School Network Staff Senior Manager of School Networks
Job Description
About NYC Kids RISE
NYC Kids RISE is a nonprofit organization working to expand economic opportunity and equity by providing families, schools, and communities with a way to work together to invest in their children’s future. NYC Kids RISE manages the NYC Kids RISE Save for College Program as a public-private-community partnership with the NYC Department of Education (DOE) and the City of New
York. The Save for College Program is a universal scholarship and savings program designed to make college and career training more accessible and achievable for all NYC public school students—regardless of their family’s income or immigration status. The Save for College Program is a tool that families, along with their schools and neighbors, can use and customize in the way that best fits
into their lives and best supports their dreams for their children.
The Save for College Program launched a three-cohort pilot phase in School District 30 in Fall 2017. Now in its third school year, the Save for College Program has so far enrolled more than 10,000 kindergarten, first-grade, and second-grade students (around 95% of all the students in those grades across District 30)
and opened an NYC Scholarship Account invested in a 529 plan with an $100 initial deposit for each one. Their families can view this account online, open their own college savings account, and start saving their own money in the ways and amounts that make sense for their financial circumstances, earning additional scholarship rewards. At the same time, their communities can contribute to groups of these NYC Scholarship Accounts to further increase the savings in each child’s account and demonstrate their community’s support for every child’s success. Together, these two accounts enable families, friends, schools, communities, and larger institutions and systems to work together to build assets and support expectations for each child’s future.
NYC Kids RISE is driven by the belief that every NYC public school child should have a real financial asset for higher education, starting in kindergarten, and support from every part of their community to achieve educational and economic success. Based on the successes of the pilot phase, NYC Kids RISE
is currently working with its public, private, and community partners to prepare to expand the Save for College Program beyond School District 30 to other NYC school districts. The ultimate vision is to create a universal, community-driven wealth-building platform–embedded in homes, schools, and
neighborhoods–across all 32 school districts in the NYC public school system. This approach draws from a variety of best practices and disciplines across the fields of asset building, child savings accounts, financial empowerment, education, community wealth building, urban poverty, neighborhood
effects and social capital research, collective impact, and more.
Learn more about NYC Kids RISE and the Save for College Program at nyckidsrise.org.
Senior Manager of School Networks
Elementary schools are at the heart of every neighborhood and the most central institution in directly supporting educational achievement, equity, and college and career readiness. As a key piece of building and enabling a universal, community driven wealth-building platform, NYC Kids RISE is working to
support the capacity of school districts and elementary schools throughout New York City to use the Save for College Program as a tool to advance their own goals of college and career readiness, family empowerment, and strong family-community ties.
NYC Kids RISE seeks an exceptional communicator, facilitator, relationship builder, systems-thinker and manager to serve as Senior Manager of School Networks, overseeing the capacity-building efforts to NYC’s schools and school districts to enhance college- and career- going culture using the Save for
College Program. The Senior Manager will work to advance key goals including: 1) Achieving District 30’s stated goal of supporting all eligible parents to activate their NYC Scholarship Accounts; 2) Advancing
how the Save for College Program can be a tool to meet schools’ goals such as enhancing its college-going culture and maintaining strong family-community ties; 3) Integrating the Save for College Program within the fabric of their school community, both within School District 30, and in other school
districts across the City; and 4) Supporting the expansion and sustainability of the Save for College Program to other school districts across New York City.
Key responsibilities will include but not be limited to:
● Lead creation and continuous improvement of systems to support District offices and schools in integrating the Save for College Program, including 1) working with District offices to provide regular communications to schools and school stakeholders about key milestones, 2) coordinating professional learning sessions with key school stakeholders, and 3) supporting participating District offices to develop mechanisms to track and measure school activities and
participation;
● Serve as the NYC Kids RISE liaison and primary point person for the District 30 and District 75 Superintendents’ Offices, the 39 participating schools and school communities and schools and district offices within future school districts where the Save for College Program expands;
● Foster increased awareness and engagement of school communities (school staff, parent leaders, Community based organization partners, etc.) around college and career readiness using the Save for College Program;
● Provide systemic support to the District and to schools around key family engagement events, including (1) developing toolboxes (materials, scripts, mapped integration opportunities) and supporting schools to use the tools as appropriate, (2) designing and facilitating monthly conference calls, professional learning sessions, the annual Save for College Schools Conference, and other opportunities for school stakeholders to provide feedback, share
information, share best practices and lessons learned, create ways for school stakeholders to share knowledge regularly, and build communities of practice around integrating the Save for College Program (3) overseeing and conducting on site school trainings to support schools working directly with families to activate their accounts; (4) attending and/or coordinating other NYC Kids RISE team members to anchor events – resources permitting – to support schools in
execution (5) designing and implementing virtual trainings and meetings in accordance with public health guidelines;
● Support the expansion of the Save for College Program to new school districts through strategic advice, relationship management, partnership development and setting up systems for new school districts informed by work in District 30;
● Work with Data Manager, Chief of Staff and others to determine how to best measure impact of NYC Kids RISE work on schools and school communities;
● Support K-12 financial education curriculum development, including ways to align curriculum with activities in the schools and opportunities to bring together students and parents/guardians, and manage relationships with relevant DOE offices;
● Participate and share in the organization’s work to advance racial equity and anti-oppression in the organization’s and program’s operations and practices; proactively identify opportunities to advance the development of an anti-racist organization; share and solicit ongoing feedback and conversations to advance this work;
● Maintain, and support other staff and volunteers to maintain, strict adherence to NYC Kids RISE data security and privacy policies;
● Support the Director of Communications and Digital to create print and digital materials, tools, and campaigns that align with school based efforts and parent/guardian facing education. Support the development of systems to capture school stakeholder experiences, stories, and best practices to share across networks and with other school communities.
Qualifications
● At least 8 years of experience in campaigns, community organizing, organizational development, behavioral design, economic and community development activities, financial empowerment service-delivery, or comparable experience;
● Experience with training and capacity building for diverse stakeholders;
● Familiarity with designing and executing training modules and providing technical assistance to individuals;
● Superb communication and relationship building skills, including writing, public speaking, and presentation to diverse audiences;
● Adaptable, flexible and effective problem solver in fast-paced settings;
● Proven project manager, highly organized, good attention to detail;
● Strong judgment;
● Knowledge of, and demonstrated interest in, increasing educational opportunities and long-term
financial security for low-income New York City families;
● Experience working in or with New York City schools and/or the NYC Department of Education preferred;
● Experience in a start-up setting preferred.
