Early Childhood Professional Development Specialist

General Description

Children thrive when they spend their most critical years with dedicated, educated, trained, and well-compensated individuals. 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 and program quality across New York State.

The Informal Family Child Care Project (IFCC) is a program of the New York Early Childhood Professional Development Institute endeavors to elevate the quality of care for children in home-based child care settings in New York City by assessing and supporting the needs of, advocating for, and increasing the skills and capacity of home-based child care providers through the design and facilitation of an array of comprehensive professional development opportunities. Many parents choose trusted, familiar adults (family members, friends, and local neighbors not required to be licensed) to care for their young children because they understand the families’ language, culture, alternating work schedules, or health and special needs. The IFCC project provides professional learning support to home-based child care providers to create an environment that is optimal for the development of children birth – 8 years, including children with disabilities that require tailored assistance.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION

The IFCC project is seeking a full-time professional development training and facilitation specialist to support home-based child care providers. The PD Specialist will be a dynamic, bilingual early childhood trainer with knowledge of general education and special needs pedagogical strategies that can deliver professional development in child development and early learning to family child care providers in New York City. This position will report to the Director of the IFCC project.

Other Duties

• Learning Design and Facilitation of Special Needs and General Education Trainings
• Develop and facilitate general education and special needs professional development training for IFCC home-based providers both in-person or virtually, as determined by the needs of the project.
• Foster learning communities that build adult capacity to sustain best practices within general education and special needs home settings.
• Maintain professional relationships with community partners to share resources with IFCC providers.
• Work collaboratively with the IFCC team to create and implement new professional learning content and strategies.
• Prepare and deliver reports on training sessions as required by the project.
• Share feedback about the professional development sessions with the IFCC team as necessary and relevant.
• With IFCC and PDI leadership and communications team, develop and coordinate a series of two-way communication text messages of targeted content-driven messages that build on existing training content, and general content related to child development, adult-child interactions and resources for home-based providers.
• Attend staff meetings and trainings as required.
• Perform special projects and other duties as assigned

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications

• Fluent in spoken and written Spanish
• Extensive knowledge of and experience in child development/early childhood education (in both fields, General Education and Special Needs)
• BA in Early Childhood Education, Special Education, Psychology, Social Work, or other related field
• Minimum of 5 years of direct experience in early childhood settings (special education or general education), childcare home visitor, professional development coach, or childcare provider
• Demonstrated experience with designing and facilitating group learning for adults, informed by knowledge of and experience in adult learning theory
• Excellent communication skills and ability to motivate people
• Experience working with diverse populations that considers impact on communities of color and immigrants
• Proficient in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)
• Ability to travel around the five boroughs of NYC
• Available evenings and weekends, as needed, to facilitate sessions

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s degree in Early Childhood Education or Special Education
• Currently possess or eligible for NYS trainer and/or coaching credentials (T-TAP)
• Experience with home-based child care or family engagement
• Profile in the Aspire Registry, New York’s early childhood workforce registry
• Technical knowledge or familiarity with G suite, Teams and SharePoint

Physical Requirements

• This is a 70/30 hybrid position, subject to change. Remote work arrangements are not a right or entitlement of employment and, as such, are discretionary and subject to operational needs unless otherwise provided by the CUNY Flexible Work Guidelines. A laptop may be provided if needed to support working remotely.
• This role routinely uses standard office equipment such as personal computers, laptops, tablets, smart phones, photocopiers, filing cabinets and presentation equipment.
• While performing these duties, the employee is required to perform physical activities such as, but not limited to, lifting items (up to 20 pounds), bending, reaching, and sitting for prolonged periods of time. Reasonable accommodations will be made for employees with disabilities or other needs per RFCUNY policies.
• Ability to travel to other sites as needed.

How to Apply

Provide a resume and cover letter specifying your qualifications, experience, and interest relevant to this position.

Ethnically, culturally, and linguistically diverse candidates are welcome and encouraged to apply.

RFCUNY Benefits

RFCUNY Employee Benefits and Accruals

About the Research Foundation

The Research Foundation of The City University of New York (RFCUNY) was established as a not-for-profit educational corporation chartered by the State of New York in 1963. RFCUNY supports CUNY faculty and staff in identifying and obtaining external support (pre-award) from government and private sponsors and is responsible for the administration of all such funded programs (post-award).

RFCUNY stands between CUNY’s principal investigators (PIs) and the sponsors who support them and strives to fulfill its essential responsibilities to both groups. Working closely with individual PIs and Grants Officers on the campuses, RFCUNY oversees employment, accounting, audit, reporting, purchasing, and special responsibilities that include management of a planned giving program; liaison with governmental agencies and foundations; negotiation of agreements; facility construction and renovation; protection and commercialization of intellectual property; and compliance with applicable standards in research involving human subjects, animal care, environmental and radiological safety, and conflicts of interest.

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement

The Research Foundation of the City University of New York is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action/Americans with Disabilities Act/E-Verify Employer. It is the policy of the Research Foundation of CUNY to provide equal employment opportunities free of discrimination based on race, color, age, religion, sex, pregnancy, childbirth, national origin, disability, marital status, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, marital status, domestic violence victim status, arrest record, criminal conviction history, or any other protected characteristic under applicable law.