Professional Mentor; Friend - Los Angeles

Friends of the Children – Los Angeles (Friends LA) is looking for a passionate, committed, professional mentor, who we call Friends, to support our mission to impact generational change by empowering youth who are facing the greatest obstacles through relationships with trained full-time professional mentors—12+ years—no matter what. Our model is proven to break the cycle of generational poverty for children who face the most barriers by providing paid professional mentors to thousands of youth across the country.

A Friend works intensively with eight (8) children and their families as a positive adult role model to develop a caring, trusting and sustained relationship with the whole family. A Friend will set positive expectations; nurture and promote their strengths, talents and abilities; help assure physical and emotional well-being; teach life and academic skills; provide enrichment activities; and model responsible behavior.

A Friend will fully document activities and participate in an ongoing evaluation process. Friends will work primarily one-on-one with their children, and link and support their families to resources as appropriate. A Friend must also know, understand, honor and support the organization’s mission, vision, values, principles and policies, and be able to clearly articulate the organization’s function.

• Develop and sustain a long term, caring, trusting and accepting relationship with each child and their families;
• Spend time with children, one‑on‑one and in the classroom;
• Develop, maintain and follow a Roadmap or Transition Plan for each child;
• Set realistic expectations and goals based on each child’s strengths, talents, abilities and needs;
• Teach life skills and healthy habits to contribute both to basic development and learning, and to contribute to building positive self‑esteem;
• Develop a talent/skill/area of interest with each child to help develop positive self‑esteem and experience growing confidence;
• Provide enrichment resources and activities which include opportunities for cultural awareness, diversity and community service;
• Contribute to children acquiring behavioral management skills, tolerance, respect for others, courtesies and compassion;
• Develop positive relationships with families, teachers and others involved in each child’s life;
• Work closely with teachers to support each child’s academic journey;
• Reinforce basic academic skills and learning;
• Model and promote good problem solving and decision‑making skills;
• Participate in the programming and resources available through the organization, effectively utilizing program resources to meet the needs of each child;
• Maintain spending within budgetary guidelines;
• Complete and distribute enrollment forms, activity journals, monthly and quarterly reports, expense reports and evaluation materials accurately and in a timely manner;
• Attend and actively participate in team meetings, trainings, and staff functions;
• Provide information and support to development team and related activities as needed;
• Develop positive relationships with caregivers and engage them in their child’s development;
• Link children and families to resources, as appropriate;
• Work closely with your supervisor and program team to assess parent’s needs, develop family goals, and link families and children to community resources as appropriate;
• Support caregivers in the home with positive role modeling, creating structure and discipline for their children;
• Fulfill other responsibilities as required.

• Ability to relate to children and to develop and sustain trusting, supportive relationships with them;
• Strong interpersonal skills;
• Demonstrated ability to work with children in varied capacities and settings to help them learn and grow;
• Ability to cultivate trusting relationships with children, caregivers, teachers and community members;
• Ability to maintain confidentiality and communicate appropriately within the workplace;
• Ability to use creativity and initiative in planning activities to continually develop children;
• Ability to work independently in diverse environments with limited supervision;
• Ability to work as…