Youth Navigator

About The Centers  

The Centers fights for equity by healing, teaching, and inspiring individuals and families to reach their full potential. We provide health, family, and workforce services at 11 locations throughout Greater Cleveland, creating life-changing solutions for people to lead healthier and more successful lives.  

Our Early Learning Centers and programs provides high-quality care for children during the critical first 2,000 days of life by operating seven high-quality early learning centers, serving children birth through five years old, in Cleveland and the inner-ring suburbs. Because of our high standards, all sites achieved a 5-Star rating on the Step-Up-To-Quality Rating and been recognized and selected to be part of Universal Prekindergarten (UPK) and PRE4CLE.

Wellbeing and Benefits

Providing quality benefits to our staff is important to us. Just as important is our staff’s well-being. That’s why we offer a number of choices from medical to dental to vision plans to meet the different needs of our staff. We support our staff’s financial well-being by providing employer paid long-term disability, a very competitive defined contribution towards retirement and access to a financial advisor when you need it. We have nutrition and fitness coaches available for consultation. We also have a generous time off program as well as other benefits we can share with you based on your individual interests.

About the Role

Job Summary: The Youth Navigator is a full-time position dedicated to supporting young people with accessing the services, resources, and social supports they need to care for themselves. The Youth Navigator reports to the designated supervisor from the selected partner site and meets weekly with the Youth Navigator Coach for consultation and support in delivering YNN services with fidelity. The primary functions of this role include providing direct services to young people (including those pregnant and/or parenting), participating in continuous quality improvement activities, community outreach, collaboration, and continued learning of emerging best practices in serving young people with lived experience in foster care.

Essential Job Duties & Responsibilities

• Responds to inquiries about participation in the YNN, provides referrals, and follows up in a timely manner (including nights and weekends)
• Partners with young people to assess their needs, identify their goals, and provide individualized advocacy to provide an appropriate level of support in achieving their goals
• Communicates empathetically and adjusts practice approach based on the needs of a young person (ability to meet a young person where they are and refrain from judgement)
• Collaborates with diverse young people and organizational partners with an empathetic, young-person centered, strengths-based orientation that prioritizes dignity and respect
• Affirms clients of all identities, and ensures individual practice is culturally responsive and grounded in anti-racist principles
• In partnership with the Youth Navigation Coach, builds and maintains relationships with public and private partners to support referrals
• In partnership with the Program Manager, builds and curates a list of services and resources across the region to serve young people
• Advocates alongside young people for access to services to achieve their goals
• Organizes and hosts events for outreach, public education, and to support young people
• Consistently reflects on practice alignment with IDEA framework to identify opportunities for barrier removal and equity promotion for young people engaged with YNN
• Meets regularly with assigned Youth Navigator Coach to monitor fidelity to the YNN model, review cases, and set goals.
• Documents information about what services are needed and provided as specified by the YNN model
• Identifies trends across service episodes and shares common barriers and facilitators that young people are experiencing
• Implements strategies as defined by the statewide CQI plans and participates in CQI activities as assigned by the Youth Navigator Coach and Program Manager

Job Qualifications

• High school diploma required, associate’s or bachelor’s degree in Social Work, Public Health, Education, or related field is preferred
• Experience working directly with young people and/or case management experience preferred
• Must have a valid driver’s license in the State of Ohio.

Core Competencies

• Customer Focus: Is dedicated to meeting the expectations and requirements of internal and external customers; gets first-hand customer information and uses it for improvements in products and services; acts with customers in mind; establishes and maintains effective relationships with customers and gains their trust and respect.
• Marshaling Resources: Providing clients with resources beyond the agency’s capabilities. Seeking resources from local, state, and federal government agencies to address client needs.
• Verbal and Written Expression: Ability to communicate in clear language and to adjust one’s use of language to the audience’s level. Shares ideas and information across diverse audiences to drive business performance and effectiveness.
• Resilience and Adaptable: Demonstrates high level of tolerance for stress; copes well with ambiguity or setbacks; receptive and adaptive to work-related changes.
• Diversity and Inclusion: Values all people for their unique talents and divergent viewpoints. Actively encourages practices that support diversity, inclusion, and cultural competence.

The Centers is an Equal Opportunity Employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.