Make a Difference in Your Community!     DCFS Director Qualified Early Learning Site Manager Opportunities!   The Early Learning Site Manager provides year round operational leadership to the Preschool Program, including Preschool Enrichment Programs.  This role is accountable to ensure that there is high-quality programming to meet the community needs and goals for program enrollment, quality, member experience, and budget. This includes enhancing the member/participant experience and member retention, delivering on program enrollment goals and revenue/budget and ensuring a safe environment for all members, participants and staff. Provides leadership and supervision that drives team engagement, performance and development.   The YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago is an evolving global model of social enterprise and innovation. Joy is rooted in what we do and how we do it. This model architects culturally relevant, shared experiences, breaking barriers, and fostering connections among generations and diverse communities, through physical and digital avenues. The entire organization remains focused on helping human beings find their value and share it with the world.  The YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago is committed to strengthening community by connecting all people to their potential, purpose, and each other.      Our staff is the Y's greatest asset. Our teams provide valuable skills, knowledge, and passion that is essential to the contribution and positive impact in our communities, which is why we offer Y employees numerous perks and benefits, including: - Comprehensive benefits package for eligible employees  - Opportunity for eligible employees to participate in the Y's retirement fund  - Be part of a team that is passionate about building and sustaining an inclusive and equitable environment for all staff, volunteers, and members - Do meaningful work and contribute to the advancement of the YMCA vision by meeting the needs of the people in our communities - Complimentary Adult YMCA membership and an employee discount on select programs - Career advancement opportunities - grow your career at the Y! Minimum Requirements:  - Associate’s Degree or equivalent in Early Childhood Education or a related field. - 18 credit hours in Early Childhood Education or child development related coursework and 3 credit hours in an administration course. - 2 years or more experience in early childhood related setting. - ExceleRate IL Director Credential Level 1 preferred. - 1 to 3 years or more experience in youth and family programming providing high-quality experience to program participants, with at least 2 years of supervisor or team leadership experience.  - Commitment to, and a passion for, the YMCA of Metro Chicago’s mission. - Demonstrated ability to accomplish goals through others, whether direct reports or through influence. - Strategic thinking skills including effective planning, setting goals, monitoring progress, tracking results and making appropriate adjustments to plans based on circumstances and context. - Ability to organize and prioritize multiple, competing priorities to maximize personal and team effectiveness. - Budget and expense management experience, with the ability to assist in managing budgets to plan. - Customer service orientation, with the ability to effectively communicate on a regular basis with internal customers, build relationships, manage customer expectations and take responsibility for a high level of service. - Demonstrated interpersonal skills with the ability to effectively build and maintain relationships with customers, team members and other stakeholders and constituents. - Intermediate proficiency in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel), email; ability to learn and adapt to new technology. - Demonstrates evidence of YMCA Leader competencies in previous experience or practice. - Meet physical qualifications required as outlined in job description. The YMCA will provide reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities. - Based on funding requirements, must be willing to register with the Gateways Registry and complete all required online training for designated program area.   Child Abuse Prevention Supports the YMCA's commitment to child abuse prevention by: - Reporting any items that may provide a health or safety hazard to staff, members, or guests to your supervisor - Following all policies and procedures related to keeping children safe in our facilities and programs, including those related to the monitoring and supervision of children - Reporting any suspicious behavior and violation of policy and procedures to your supervisor - Completing all child abuse prevention training as required.

Are you looking for a FUN Summer Job? The YMCA is hiring Summer Day Camp- Counselors for 2024   Join us for the experience of a lifetime!   At the Y, we create an exciting, safe camp environment for kids and staff to have an unforgettable summer. While campers are taking part in in unique experiences and adventures, our SummerDay Camp Counselors are developing leadership skills and confidence while making lasting friendships and memories.   Summer Day Camp Counselors receive comprehensive training, a Monday-Friday work schedule that leaves your weekends free, field trips to fun places, the chance to meet and work with an amazing diverse group of people, a free Y family membership, discounted programs and lots of opportunity for growth! The Summer Day Camp Counselor serves as a professional role model for our campers by leading through example and guiding campers through recreational activities that teach life skills, encourage healthy and safe behaviors and create a positive camper experience. The Summer Camp Counselor ensures that each youth has adequate supervision including ensuring that no youth is unsupervised at any time. As a Summer Day Camp Counselor, you are responsible to: - Promote the YMCA, provide excellent customer service and create an outstanding camper experience for children, parents and families. - Lead recreational activities with campers, including but not limited to: arts and crafts, sports, social recreation, songfests, nature hikes, archery, and other games and hobbies - Instruct campers using various teaching methods and modifies activities as needed to ensure that campers of all ages and experience levels are engaged - Teach socially acceptable behaviors to campers by serving as a role model and by using age-appropriate positive reinforcement and behavior management strategies - Communicate consistently with supervisors, team leaders, unit leaders and other team members to ensure everyone is kept abreast of camp activities and schedule - Supports camp activities as assigned by supervisor, including any specialty camp activities - Ensures the physical and emotional health and safety of campers by being safety conscious, following all established YMCA standards and critically evaluating situations for potential risks - Ensures compliance with established rules and regulations to ensure safety - Monitors campers and counselors and provides corrective coaching and intervention as necessary - Set-up facilities and/or equipment for activities and stores equipment appropriately after use and work to keep camp facilities clean at all times What do you need to be a Summer Day Camp Counselor?    - A commitment to and a passion for working with diverse youth - Enjoy being outdoors, are creative and not afraid to work and play hard - Your experience in camping, childcare, education, recreation, sports or related is a plus but not required - You will be 16 years of age or older by the start of camp - Excellent verbal communication skills, including the ability to clearly and concisely present ideas and concepts and tailor communication to multiple audiences - Passion for working with diverse youth and ability to provide a high-quality of instruction using age-appropriate practices - Proven ability to establish constructive relationships and interact as a positive role model - Continuous learner who leverages opportunities for learning and applies new knowledge and skills - Meets physical qualifications required as outlined in job description - The YMCA will provide reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities Child Abuse Prevention Supports the YMCA’s commitment to child abuse prevention by: - Reporting any items that may provide a health or safety hazard to staff, members or guests to your supervisor - Following all policies and procedures related to keeping children safe in our facilities and programs, including those related to the monitoring and supervision of children - Reporting any suspicious behavior and violation of policy and procedures to your supervisor - Completing all child abuse prevention training as required

Make a Difference in Your Community! Community Assessment Research Assistant- Internship Opportunity   This position is an unpaid internship   The YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago’s Research & Evaluation (R&E) team seeks a dedicated Research Assistant to support our community assessment work. The R&E team is responsible for driving cross-functional evaluation and impact measurement throughout the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago, in addition to knowledge transfer and dissemination via research efforts. This team spearheads association-wide evaluation and assessment to optimize the quality of programs and services provided at Y locations across Chicagoland, and at sites in Wisconsin and Michigan. The R&E team leads and supports a variety of research initiatives aimed at the Y’s essential services, which include, but are not limited to housing, food security, early learning, violence prevention, health equity, and economic empowerment. Another one of the R&E team's responsibilities is to understand the strengths, needs, and wants of the communities we serve and hope to serve. The Department’s leading goal is to raise the Y as a vital community asset providing high-quality, innovative programs and services while advancing equity and holistically healthy communities. Community assessment is a pivotal component of achieving this goal, and a primary focus for this position.    Our staff is the Y's greatest asset. Our teams provide valuable skills, knowledge, and passion that is essential to the contribution and positive impact in our communities, which is why we offer Y interns numerous perks and benefits, including: - Being part of a team that is passionate about building and sustaining an inclusive and equitable environment for all staff, volunteers, and members - Do meaningful work and contribute to the advancement of the YMCA vision by meeting the needs of the people in our communities - Complimentary YMCA membership  - Career advancement opportunities - grow your career at the Y! The Community Assessment Research Assistant will support a community assessment in one of the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago’s service areas. Tasks may include (but are not limited to): - Managing relationships with YMCA staff and local community partners to support the overall community assessment project. - Developing tools for and managing qualitative and quantitative data collection to understand the needs and assets of the community. - Analyzing quantitative and qualitative data using a strengths-based approach. - Obtaining and analyzing secondary data at the community level. - Writing a report based on the findings of the community assessment. - Disseminating the findings of the community assessment to a variety of audiences/stakeholders. - Supporting other research and evaluation efforts across the association (optional, if interested). Preferred Qualifications - Bachelor’s Degree in social sciences, humanities, economics, or related field and/or equivalent experience. - One or more years of experience collecting, managing, and analyzing qualitative and quantitative data. Non-professional experiences such as that gained in education or other lived experience opportunities count. - Experience in working with Excel and/or Google Sheets. - Familiarity with online survey systems preferred (such as Alchemer). - Experience with data visualization, data organization, and processing. - Comfortable learning new data systems and analysis methods/software. - Demonstrated ability to manage projects, including developing project requirements, developing and tracking key milestones, stakeholder management, and related project management skills. - Ability to travel within the Chicagoland area to visit the community of interest and attend activities requiring assessment support (car is not required, just the ability to get to site locations). - Commitment to and passion for the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago’s mission. - Demonstrated critical thinking and analytical skills; ability to research, - identify, and analyze relevant trends and qualitative/quantitative data. - Demonstrated ability to build collaborative, effective relationships with diverse stakeholders and team members. The community assessment will take place in one of the YMCA service areas. As part of the R&E team, this role will work closely with multiple stakeholders including external stakeholders, Y leadership, program directors, and other staff. There may be opportunities to support other aspects of the R&E team’s work through this position. This role will require someone who is detail-focused, is a strategic thinker,and has experience in community assessment processes.   This position is an unpaid opportunity with a flexible start and end date dependent upon the availability of the applicant. The number of hours per week for the project is also flexible, likely between the range of 10-20 hours. This position will be hybrid, with the opportunity to attend in-person meetings at the YMCA office and with some required visits to the select community. If you need accommodations to be fully remote, we will consider that.   The R&E team is seeking an individual with interest and experience with the above skills. We encourage you to apply even if you do not meet every single criterion - we value individuals who demonstrate dedication to equity and hold the foundations to supporting evaluation and research efforts.   Child Abuse Prevention Support the YMCA’s commitment to child abuse prevention by: - Reporting any items that may provide a health or safety hazard to staff, members or guests to your supervisor - Following all policies and procedures related to keeping children safe in our facilities and programs, including those related to the monitoring and supervision of children - Reporting any suspicious behavior and violation of policy and procedures to your supervisor - Completing all child abuse prevention training, as required