EPIC Academy is a new small high school opening fall of 2009 in the South Chicago community. In partnership with Expeditionary Learning Schools, EPIC Academy focuses on hands-on activities and project-based learning that engages students in mastering 21st Century skills and completing real-world innovation challenges.   Join the founding team and help to transform public education in Chicago and students' lives.   For more information on our school, please visit our website, www.epicacademy.org .

We are seeking a candidate who will be responsible for coordinating intervention services that encourage student and family academic and social development; as well as fostering support for family crises drastically effecting student achievement.

Qualifications:

·        Must possess and maintain:

·        Certification as a social worker, MSW preferred

·        Training and/or experience in the development of intervention teams to respond to adolescent student issues

·        Strong communication, management, and leadership skills

·        Facilitation skills in providing mentoring and counseling across all targeted areas

·        Ability to bring a myriad of intervention techniques and personalize to individual student needs

Startup/May & June Responsibilities:

·        Begins outreach with community and city-wide organizations to build a contact list of networks that can act as safety supports and interventions for students, ensuring that we have direct contacts that can be reached quickly.  In addition, these types of efforts will also support building connections with groups that could serve as partners for Innovative Change Projects.

·        Host community organization networking events to create focus groups for the school to better assist   students with extreme challenges

·        Oversees family intake process during enrollment days to ensure we have accurate family information outlining their resources and issues, if any, so that we can best support students that may be struggling socially/emotionally

·        Works to connect families in need with resources over the summer to better allow students to have a stable start at EPIC

·        Sets up filing/tracking system for all students

·        Meets with counselors from elementary schools to build a freshmen 'watch list' and recruits those students to participate in an early summer program (i.e. painting murals, technology setup, etc.)

·        Begin building curriculum resources for support groups and tools for students struggling with different issues (anger management, behavior plans, etc.)

School Year Responsibilities:

·        Acts quickly on referrals from teachers for students with serious social and emotional problems

·        Runs Parent Outreach programs and intervenes quickly with families to connect them with school and community resources

·        Coordinates and runs student support groups

·        Facilitates resources and processes for homeless students

·        Monitors students' emotional and social data and provides regular updates to administration on issues and overall progress assisting students

·        Coordinates student mentoring and support groups

·        Trains faculty members about homelessness and other student social and emotional issue signs and action steps

·        Leads student jury and peer mediation Innovative Change Project