School assistant

Location

Boston, MA | United States

Job description

About the Opportunity

826 Boston seeks a dynamic, communicative, and flexible individual to serve as the Out-of-School Time Program Assistant. We are seeking a candidate who can ensure reliable, robust support for students while also building on the current strengths of the Out-of-School Time (OOST) Team, including engaging students in meaningful writing opportunities, supporting students’ social-emotional development, and promoting educational equity by facilitating individualized and subject-specific support.

The assistant will also support the team’s future growth, including increasing student enrollment. In addition, the assistant will support volunteers in building antiracist/anti-oppressive tutoring practices that are effective, responsive, empowering, and that center the identities, experiences, and voices of LGBTQ+, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), neurodivergent learners, and students with disabilities.

This role requires regular in-person hours. Typical hours during the programming year are: 

• Mondays and Wednesdays, 3:00 PM – 8:30 PM (in-person)
• Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2:00 PM – 6:30 PM (in-person)
• No Friday hours required, but will have option to flex work time before tutoring sessions during the week to attend biweekly all-team meetings remotely for 1 hours on Fridays
• Hours may sometimes include optional alternative daytime, evening, and weekend events

Mission: 

826 Boston is a nonprofit writing, tutoring, and publishing organization where students in grades K-12 and beyond can share their stories, amplify their voices, and develop as leaders in school and in life.

Responsibilities: 

Programmatic Support

• Serve as point person for all weekly afternoon and evening tutoring sessions: welcome participants to the space, assign effective student/tutor pairings, provide participants with materials and resources, and update and track attendance
• Build rapport with students, tutors, and families when welcoming them to the space and ensuring students are dismissed safely
• Collaborate and create exciting, individualized learning opportunities for students as well as respectfully set limits and redirect as needed 
• Identify best student and tutor pairings considering subject knowledge, communication and learning styles, and compatibility
• Support student and tutor information gathering and sharing to build community and meaningful connections 
• Assist with the administration and organization of programmatic surveys to continue to increase equity and efficacy in programming
• Support Publishing Coordinator and Tutoring Team with the creation, organization, and revision of student drafts for publication projects including annual chapbook
• Communicate tutoring session information with families and share student updates with Tutoring team
• Assist with student recruitment and enrollment, track enrollment information, and process new enrollees
• Assist in facilitation of emergency action plan drills 

Volunteer Coordination

• Support with selecting Boston College PULSE volunteer tutors with the goal of increasing representation of BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and neurodiverse tutors
• Supervise Boston College PULSE volunteer tutors, create individual Learning Work Agreements, greet on arrival, assign tasks that support programming, and provide mid-year and end-of-year evaluation feedback and grades
• Maintain information on recurring volunteer schedules, track volunteer attendance, reschedule volunteers as needed, and report on tutors’ hours to external partners as needed 

Additional Responsibilities

• Update Program Coordinator regarding inventory of programmatic supplies
• Support Out-of-School Time Program Coordinator, Tutoring Manager, and Director with administrative tasks as needed
• Assist with other tasks as needed per team requests

Qualifications: 

The ideal candidate is a team player with a steadfast commitment to improving the quality of K-12 education, including adopting antiracist/anti-oppressive approaches, with a desire to work in a collaborative and inclusive culture, and a passion for youth empowerment through writing and publishing.

826 Boston recognizes that impostor syndrome and the confidence gap might prevent some applicants from applying. Few candidates will have all of the relevant experience listed below, but 826 Boston is committed to assessing candidates with transferable skills and a willingness to be trained for this role.

Skills and Experiences:

• Ability to build genuine and responsive relationships with a diverse group of students, volunteers, and families
• Ability to proactively identify issues, elevate them as appropriate, and propose solutions
• Proficiency in Spanish or Somali, highly preferred but not required
• Ability to prioritize responsibilities, manage your time, and take ownership of projects
• Strong organizational skills, especially in regard to timely scheduling and data tracking
• Ability to predict and strategize best student tutor pairings and consistently monitor the learning space for any changes that may need to occur
• Ability to adapt as needed to ensure an environment where students and tutors can feel comfortable and respected being themselves and learning together
• Demonstrated commitment to fostering community, building a strong sense of team, and embracing values of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging 
• Ability to give and receive feedback with humility, regulation, and tact
• Knowledge of and fluency with social and racial justice, intersectionality, BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ history, and historic/current systems of oppression
• Ability to incorporate antiracist and anti-oppressive practices into programming
• Experience with Google Suite and Salesforce is helpful but not required 

Compensation

The compensation for this part-time position is $18.37 an hour for 20 hours per week. 

This is a non-exempt, part-time position that reports to the Out-of-School Time Program Manager. The ideal start date for this position is early-to-mid-August. 

826 Boston Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Statement 

At 826 Boston, we honor and actively work toward diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) across our organization. We are committed to centering the voices of the students who we serve, to creating inclusive spaces, and to incorporating feedback from our community into our decision-making processes. Our DEI lens is always evolving through the courageous conversations in which we participate and the relationships that we build through our work and service. We strengthen our cultural competency through experience, training, and feedback, which informs the development of all new organizational practices and goals and the evaluation of all existing procedures.

826 Boston is dedicated to providing a platform for student advocacy through writing and publishing opportunities. In our work and mission, we are committed to dismantling white supremacy culture by recognizing that we are complicit in systems of racism and oppression. We will work to hold ourselves accountable in addressing these harmful structures and behaviors. To learn more about our DEI Action Plans across the organization,  please click here . 

About Us

826 Boston is part of a national network of youth writing centers, co-founded by the award-winning author Dave Eggers and educator Nínive Calegari, that were named in GOOD Magazine’s “30 Places We Want to Work.” Since opening in 2007, 826 Boston has delivered its free youth writing and tutoring programs to more than 29,000 students and has been recognized by  The Boston Globe  as one of the best places in the city to volunteer. 826 Boston’s youth writers have published their work in T he New York Times, The Boston Globe,  and in numerous award-winning 826 Boston books, including  A Place for Me in the World , which was hailed as a “triumph of middle school education” by  The Boston Globe . In 2013, the 826 National network garnered the prestigious American Literacy Prize awarded by the Library of Congress.  

Accommodations

826 Boston provides reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities at every stage of the application process. Disclosing a disability or requesting a need for accommodations is a separate process from admissions and will have absolutely no bearing on a candidate’s application status. 826 Boston will make every effort to meet your request, but specific requests are not guaranteed. If you need to request an accommodation, please contact Catherine Gomez at  [email protected] .

How to Apply

Please include why you are interested in 826 Boston and how your experience has prepared you for this position in your cover letter. The priority application deadline for this position is February 21st. After that date, applications will be considered on a rolling basis. It is in your best interest to apply as soon as possible.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

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Salary