SWITCH Life Coach - Memphis Allies

Who is Youth Villages?

Youth Villages is a nonprofit organization striving to help troubled youth and families live successfully. We are a team of 3,000 individuals who’ve come together across over 20 states to change the landscape of child welfare and juvenile justice across the country.  Our work involves providing an array of counseling and treatment services to youth with severe emotional and behavioral problems. 

Eighty-four percent of those who go through treatment are succeeding two years after leaving our program. These youth are living at home, remaining in school, and are not experiencing trouble with the law.

We believe strongly in investing in and supporting our employees. We offer candidates opportunities to develop a career and be part of a positive change in our country’s treatment of at-risk youth and families. 

Program Overview

Launched by Youth Villages, Memphis Allies is a bold collaborative initiative, bringing together community groups and resources to reduce gun violence and create safer neighborhoods and more opportunity for adults and their families.

The Life Coach’s main responsibility is to help reduce gun violence in the City.

• Manages a case load of 6-8 individuals ages 17-35.
• Meets with clients at least once per week, can meet more as needed
• Successfully establish a relationship with a prospective client and enroll him/her in Memphis Allies program
• Conducts group therapy sessions in collaboration with Clinical Specialists and/or other Life Coaches
• Help the client develop their personalized life plan: will work with client to understand his/her expressed short and long term goals (developing job skills, securing employment); lay out key milestones in achieving those goals; and, work closely with the Case manager to determine necessary services for attaining milestones.
• Mentorship: Provide mentorship and unconditional support including:
  • Supporting clients through hardship during times of particular difficulty, and even of great loss
  • Day-to-day encouragement, guidance, and listening
  • Creating hope and clarifying a path forward for clients
  • Celebrating clients, who deserve to not only feel supported in times of challenge – but also recognized and appreciated for achievements, milestones, and important events.
• Will act with the urgency required by gun violence intervention work, responding to referrals - both those from Memphis Allies Outreach Workers and external partners – and make immediate contact within 24 hours.
• Have an initial sole focus on establishing a positive and trusting relationship with each participant. Spending in-person time with participant should be the initial focus.
• Conduct outreach in the community to locate individuals identified as very high risk
• Work with case manager and clinician to create Treatment Plan 
• Use relationship with each participant to begin influence their decision making in order to improve outcomes
• Maintain consistent contact with each participant on the case load in compliance with their phase
• Document case management efforts, update individual case files, and make all required entries into the data management system.
• Attend all mandatory meetings and trainings, including weekly staff meetings, team meetings, consultations, etc.

Requirements:

• High School Diploma/ or equivalent required
• Credibility and cultural competency. Life Coaches’ work is fundamentally about trust, for which these assets and skills will be critical. And like Outreach Workers, this means that many Life Coaches will share lived experience with clients.
• Transformative mentorship. Memphis Allies believes that the mentorship Life Coaches will provide is a service.
• And like all services, effective mentorship requires diverse skills including motivational interviewing, strengths identification, and basic familiarity with cognitive-behavioral interventions.
• 24/7 availability. Life Coaches will be fully committed to meeting the needs of their clients, whatever those needs may be and whenever they might arise. Life Coaches will therefore be available at all times to help their clients - but will also be supported in making time and space away from their work, as necessary.

Benefits

Medical, Dental, Prescription Drug Coverage and Vision
401(k)
2 weeks paid vacation
12 paid sick days per year
11 paid holidays

Paid Parental Leave
Mileage & Cell Phone Reimbursement (when applicable)

Tuition reimbursement and licensure supervision

Growth & development through continuous training

Clinical and administrative advancement opportunities

Youth Villages is an equal opportunity employer and provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.

Youth Villages is committed to not only advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace but also in our work with children and young adults. We know that children, families and young people of color can face inequity in child welfare and justice systems, and we train our employees to build the skills they need to work with the communities that we serve, as well as, other employees from different cultures and backgrounds. Youth Villages is opposed to racism in any of its forms and is committed to inclusion, equity, and diversity. We believe that respect for each other is crucial in the work that we do each day.