Employer Partnership Developer Supporting Refugee Employment

Beautiful Day (BD) is a non-profit granola company with a mission to help refugees connect to their community through business, job training, and community education.

As a 12-year-old social venture, we have integrated adult and youth training programs and broad community education initiatives into the daily production and business activities of a gourmet granola and food company. We’re rooted locally in our state with our kitchen, fulfillment center, and offices located in Providence. We have an active, adventurous board of directors, and a diverse team of 12 full-time and 12 part-time staff, plus contractors and interns. We run an e-commerce store, ship products across the country, participate in local farmers’ markets, and deliver to local grocery stores. Most of our employees are former refugees who understand the challenges immigrants face. For more information about our mission, vision, and products, visit our website at www.beautifuldayri.org.

Position Description

Each year we work with approximately 100 refugee trainees in our Adult, Youth, and Entrepreneurship programs. Our focus is on those who are motivated to find work but face multiple barriers to employment. We are seeking a Employer Partner Developer to cultivate a network of hiring managers or local business representatives to partner with us in our job-training efforts. Representatives would both collaborate on BD curriculum and help equip their respective businesses to be ready to hire refugees. Some of these businesses could serve as work experience sites for youth interns or BD program graduates. Our ultimate goal is to work together to build a more robust, responsive, and hospitable pipeline for refugees and new immigrants to enter employment in Rhode Island.

Responsibilities

• Reach out and cultivate relationships with local business hiring managers (or other reps) to gather a network of high-impact business partners who are eager to engage in practical ways with refugee and new immigrant employment. Establish both formal (e.g., quarterly gatherings) and informal structures to support this network.
• Facilitate sharing of input from the network to our training staff that will help shape our curriculum and ensure that we are equipping trainees to be successful employees.
• Collaborate with BD’s staff team to provide this network with a range of resources such as intercultural training, orientation for supervisors and mentors, ongoing ESL classes, access to translators, info about case-management, tools to resolve differences or navigate difficult intercultural conversations. This could also include opportunities for businesses to volunteer or contribute in-kind or financial support.
• Develop several designated youth-internship, work-experience, or employment sites that are ready to onramp refugees into employment. When appropriate, develop MOU’s to clarify partner commitments.
• Collaborate with our case manager to ensure our trainees that are being considered for employment are a good fit for business partners.
• Communicate well with job developers at our refugee partner agencies as we work together to build an employment pipeline that serves all refugees in our state.
• Track all outreach initiatives, partnerships, and placements in our database (Salesforce) so that we can report on and learn from our efforts.

Skills and Experience

• 3-4 years of experience in non-profit outreach, community organizing, and relationship building in business/professional settings. Energized by getting out into the field to connect with potential employers.
• Great listening and assessment skills. This job requires an ability to understand the needs of businesses as well as hard-to-place refugees in order to align opportunities that benefit both parties.
• Experience making presentations and conducting group trainings.
• Ability to pitch a compelling yet realistic vision for the many ways refugees make amazing employees.
• Familiarity with HR and the hiring/onboarding/job-training processes for businesses who rely on production-type or entry-level jobs.
• Experience (preferred) working with vocational training and education services involving refugees and immigrants.
• Ability to work independently but also with teams. This position is at the crossroads of several departments: Strategic Partnerships/Development, Program/Curriculum, Case Management, Volunteer Coordination.
• Energized by working in a highly diverse, multi-cultural, collaborative environment. Comfortable working across language barriers, including with interpreters.
• Organized, able to multitask, prioritize, and manage moving parts.
• Demonstrated commitment to social justice, refugee resettlement, and/or community- building.
• Curious, resourceful, and not afraid to take risks and make some mistakes.
• Facility with technology a plus.
• Reliable transportation.