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LSNA Job Opportunities

Logan Square Neighborhood Association is seeking a Parent Engagement Institute Data and Communications Manager. The Logan Square Neighborhood Association (LSNA) is a community-based organization advancing diversity, leader development, and models of engagement as the catalyst for social justice.

LSNA develops local leadership to identify, strategize, and organize around significant community issues that impact their lives. LSNA's work is driven by its Holistic Plan, which is collectively revised each year by local leadership and currently contains five strategies for addressing the community's key concerns: building organizational capacity; affordable and inclusive housing; education and community schools; youth development and parent engagement; and immigration.

The Parent Engagement Institute (PEI) is a partnership between LSNA and Southwest Organizing Project (SWOP). PEI builds a network of community organizations and school districts looking to deepen their parent organizing capacity by offering the training, curriculum, coaching, and peer support network to replicate the Parent Mentor Program.

What is the Parent Mentor Program?

Together with our neighborhood schools, Logan Square Neighborhood Association (LSNA) founded the Parent Mentor Program in 1995.  Parent mentors, mainly Latina and Black mothers, help fill persistent equity gaps in their children’s schools by tutoring students in classrooms 2 hours/day. From this immersive classroom experience -- supported by weekly training on instructional practices and community organizing -- the Parent Mentor Program cultivates a strong cohort of leaders at each partner school. United as a group, parent mentors support each other to pursue their dreams; nurture a welcoming and culturally responsive school climate; and organize around broader community issues to build power for Black, Latinx, and working families.

Scaling Up the Parent Mentor Program: The Parent Engagement Institute

In 2005, Southwest Organizing Project (SWOP) successfully replicated the LSNA Parent Mentor Program, and this organizing model quickly spread across their neighborhood schools. As interest began to grow and Harvard Education Press published a book on the Parent Mentor Program, LSNA and SWOP formed the Parent Engagement Institute (PEI) to train community organizations and school districts on the model.

In 2012, LSNA and SWOP won our first joint Parent Mentor victory: establishing a $1 million line item in the state budget to expand the Parent Mentor Program across Illinois. Little by little, we have campaigned to increase that line to expand to more districts. In May 2019, we won an increase to $3.5 million annually.

PEI is the steward of this IL Statewide Parent Mentor Initiative. We train, coach, and mentor 25 grassroots community organizations. This year, 932 parents from 117 high-poverty schools graduated from the Parent Mentor Program in Illinois, from Zion to East St Louis. 125 parent mentor organizers and coordinators – mostly staff who came up themselves through the Parent Mentor Program – participate in PEI’s yearlong calendar of professional development and meetings.

The Parent Mentor Program is a victory that feeds other victories. The Parent Mentor Program has proven to be a wildly successful model for community organizations to build their grassroots leadership capacity. Whether in Chicago or in smaller school districts, and across a range of racial and ethnic communities, we have seen organizations and schools grow strong Parent Mentor Programs and adapt them to their own neighborhood context.

Nationally, PEI trains community organizations outside of Illinois. Classroom and community parent engagement models based on the Parent Mentor Program are currently running in rural Colorado; West Des Moines; rural Arkansas; Newark; and Boston.

Job Description

The Parent Engagement Institute Data and Communications Manager will be responsible for helping us tell our story and reflect on our work. We are seeking someone who can not only develop and maintain reporting and data collection systems for our Statewide Parent Mentor Initiative at nearly 150 schools, but also analyze that data (both quantitative and qualitative) and communicate it to internal and external audiences. We are seeking someone who is both detail-oriented and motivated by the big picture. We are seeking someone who can work closely with current and future academic research partners and can provide patience, structure, and guidance for the grassroots staff throughout the state who are leading the work in their schools and communities. We are seeking someone who would enjoy taking our website and multimedia materials to new heights.

Data Management and Analysis:

  • Work with LSNA and SWOP staff to develop and maintain monthly program reporting system used by over 150 program staff throughout the state

  • Provide structure, support, training, and patience for all staff to understand how to give you the data we need

  • Provide monthly dashboard updates and specific highlights to the PEI team at team meetings

  • Help us think about what other data we need to be collecting and how, particularly through making connections with other programs and campaigns

Research and Evaluation:

  • Work with evaluation team and PEI team on evaluation design and analysis: what do we want to learn, how can we measure it, what have we learned so far, and what other kind of research is needed

  • Work with evaluation team on system to collect over 5,000 pre- and post-surveys per year

  • Seek out and help apply for additional research opportunities that will help us reflect on the Parent Mentor Program and tell new stories

  • Break down the huge amounts of data we have into bite-size pieces for internal and external audiences

  • Respond to data requests from PEI staff, ISBE staff, and public officials

Communications:

  • Work with LSNA communications staff to revamp the Parent Engagement Institute website

  • Develop and maintain communications systems/databases for staff, stakeholders, parent mentors, and graduates

  • Interview parent mentors, principals, and organizers and works to tell their stories through video, photography, slideshows, printed materials and more

  • Build our social media presence, both internally and externally

  • Build our earned media presence

  • Present what we have learned about the Parent Mentor Program at conferences Misc

  • Participate in and assist with PEI trainings and meetings in order to better understand the work, build relationships, and share relevant data

  • Participate in weekly LSNA staff meeting and other key events, actions, trainings, and retreats.

  • Other duties as assigned.

Details at a glance

  • Reports to Director of the Parent Engagement Institute

  • Drivers license and access to a car required.

  • 4-Year Degree Required

  • Occasional evening and weekend work required

  • Occasional travel to other parts of Illinois required

Benefits

Some flexibility in terms of occasional work-from-home opportunities.

Health care

Family Leave

Level of Language Proficiency

Bilingual English-Spanish candidates strongly encouraged to apply

How To Apply

Please send a cover letter, resume, and writing sample to bmurphy@lsna.net.

Email subject line should read: "Data and Communications Manager Application, Applicant's Name."

People of color, women, transgender people (regardless of identity), and gender non-conforming people are strongly encouraged to apply.

Location

2840 North Milwaukee Avenue, Chicago, IL 60618