Careers at RFCUNYJob Openings

MISSION

Children need to spend their most critical years with dedicated, educated, trained, and well-compensated individuals in order to thrive. The New York Early Childhood Professional Development Institute leads the work to establish and implement an early childhood workforce system to ensure funding, standards and competencies, career development resources, qualifications and credentials, professional development (training and strengths-based coaching), and program quality assurance and improvement for individuals who work with young children throughout New York. Housed at the City University of New York, the Institute is a fast-paced, dynamic public/private partnership that is committed to the early childhood workforce across New York State.

The CUNY Office of Early Childhood Initiatives focuses on student-parent success at the City University of New York.  The OECI develops and implements funded projects and has a remarkable track record in establishing systems, changing policy, and introducing new paradigms to address persistent and seemingly unsurmountable problems.  We work within higher education as well as with city and state agencies, community-based organizations, and philanthropy to create pathways of success for the early childhood workforce, policy-makers, and families, with a focus on student-parents.

LYFE is a NYC Department of Education program that provides free early childhood education to children of student parents. LYFE makes it possible for student parents to stay on track toward graduating from high school or completing their high school equivalency while parenting. In addition, LYFE supports student parents' transition into parenthood by providing high-quality early childhood education, supportive counseling, academic guidance and advocacy services.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION

The Institute is starting a new project that involves a three-generation approach that maximizes a partnership between the City University of New York’s Office of Early Childhood Initiatives and the NYC Department of Education’s LYFE program. This project will ensure efficient and effective individualized supports for student-parents as they transition to college, graduation, and career development.

The Transition Coordinator, reporting to the University Dean, will serve as a liaison between the LYFE student and the various institutions that they engage with, i.e. the LYFE program, high school, and the CUNY college they will attend. The Transition Coordinator will bring creativity and a solutions-oriented mindset, someone who recognizes the promise and potential of young student parents.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Project Coordination and Reporting 

• Working with LYFE and OECI staff, conduct a barriers and opportunities analysis for NYC DOE student parents who utilize LYFE services, and considering all program elements (systemic and otherwise, and including child care, social supports, academic success, and career readiness services) that support student parent success, including high school graduation and college matriculation.
• Determine quantifiable student success metrics to track and be improved upon.
  • Conduct analysis of analogous evidenced-based/evidence-informed student success initiatives to inform metrics to be used to evaluate the success of this project.
  • Develop a plan to measure success metrics.
• Design evidence-based transition project informed by intensive focus groups and interviews of student-parents and their parents, as well as LYFE staff, and other input and analysis of past practice and student-parent experiences.
  • Test basic premises and explore options that come from focus group conversation.
  • Work with database team to create a database to track goals and progress and other metrics.
• Develop sustainability plan, leveraging existing infrastructure where possible.
  • Identify additional partners, if any, who will have a meaningful role in this project.

College and Career Advising and Support 

• Recruit a group of 35-40 high school students who are participating in the LYFE program.
• Provide intense, individualized support for each participant, including assistance with selecting colleges to apply to, arranging campus tours, supporting the participant’s decision-making process at each step.
• Liaise with campus representatives to identify and mitigate barriers to student-parent success.
• Create relationships with CUNY campus child care centers to connect participants to additional family supports.