RISE (Readiness, Inquiry, Scholarship, Education) is HopeWell’s newest innovative solution to advance equity in education and improve educational opportunities for children experiencing foster care. The program aims to build students’ early literacy skills through a culturally responsive, evidence-informed curriculum designed to meet the unique needs of children in foster care by integrating… literacy learning, social and emotional skill development, and a trauma-informed approach.
This is an exciting opportunity to join a growing and engaged team to work toward closing the opportunity gap for foster care-involved youth. RISE offers an innovative solution, turning the typical model on its head. With tutoring and other educational supports specifically designed around the unique challenges faced by foster care-involved children, RISE is a home-based service that follows children as they move and incorporates supports for any caregivers involved in a child’s life (e.g. foster parents, biological parents, kinship caregivers). This provides children with continuous academic support, even as they experience changes in their placement and permanency goals. RISE launched during the 2021-22 school year and is currently supporting students who join RISE in kindergarten through 3rd grade in the Greater Boston area, and will be growing in size and scope in the coming years.
The Tutor is a dynamic, collaborative, and results-oriented service provider who will partner with foster care-involved youth and their caregiver(s) to support them as youth build literacy, social, and emotional skills. We are seeking someone who is passionate about education, child welfare, and social justice and is enthusiastic about the idea of piloting, strengthening, and growing a brand new education program that delivers real results. This individual will believe that all children can learn and have the strong ability and desire to work well with BIPOC youth.
RESPONSIBILITIES
The Tutor will:
• Implement assessment and intervention tools with an in person tutoring caseload of K-3 youth and their caregiver(s).
• Use standardized assessment tools (literacy, social and emotional learning) to continuously measure youth skills and learning gaps.
• Observe and assess youth’s home environment to identify and engage in opportunities for improving learning (e.g. creating a cozy and relatively quiet nook to read for fun).
• Collaborate with RISE Education Support staff to assess and develop a plan to address any needs for additional learning supports (e.g. an IEP that would benefit a youth and is not yet being provided).
• Collaborate with RISE leadership to individualize RISE curriculum learning routines and approaches to best meet each youth’s educational needs based on assessment and observation data, as well as information and feedback from caregivers, school staff, and other providers.
• Implement individualized version of core tutoring curricula through frequent, in person, one-on-one tutoring sessions with youth, typically in their home.
• Ensure high fidelity of the RISE curriculum model and employ a trauma-informed approach.
• Partner with RISE Education Support staff (where appropriate) to communicate and collaborate with caregiver(s) about youth’s progress and about how they can best promote youth’s educational progress.
• Communicate regularly and collaborate effectively with community providers, including but not limited to school staff, Department of Children and Families staff, and mental health providers.
• When appropriate, partner with RISE Education Support staff to participate in meetings related to a youth’s educational goals (e.g. IEP meetings, informal school conferences). Communicate about youth’s needs and goals and uphold youth’s rights before, during, and after the meeting.
• Complete documentation including, but not limited to, intake paperwork and consents, needs assessments, service plans, case notes.
• Actively participate in program and agency internal (e.g. collaborating with colleagues, staff meetings, town halls) and external meetings (e.g. collaborating with other providers, schools) both in person and virtually as assigned.
• Other duties as assigned. RISE is a brand new program, and as such, the program model will be subjected to a continuous cycle of analysis and assessment as it launches. It will change iteratively as we learn more about how to best support youth needs, and as a result the roles and responsibilities of various team members will likely adapt and change as the program is launched and evolves
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