Designation: Associate, GEP
Department: Girls Education Program
Location: Telangana
Company Profile:
Room to Read India was established in 2003 and presently has programs in twelve states – Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Telangana, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh. Room to Read is a global organization transforming the lives of millions of children by focusing on literacy and gender equality in education. Learn more at www.roomtoreadindia.org.
Position Overview:
The Associate spends the majority of his or her time providing direct support to the Social Mobilizers (SMs) and assists the Program Officer in carrying out all activities of the Girls’ Education Program (GEP). The position will be field-based and will involve frequent travel to the areas of work. The work will entail providing direct support to social mobilizers, supporting and sometimes facilitating SM trainings, working 1:1 and in groups with Social Mobilizers (SMs) and Program Facilitators (PFs)regularly – ideally weekly to ensure they are effective in their roles in working with girls, and when needed modeling effective life skills or mentoring sessions with girls. They will also be responsible for strengthening linkages with like- minded organizations, liaising with block/district level officials, regular program and financial tracking, collecting program data and entering it into Room to Reads database and determining and delivering material support for girls participating in the program. The Program Associate reports to the Program Officer and manages a set of Social Mobilizers (SMs) and a program administrative assistant.
Responsibilities
Program Implementation and Training (Manage Social Mobilizers and Program Facilitators):
- Set a schedule of weekly and monthly review and feedback sessions with direct reports.
- Support Social Mobilizers (SMs)in planning and facilitating Room to Read’s life skills activities (sessions and clubs). Support may include helping Social Mobilizers (SMs) set her schedule of life skills sessions with girls, observing a session and providing feedback to the Social Mobilizers (SMs), or other activities needed to help SMs succeed in their core responsibilities.
- Support Social Mobilizers (SMs) to mentor girls. This may include providing ideas for group discussion topics and coaching the Social Mobilizers (SMs) on how to handle difficult topics.
- Support the Social Mobilizer in identifying and supporting girls at risk of dropping or failing out of school using Room to Read’s risk and response protocol.
- Facilitate Social Mobilizer weekly and monthly review meetings to discuss and identify solutions to challenges Social Mobilizers (SMs) are facing in program implementation and in working with the girls and communities.
- Develop subsequent plans for capacity building of partner staff (wherever applicable) and Social Mobilisers.
- Conduct annual performance review of Social Mobilizers (SMs).
- Support the Program Officer/Program Manager in conducting the Social Mobilizers’ training. This may include co-facilitating training sessions.
- Directly conduct life skills sessions with girls on critical issues like sexual and reproductive health, career plans and any other as deemed fit.
- Develop a linkage with school authorities and communities are supportive of the program – liase for a Girls Education Program room dedicated for life skills classes and mentoring.
- Participate in regular training and meetings with Room to Read staff.
- Ensure feedback is given to specific Social Mobilizers or Program Assistant and recorded in written regularly.
- Develop a school profile for each of the enhanced schools and regularly update.
- Writes case studies 4 in a year.
- Participate in donor site visits and provide information to donors about Room to Read’s Girls’ Education Program as needed
Family, school and community engagement:
- Lead on parents’ workshop and parents meeting as planned with support from Social Mobilisers.
- Identify local needs of the community and explore topics for probable parents meeting topics.
- Regular meeting and providing program update to school staff including head teachers and creating playing the role of a catalyst promoting the school to think of girl’s education and solutions to problems affecting girls in the catchment area of the school with support from Social Mobilizer.
- Share list of scholarship schemes and entitlements with parents in an accessible form.
- Maintain a database of all the schemes and benefits our girls’ scholars are getting and facilitating all girls to get the same.
Liaising, networking and building linkages at the field, block and district level:
- Plan and organize training and meetings for government officials (block and district level).
- Building linkages with like-minded organizations for referral services for girls after discussing with Program Officer.
- Create links with school management committees, child protection committees and any other as required to create safety nets for girls and conduct regular meetings with them.
- Liaison with school authorities for providing space for life skill centers.
- Exploring and ensuring girls have access to State level scholarships and can also avail citizenship entitlements.
- Initiate networks for girls’ education at district level.
- Support Program Officer for creating visibility of Girls Education Program at District and State level.
Ensuring quality program at the field level:
- Conduct discussions on Program Quality with Social Mobilizers and Program Facilitators during review meeting jointly with Program Officer.
- Share learnings from India Country Office level review meetings.
- Understand and work on factors that may impede quality and fidelity in the field.
- Tracks to see if quality standards are being met and provide updates to Program Officer.
- Use LS observations form and basis this provides feedback to Social Mobilizers and program facilitators.
- Analyzes the availability of materials for Life Skills session, mentoring and material support and provides corrective feedback to program Assistant as needed.
- Capacity building of LSEP teachers in the B-pilot schools for effective implementation of the program.
Planning, Reporting and Documentation:
- Ensure the Social Mobilizers (SMs)is monitoring and keeping records of girls including attendance, academic performance and other program activities as required per the program design. Collect this data and provide it to Program Officer/Program Manager as needed and agree as per data flow mechanisms.
- Ensure the Social Mobilizer is planning, documenting, and reporting on school and home visits and parent meetings and workshops. Collect this data, provide it to the Program Officer/Program Manager, and enter it into Room to Read’s database (Global Solutions Database- GSD as needed).
- Manage program expenses and complete financial reporting as per Room to Read’s accounting and finance policies. Directs Program Assistant appropriately to ensure data as required by People Operations and Accounts is provided in time.
- Document best practices, case studies, photos and lessons learned and shared with the Girls’ Education Program (GEP) Team.
- Track dropouts of girls and understand reasons, flag issues of concern to Program Officer.
Annual planning and budgeting:
- Participate in the annual planning and budgeting process.
- Analysis of budget and unspent related to Program effectiveness
- Ensure budget forecasting for the month and submit bills timely with support of the Program Assistant.
- Assist the Program officer in drafting the project proposal and government related documentation.
Any other:
- Assist Program Officer for program establishment related things new geographies and school selection.
- Oversee all the work related to the Program Assistant.
- Provide adequate directions to ensure smooth functioning of the field teams.
- Conduct departmental review meetings at regional level and state level.
Qualifications:
Required:
- Master’s degree in education/ social work/ development/Gender Studies.
- 3-5 years of relevant work experience in areas of girls’ education, gender and life skills.
- Good interpersonal skills and a team player.
- Basic computer skills.
- Strong organizational and planning skills including the ability to monitor progress of program implementation.
- Ability to juggle multiple priorities simultaneously and take initiative.
- Prior success working closely and building relationships with diverse groups of people.
- Prior experience in facilitation and/or training.
- Experience working with and or counseling adolescent girls.
- Fluency in language spoken by girls.
Preferred:
- Familiarity or experience with gender issues, girls’ education and/or community development preferred.
- English fluency preferred.
- Prior experience of living and/ working in rural and semi urban areas.
- Prior experience of working closely with the community, schoolteachers and government officials.
Compensation:
Application Procedure:
Room to Read is a child-safe organization; all personnel are expected to adhere to Room to Read’s Child Protection Policy and Child Protection Code of Conduct.
Room to Read is proud to be an equal opportunity employer committed to identifying and developing the skills and leadership of people from diverse backgrounds.