Program Manager

General Summary

The Program Manager will lead a team of Child Advocacy Specialists (CASs) and oversee all of their work directly serving CASA’s mission, ensuring that highly qualified staff are providing effective support to volunteers offering quality advocacy in the best interest of children to whom CASA is appointed by the courts. The Program Manager provides motivation, empowerment, guidance and supervision to the CASs while ensuring accountability for meeting CASA of Travis County’s values, policies and standards for volunteer and case management. The Program Manager will fulfill the performance standards of Texas and National CASA, complying with the statutory obligations of guardian ad litem and meeting or exceeding the expectations of the Travis County courts. The Program Manager must have a proven record of exercising cultural humility in their interaction with children and families, as well as knowledge of child welfare policy and legal procedure.

• • With approval from the Senior Director of Advocacy or Director of Advocacy, facilitates committees, ad hoc groups, and trainings as needed to support the vision and mission of the organization.

2.  Case Management and Evaluation

Program Manager will coordinate assignment of all new cases to CASs once the Centralized Case Management process is complete.

• • Ensures that the goal of safe and expeditious permanency for children is always in focus.
  • Ensures that all volunteer and case management activities, theirs or their team's, meet or exceed Texas CASA and National CASA standards and fulfill CASA’s obligations as guardian ad litem under Texas law as well as the expectations of Travis County judges.
  • Collaborates with the Chief Program Officer, Senior Director of Advocacy, Director of Advocacy, Data & Evaluation team, and others, as appropriate, to develop appropriate programmatic outcome measures based on CASA’s mission, vision and strategic goals and to ensure that indicators of those outcome measures are consistently tracked.
  • Assists the Director of Advocacy with program development, evaluation and improvement by compiling and analyzing monthly reports from Salesforce, and submitting them to the Director of Advocacy for continued monitoring of compliance with minimum standards and best practice expectations.
  • Models a commitment to child safety and volunteer engagement.
  • Assists in developing strategies to improve volunteer engagement and retention and, in collaboration with the Director of Volunteer Recruitment & Retention, implements those strategies.
  • Promotes the utilization of family finding and engagement on all cases.
  • Prioritizes data-driven decision-making wherever possible.

3.  Community Awareness & Partnerships

Program Manager builds effective relationships internally and externally and will serve as an official representative of CASA in a wide variety of settings.

• • Assists in problem solving with external stakeholders on case-specific and/or systemic challenges that arise.
  • Supports the CEO and Program Leadership team, as needed, in building relationships with established community partners while working to identify and engage new community partners.

4.  Other duties as required.

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

Required:

1. Experience in personnel management.
2. A minimum of a Bachelor’s degree required. CASA of Travis County welcomes employees from diverse educational backgrounds and degree programs.
3. Demonstrated initiative to identify and solve problems creatively and effectively, prioritizing the needs of the child, volunteer and/or organization.
4. Demonstrated passion for CASA’s mission.
5. Demonstrated ability to contribute to a climate where people are motivated to do their best and manage conflict effectively.
6. Demonstrated ability to hold self and volunteers accountable to performance standards.
7. Demonstrated understanding of child and family advocacy issues that exist in the Texas child welfare system.
8. Demonstrated ability to work under time constraints, be goal-oriented and maintain productive and effective relationships with staff, volunteers and community supporters.
9. Demonstrated excellence in communication, both written and oral.
10. Demonstrated integrity, honesty and ethical conduct.

Preferred:

1. Experience managing paid staff.
2. Experience in child welfare.
3. Spanish/English fluency.

Physical Requirements and Work Environment

The Program Manager will spend the majority of the time in the office and that could involve intermittent physical activities including bending, reaching, sitting and walking during working hours and must be able to lift at least 20 pounds. Additionally it is anticipated that the person will spend several hours of each day seated at a computer. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable a person with physical disabilities to perform the job.