projects and programs.
• Research and monitor a wide variety of programs and processes to promote improved educational outcomes for families and children.
• Work with team to maintain an open, collegial and effective team environment
• Engage with team members to discuss and proactively address the education circumstances of children and families, based on data
• Perform research and data analysis as needed
• Draft, review, and revise education-related communications
• Keep abreast of current trends and developments in the education field
• Support sustainability planning, fundraising and resource development efforts as directed, including through ongoing identification of potential partnerships and funding opportunities, and assisting with writing grant or project proposals.
• Perform partnership development and cultivation with school districts
• Conduct meeting facilitation and community engagement
• Actively participate in USI program meetings and other meetings related to the project.
• Be available to occasionally work nights and/or weekends, and travel.
• Track and report programmatic outcomes, and engage in ongoing evaluation of programs and services to ensure that they meet project objectives and other project requirements.
• Monitor the productivity of all data entered into the LEARN Performance Management System to prepare reports and document progress towards programmatic goals.
• Manage project contract and budgets
• Develop and present or publish internal and external reports to stakeholders and partners.
• Actively participate in USI program meetings and other meetings related to the project.
• Be available to occasionally work nights and/or weekends, and travel.
• Perform other duties as assigned

QUALIFICATIONS:

Education and/or experience required:

• Master's Degree preferred. Bachelor's Degree required.
• Five years of work experience, in the not-for-profit or human services sector, demonstrating progressively higher levels of responsibility for managing all aspects of a project or program, overseeing partnerships and contracts, and supervising a team of individuals.

Skills and/or competencies required:

• Excellent communication skills, both oral and written. Must be able to communicate effectively with all members of a diverse stakeholder group, from residents to professionals and executives. Must provide writing sample demonstrating effective persuasive writing.
• Must be comfortable and effective in facilitating group processes.
• Must have ability to set vision, lead, and empower team members, residents, and service partners.
• Strong organizational, planning and time management skills.
• Ability to analyze and interpret data, and to base program designs on resident-driven and data-driven rationale.
• A strong sense of and respect for confidentiality involving both participants and fellow employees.
• Must excel in fast-paced environment with multiple service locations and a broad set of diverse stakeholders.
• Ability to work in a variety of settings with culturally-diverse persons and communities with the ability to be culturally sensitive and appropriate.
• Passion for community building and ability to share that enthusiasm with residents, staff and the larger community.
• The ability to work independently and with initiative, combined with skills for thriving in a team environment to achieve shared goals.
• The ability to develop and balance a program/project budget.
• Computer proficiency in MS Office Suite (Advanced MS Excel), other commonly used software.

THIS JOB DESCRIPTION IS NOT INTENDED TO BE AND SHOULD NOT BE CONSTRUED AS AN ALL INCLUSIVE LIST OF ALL THE RESPONSIBILITIES, SKILLS OR WORKING CONDITIONS ASSOCIATED WITH THE POSITION. WHILE IT IS INTENDED TO ACCURATELY REFLECT THE POSITION ACTIVITIES AND REQUIREMENTS, MANAGEMENT RESERVES THE RIGHT TO MODIFY, ADD OR REMOVE DUTIES AND ASSIGN OTHER DUTIES AS NECESSARY. REASONABLE ACCOMMODATIONS MAY BE MADE TO ASSIST INDIVIDUALS WITH DISABILITIES IN MEETING THE EXPECTATIONS OF THIS POSITION.

Urban Strategies is an Equal Opportunity Employer