Job Opportunity for Senior Associate, GEP at Room to Read in New Delhi

Position Overview

The Girls’ Education Program (GEP) Associate spends the majority of his or her time providing direct support to the Social Mobilizers (SMs) and assists the Senior Program Officer in carrying out all activities of the 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 SMs 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, liasioning with block/district level officials, regular program and financial tracking, collecting program data and entering it into RtRs database and determining and delivering material support for girls participating in the program. The Senior Program Associate reports to the Program Officer and manages a set of SMs and a program administrative assistant

Roles & Responsibilities

• Program Implementation and Training (Manage Social Mobilizers)
• Set a schedule of weekly and monthly review and feedback sessions with direct reports
• Support SMs in planning and facilitating Room to Read’s life skills activities (sessions and clubs).
• Support may include helping an SM set her schedule of Life Skill session with girls, observing a session and providing feedback to the SM, or other activities needed to help SMs succeed in their ‘core responsibilities’.
• Support SMs to mentor girls. This may include providing ideas for group discussion topics and coaching the SMs on how to handle difficult topics.
• Support the SM in identifying and supporting girls at risk of dropping or failing out of school using Room to Read’s risk and response protocol.
• Facilitate SM weekly and monthly review meetings to discuss and identify solutions to challenges SMs are facing in program implementation and in working with the girls and communities.
• Develop subsequent plan for capacity building of partner staff (wherever applicable) and Social Mobilisers
• Conduct annual performance review of SMs
• Support the PO in developing Capacity-building plan for the Social Mobilizers and also conducting the trainings. This will include visualizing the whole training schedule, developing content and facilitating training sessions.
• Directly conduct life skills sessions with girls on critical issues like sexual and reproductive health, career plans and any other as per need base.
• Participate in regular trainings and meetings with Room to Read staff.
• Ensure feedback is given to specific Social Mobilizers or Program Assistant and recorded in written regularly.
• Working on the sustainability plan in the district where the Program will phase out in couple of years.
• Develop a school profile for each of the enhanced schools and regularly update
• Writes case studies, preferably 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 in 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 a school engagement plan (we may think of rephrasing into catalyzing them to think of girls’ education and solutions to problems affecting girls in the catchment area of the school with support from SM
• Share list of scholarship schemes and entitlements with parents
• Maintain a database of all the schemes and benefits our girls scholars are getting and facilitating all girls to get the same 

Liasioning, networking and  building linkages at the field, block and district level

• Co-ordinate with the Partner NGO
• Plan and organize trainings and meetings for government officials (block and district level)
• Building linkages with like-minded organisations for referral services for girls after discussing with Program Officer
• Create linkages 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 GEP in District and State level  

Ensuring Quality program at the field level

• Conduct discussions on Program Quality with SM during review meeting jointly with PO
• Share learnings from INCO level review meetings
• Understand and work on factors that may impede quality and fidelity on the field
• Tracks to see if quality standards are being met and provide updates to PO
• Use LS observations form  and basis this provides feedback to Social Mobilizers
• Analyzes the availability of materials for LS session, mentoring and material support and  provides corrective feedback to program Assistant as needed 

Planning, Reporting and Documentation

• Ensure the SM 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 to PO as needed and agreed as per data flow mechanisms
• Compilation of GEP MPR and IC and sharing it to PO/SM.
• Ensure the SM is planning, documenting, and reporting on school and home visits and parent meetings and workshops.  Collect this data, provide it to the PO, and enter it into Room to Read’s database (GSD).
• Manage program expenses and complete financial reporting as per RTRs accounting and finance policies. Directs Program Assistant appropriately to ensure data as required by HR and Accounts is provided in time
• Document best practices, case studies, photos and lessons learned and share with the GEP Team.
  Track drop outs of girls  and understand reasons, flag issues of concern to PO 

Annual planning and budgeting

• Participate in the annual planning and budgeting process
• Ensure budget forecasting for the month and submit bills timely with support of the program Assistant
• Supporting PO in expense tracking, fund projection and fund requests
• Any other
• Assist Program Officer for new geographies and school selection
• Oversee all the work related to the Program Assistant
• Provide adequate direction to ensure smooth functioning of the field teams 

Reporting relationship

Reports to the GEP program officer

• Other Significant Relationships to be maintained
• Ensure a client orientation in fulfilling requests of the Social Mobilizers
• Ensure effective liaison with State finance /Admin and HR where required 

Qualifications and experience

Essential

• Masters 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.
• Familiarity or experience with gender issues, girls’ education and/or community development preferred.
• English fluency preferred. 

Preferred

• Prior experience of living and/ working in rural  and semi urban areas
• Prior experience of working closely with the community, school teachers and government officials
• Room to read is a child safe organization. 

Location(s)

India – Main – New Delhi 

To be successful at Room to Read, you will also: 

• Have passion for our mission and a strong desire to impact a dynamic nonprofit organization 
• Be a proactive and innovative thinker who achieves results and creates positive change
• Have a very high level of personal and professional integrity and trustworthiness  
• Embrace diversity and a commitment to collaboration 
• Thrive in a fast-paced and fun environment