Opportunities

We are currently looking for a Program Leader for the 2019/2020 school year. To apply for this position click the Inquire button at the bottom of this page, attach your resumé to the email, and tell us a little bit about yourself. A member of our team will reply to you directly. We are aiming to fill this position by July 1st, 2019.

Established in 1984, Understanding Disabilities, Inc. (UD) is a non-profit organization that provides disability awareness education in the Reading Public Schools. UD provides information about a range of disabilities through its school and community programming. UD programming highlights the abilities of people with disabilities and help students see each other as individuals and friends.

The Board of Directors sets out the following responsibilities of the Program Leader (PL) as integral to meeting UD goals. The responsibilities may be amended by UD and PL when appropriate.

Requirements

This position requires a personal commitment to the importance of disability awareness education. The Program Leader needs to be highly self-motivated, responsible, organized and energetic. The Program Leader must work in good faith with staff and other board members as partners towards achievement of UD goals. The Program Leader must interpret the organization’s work and values to the community, and represent the organization as a goodwill ambassador.

Responsibilities

The Program Leader is responsible for implementing, organizing, and supervising all disability awareness programming. The Program Leader will ensure that UD programming is relevant, is of high quality, and achieves UD’s mission. This position reports directly to the Executive Director.

Programming

  • Schedule, administer, and be responsible for the delivery of all UD lessons, ensuring that they meet UD’s high standard of program quality, consistency, and constancy
    • Serve as Lesson Leader for one class per lesson, spread out over five elementary schools
    • Fill in as Lesson Leader (LL) or Classroom Assistant (CA) when volunteers are sufficient for these roles
    • Communicate effectively and professionally with all representatives of Reading Public Schools, including staff, teachers, principals, and the superintendent’s office
  • Ensure that all lessons adhere to the curriculum as designed and approved;
  • Establish and maintain a strong network of Lesson Leaders (LL)
    • Find and recruit sufficient Lesson Leaders to teach all classes
    • Provide training and constructive feedback to all LLs so each is fully prepared to teach
    • Communicate program and curriculum changes to LLs;
  • Find and train a Recruiter of Classroom Assistants (CAs) at each elementary school
    • Oversee the recruiting of CAs to ensure appropriate classroom coverage
    • Ensure CAs are fully prepared for their job;
  • Recruit and hire elementary school lesson speakers and ensure they are appropriately prepared with message for the age group; schedule and introduce middle school speakers;
  • With UD Board, manage and help present to UD’s important constituencies, such as Curriculum Nights, PTOs;
  • Participate wherever possible in UD events;
  • Submit regular communications to school newsletters, in coordination with Marketing Chair;
  • Manage scheduling processes. Identify any obstacles and recommend improvements to the Executive Director;
  • Carry out UD’s processes for gathering and documenting feedback from students, teachers, and administrators;
  • Provide input to the Curriculum Oversight Chair;
  • Provide a monthly status report to the Board of Directors, which will include:
    • Yearly planning Calendar for Board Approval in August (per format Program Leader planning calendar)
    • Actual results vs. plan monthly
    • Quarterly Evaluation of programs
    • Actual Time Allocation Spreadsheet updated monthly

Organizational

  • Attend and actively engage in meetings of the UD Board of Directors;
  • Assist the Board of Directors in designing and implementing new mission-related initiatives, where appropriate;
  • Assist the Board of Directors in policy decisions, fundraising, and increasing the overall visibility of UD, where appropriate;
  • Actively engage and energize volunteers;
  • Actively participate in communications with client groups and the community about our mission, program, and events with the goal of maintaining UD as a respected brand.

Compensation

Be in creating a culture of inclusion and respect in schools. Be a leader in innovation in disability awareness. In addition to the personal satisfaction and rewards of contributing to the development of our children and community, this position provides the successful candidate interaction with school children, teachers, and administrators, the school system, as well as exposure to a non-profit organization. Varies between 15-20 hours a week during the school year, most hours occurring during the school day. Some hours in August. Renewable contract. Click Inquire below for more information.

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