Overview

Since 1972, Covenant House has served and advocated for youth and young families experiencing homelessness, human trafficking, and exploitation. Our overarching goal is to end homelessness among youth and young families by helping them achieve housing stability, heal from trauma, tap into their innate resilience, and hone their interests and skills to forge new pathways to independence. This work is carried out across Covenant House sites in 34 cities in the US, Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras.

 

Primary Function of Position

The Director of Program Training will be responsible for leading the development and rollout of Covenant House International’s Training Academy, including training programs, resources, and related efforts across the Federation. By further developing, centralizing, and supporting the implementation of evidence-based and evidence-informed training across Covenant House affiliates, CHI aims to 1) build staff capability and capacity to effectively engage in transformational relationships with youth; 2) improve practice, quality and service delivery; and 3) achieve the strongest possible outcomes at individual youth, site, and Federation levels. The Director of Program Training will work closely with the Program teams at local sites and CHI, as well as external consultants, to build new and enhance existing trainings in key programmatic areas, facilitate trainings and workshops, develop train-the-trainer curricula and plans, and evaluate the effectiveness of training programs and resources. The Director of Program Training will also be responsible for building out a Learning Management System. All work in this area will be undertaken with a spirit of collaboration and commitment to partnership with Covenant House site leaders and designed from a strengths-based, culturally sensitive, trauma-informed lens.    

 

Essential Duties and Responsibilities 

  • Content Development & Management:  

  • Develop and refine training content, curriculum and resources related to the CH Program Model and in key program areas.   

  • Collect, adapt, and package training developed and delivered by local sites and build a repository of training and resources to be shared across the Federation.  

  • Collaborate with CHI’s Program team to support the rollout of standards, guidelines and best practices around employment and site-based workforce development programs.  

  • Develop a train-the-trainer model, process, and fidelity assessment, as well as facilitator guides, for CHI trainings, support designated training leads at each site. 

  • Plan and oversee delivery of train-the-trainer events for and with sites.  

  • Collaborate with internal and external subject matter experts in the development and delivery of additional training solutions.  

 

  • Training Delivery:  

  • Directly facilitate and deliver trainings and workshops at Covenant House sites, including but not limited to Covenant House’s Foundational Approaches, Shifts in Practice, Motivational Interviewing and Stages of Change, Change Management, Trauma-Informed Practice, Reflective Supervision, Program Model Implementation, etc.  

  • Evaluate materials to ensure principles and skills are being taught in alignment with adult learning theory and in the most learnable ways possible.    

  • Attain certification as an instructor of the Community Resiliency Model and Youth Mental Health First Aid and deliver training in both curricula.   

  • Keep accurate records of the training sessions delivered including records of attendees and evaluations of training effectiveness.  

 

  • Training Management:  

  • Identify, recruit, engage, manage, and evaluate a team of site trainers (aka the “training bench”), including recruitment, scheduling, coordinating travel, and reimbursements, and assess and support teaching abilities across members of the training bench.  

  • Develop a site trainer learning community to connect leads at each site and foster a culture of learning across sites.  

  • Manage a training roadmap comprising trainings across CHI’s Programs, Child and Youth Protection, and Research, Evaluation and Learning teams.  

  • Collaborate with CHI and site People & Culture/HR teams to integrate program training into onboarding and professional development systems and plans. 

 

  • Learning Management System:  

  • Participate in selecting the Learning Management System (LMS) for the Federation.  

  • Lead the development, build out, and launch of the learning management system (LMS), which involves adapting and building training content and resources into interactive, online training.    

 

  • Program Model Support: 

  • Organize and participate in quarterly data review meetings with sites implementing the Program Model.   

  • Manage the Program Model Fidelity Assessment process with participating sites.  

  • Audit delivery of Program Model training by site trainers. 

  • Support the adoption and integration of new trainings and/or approaches into the Model. 

  

  • Evaluation and Quality Improvement:   

  • Manage the training survey feedback process and related improvement plans.   

  • Assess effectiveness of each program training to ensure site staff adequately learned the target lessons and skills.   

  • Continuously evaluate the CHI training program, instructors and materials to find better or less expensive ways to teach site staff in the future. 

  • Conduct a biannual review and update of training curricula and supportive materials.  

  • Continuously review new training programs and studies presenting more effective ways to teach, including evaluating new approaches to teaching desired skills and designing more efficient teaching practices.  

 

  • Additional Responsibilities:  

  • Support the development of a process to more systematically obtain staff and youth feedback on their experiences, to elevate and prioritize staff and youth voice in programs, training, materials, research and policies.   

  • Support the adoption and integration of new trainings and/or approaches to support CHI’s Journey Home, including but not limited to prevention and after care, and developing models for training other youth serving organizations.   

  • Manage a life skills pilot through the implementation of the LifeSkills Reimagined curricula.  

  • Collaborating on development and fundraising efforts, including but not limited to grant proposals, reports, and publications.  

  • Other duties as assigned by the VP, Programs or Chief Program Officer. 

 

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

  • Experience developing and delivering training content and related resource packages for groups via in-person, virtual and learning management system delivery; experience developing content in an online learning environment is strongly preferred. 

  • Knowledge and use of adult learning styles in previous training experiences. 

  • Experience in the homeless services sector, non-profit and/or social services strongly preferred.  

  • Exceptional project management, organizational and interpersonal skills required.  

  • Highly developed communication skills, both verbal and written; ability to interact with a diverse range of people.  

  • Strong technical skills required; experience with Smartsheet and Canva preferred; experience with MS365, SharePoint, and Google suites required.  

  • Ability to work both independently and collaboratively, with a curious and collaborative mindset. 

  • Experience working in a multi-cultural environment and working with people from a variety of backgrounds with a customer service orientation.  

  • Spanish fluency (written and oral) strongly preferred.  

 

Minimum Qualifications 

  • Bachelor’s degree in social work, public health, nonprofit administration, or a related field.   

  • 5 or more years of program leadership experience in social service administration, preferably in youth homeless services.

 

Travel Required  

  • You will be required to travel for this position, up to 40%.

 

Our Community

Our critical mission demands that we have all voices at the table. A team of diverse people, perspectives, and experiences is smarter, stronger, and more effective for our young people. At Covenant House, every team member is valued, respected, heard, and supported, and we welcome honest and courageous self-reflection on any aspects of our work that are based on biased or outdated viewpoints. We deliberately create opportunities for our staff to grow and thrive. 

 

Covenant House International is an Equal Opportunity Employer and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any kind: CHI is committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all employees and to providing employees with a work environment free of discrimination and harassment. All employment decisions at CHI are based on business needs, job requirements, and individual qualifications, without regard to race, color, religion, belief, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran status, family or parental status, disability status, or any other status protected by the laws or regulations in the locations where we operate. CHI will not tolerate discrimination or harassment based on any of these characteristics and encourages all qualified applicants to apply. 

 

Our offices are located in Manhattan, however, this position will be remote for the foreseeable future.