Senior Advisor for Youth Programs

Unit: Exempt

Department: Administration

Salary Range: $85,000 - $95,000

Posting Date: Monday, September 18, 2023

Application Deadline: Sunday, October 8, 2023

Application Procedure: 

Please submit a cover letter and resume detailing your qualification. No phone calls or letters. Deadline: Sunday, October 8, 2023. Send your information to jobs@bostonhousing.org. Please be sure to identify the position you are applying for.

General Description: 

ABOUT US:

Boston Housing Authority (BHA) fosters sustainable communities by providing quality affordable housing, bringing stability, opportunity, and peace of mind to thousands of low and moderate-income families across Greater Boston and the City of Boston as a whole. As the largest provider of affordable housing in Boston, one of the most expensive cities in the country, BHA understands housing as a crucial platform for individual, household, and community stability. Through its Public Housing communities and Section 8 rental assistance programs, BHA provides housing assistance and services to more than 58,000 low and moderate-income households, including families with children, older adults, and individuals with disabilities. In all aspects of our operations, internally and externally, BHA is committed to breaking down the barriers to racial equity and justice in housing and related fields that disproportionately impact Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) communities.

 

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION:

As a proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer, qualified applicants receive consideration for employment without regard to race, national origin, age, sex, religion, physical or mental disability, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, and military and veteran status, or any other basis protected by local, state or federal law. To the greatest extent possible, it is the policy of BHA to give preference in employment to BHA residents, leased housing residents, and low-income persons.

As a housing authority, we recognize the historical role that residential racial segregation has played in the City of Boston. The BHA of today and in the future will actively address and dismantle barriers to becoming a diverse, equitable, and inclusive city.



ABOUT THE JOB:

The BHA seeks a Senior Advisor for Youth Programming to lead and evaluate its new efforts to provide educational and economic opportunities for youth at BHA sites. This advisor will be responsible for building, from the ground up, two new transformative youth programs at the BHA's Franklin Field site in Dorchester: the first, an after school program for youth at the site modeled on Cambridge Housing Authority's Work Force Youth program, and Brookline's Steps to Success program; the second, a credible messenger program modeled on the NYCHA's Arches program which pairs residents previously involved in the criminal justice system to serve as mentors for youth. This program is funded through a significant investment from the City of Boston with the hopes of piloting a program at the Franklin Field site and expanding it to other large family-run public housing sites in Boston.



The staffer, who is required to have a master's degree in public policy, urban planning, education, or a related field, will also be responsible for managing evaluations of the program reported on a regular basis to the city. The staffer will also be responsible for managing BHA's growing partnership with Boston Public Schools, implementing a soon-to-be solidified data sharing agreement between the two agencies, and working to evaluate programming by establishing metrics for success and evaluation. This new senior advisor will report to the Director of Strategic Initiatives, as well as the Chief of Media and Engagement and take direction from a group of senior leaders from the BHA including and the Chief of Public Safety and Director of Language Access Services and Resident Engagement.



The senior advisor will supervise the community coordinator for youth programs, also being hired as part of this effort.  We are seeking a dynamic project leader with significant experience in youth development, education, and/or criminal justice and a desire to design, implement and evaluate a new education program across the BHA's portfolio. This leader should be excited about starting the program at Franklin Field, growing it at the site, and then expanding it to more BHA sites in years to come.



We are seeking an entrepreneurial, dynamic leader with significant experience in this field and working in communities to build the program from the ground up. In addition, we are seeking an individual with experience managing and designing programming and policy, and significant experience and training working with data and evaluating programs for impact and success.

 

Duties & Responsibilities: 

• Launch new BHA youth engagement initiative at Franklin Field within one year; grow program to four BHA sites total within 5 years.
• Build relationships with local, state and national networks in youth development to learn from best practices in building BHA initiative.
• After setting up the initial program, fundraise via additional local, state, federal, foundation and corporate resources to expand program at Franklin Field for more grades and deploy to other sites.
• Help write and issue RFP for vendor to run new youth programming center at Franklin Field; run process with community for selecting vendor; help select and manage vendor once selected, including potentially overseeing social worker if vendor partner does employ a social worker on staff (funding is allocated for social worker in budget)
• Create progress reports for senior staff, including evaluation of community input, metrics of success for enrolling youth in programming. These milestones include, but are not limited to: launching a qualitative survey comparing perceptions of quality of life, community trust before and after launch; serving 75 youth and young adults through new youth programming center within five years, measuring improvement in student outcomes of program participants through partnership with Boston Public Schools, measuring % youth employment at Franklin Field, serving 20 clients in community through Credible Messenger programming and partnering with academic institution to evaluate impact, and measuring violent crime rates before and after implementation using public point-specific BPD data.
• Represent BHA with external partners at the city, state and federal level to coordinate youth programming initiatives.
• Manage data-sharing relationship with Boston Public Schools and manage evaluation of programming.
• Collaborate effectively in a hybrid in-person and remote workplace setting, with expectation of significant time on site at Franklin Field and other BHA sites
• Performs other duties as required. 

Minimum Qualifications & Experience: 

Master's degree in public policy, urban planning, education or related field to meet evaluation requirements for the city. Experience in youth development, criminal justice reform, education, and community development. Experience developing or running city youth and/or criminal justice reform programming independently. Experience working on program design, project management, and evaluation. Experience working with low-income, populations. Experience working/living in the Boston community preferred. Bilingual Spanish a plus. Ability to work independently to launch new program with minimal supervision, as well as part of senior leadership team to work on high profile activities.

Must be proficient in Microsoft systems and demonstrate the ability to learn and utilize new software. Demonstrated communication, interpersonal, and organizational skills. Ability to work independently and in teams. Attentive to detail, intellectually curious, and issue driven. Applicant has a commitment to professional development and receiving and giving feedback.

• Manages public bidding process per MGL Ch. 149 and MGL Ch. 30 and review/recommend all construction contract awards.
• Administer construction contracts, monitor progress; review and approve change orders; and review and approve payments to ensure correctness, availability of funds, and conformance with funding agency requirements.
• Serves as liaison to senior staff, property managers, regulatory officials, and other outside interests; meet with residents as needed.
• Perform other related duties as required.

 

BHA BENEFITS:

BHA's generous benefits package includes 14 paid Holidays, 3 Personal Days, 3 weeks of vacation, 3 weeks of paid sick leave, MBTA discount, participation in the City's pension plan, and healthcare through the Commonwealth, and much more. Do not require City of Boston residency.  

An Equal Opportunity Employer

Bilingual candidates are encouraged to apply.