Early Childhood Education Workforce Development Strategist

Position: Early Childhood Education Workforce Development Strategist
Full-Time | Salary Range: $47,000-$52,000

Culture:
Trying Together’s mission is to support high-quality care and education for young children.

Trying Together is a Pittsburgh-based nonprofit that supports the work of early childhood by providing advocacy, community resources, and professional growth opportunities for the needs and rights of children, their families, and the adults who interact with them. A fast-paced organization, Trying Together looks for dedicated and passionate staff who bring positivity to their work and a solution-oriented sensibility.

Trying Together encourages its team, partners, and communities to interact compassionately and honor the range of cultures, ideas, and identities that root each person. Young children develop and learn by example; this means that children whose early learning environments reflect just actions, equitable opportunities, diverse representation, and inclusive approaches experience healthier interactions and build relationships that enable them to thrive.

Trying Together is an equal-opportunity employer. Trying Together does not discriminate and encourages qualified candidates of any gender, race, class, sexual orientation, faith, disability, or age to apply. All candidates will be evaluated on a merit basis.

Working closely with the Quality Initiatives Professional Learning and ELRC teams, the Early Childhood Education (ECE) Workforce Development Strategist is responsible for researching trends and developing, facilitating, and evaluating comprehensive workforce development opportunities for early education and school-age professionals that are aligned with the field’s interests, needs, and trends as well as the organization’s mission, vision, and efforts. This is a full-time position that includes occasional evening and weekend hours, as well as light travel. The ECE Workforce Development Strategist reports to the CDA Program Manager and is considered an active team member of the Trying Together Quality Initiatives Professional Learning Team. 

Responsibilities:

• Practice equity in daily decisions. Apply an equity lens to goals, planning, materials, outreach/enrollment, communications, follow-through and partnerships and seek input from people most affected by decisions.
• Build a culture of belonging. Use inclusive meeting norms, invite under-represented perspectives, offer constructive feedback, and address harm respectfully.
• Improve practices that cause harm. Flag practices, processes, and/or policies that undermine the dignity, safety, or equitable treatment of children, families, educators; propose and help implement and evaluate improvements.
• Participate in the development, coordination, facilitation, and evaluation of sequential, Trying Together workforce professional learning opportunities for early educators, such as the Child Development Associate credential (initial and renewal), PA School-Age Professional Credential and workforce Apprenticeship. The facilitation of such opportunities includes in-person, virtual, and online professional development coursework as well as participant and program coaching and mentoring. 
• Be familiar with and assist in the coordination of professional development participants’ access to T.E.A.C.H., the PA CDA voucher system, PASSHE PDO, and other available professional development resources. 
• Develop, facilitate, and evaluate professional development opportunities for early learning professionals and stakeholders on relevant topics that meet the needs of the field, including but not limited to: developmentally appropriate practice, child development, family-child program relationships, and professionalism within early learning programs. 
• Aide in the reflection and evaluation of projects and programs, working directly with other team members to ensure that Trying Together programs and resources pertain to the mission and vision of the organization and more importantly reflect the needs and interests of the communities at large. 
• Collaborate and work with other Quality Initiatives team members, consultants, and  volunteers, as well as Trying Together staff. 
• Participate in organizational team and all-staff meetings as well as other organizational initiatives that relate to the ECE Workforce Development Strategist’s current work efforts and responsibilities. 
• Be familiar with and oversee the support of early learning programs seeking national  accreditation (NAEYC, NECPA, NAFCC). 
• Complete on site, face-to-face program visits offering support and strategies for continuous quality improvement. 
• Work collaboratively across departments within Trying Together to meet the mission and accomplish the work. 
• Participate in initial and ongoing professional development for continuous learning and expanding one’s professional knowledge base. 
• Consistently use the NeonCRM platform to build relationships with constituents, record data that measure project performance, and support continuous quality improvement in the organization's resources and services.
• Other duties as assigned. 

Qualifications/Skills:

• Bachelor’s Degree in Early Childhood Education or related field (with a minimum of six early education credits).
• Experience facilitating professional development, preferably to educators.
• Bilingual in Spanish/English is highly preferred.
• Current PA Quality Assurance System (PQAS) instructor certification preferred. 
• Proficient in Microsoft Office suite and Google Workspace. 
• Value the collaborative, reflective, and reciprocal nature of consultation. 
• Approach educator career development with a growth mindset and believe all educators can improve, whatever the starting point. 
• Use reflective practice strategies and skills. 
• Be extremely organized. 
• Be flexible. 
• Be a creative problem solver.
• Have a keen eye for detail and the ability to multitask. 
• Possess excellent interpersonal and communication skills. 
• Ability to work both independently as well as part of a team.
• Ability to work some evenings and/or weekends.

Required Clearances: 

• Clean Act 33 Child Abuse Clearance.
• Clean Act 34 PA State Police Clearance.
• Clean Act 73 Federal Criminal History Clearance.
• National Sex Offender Registry (NSOR) Verification.
• Valid Driver’s License and proof of insurance.

Required Training:

• Mandated Reporter Training (must be completed in the first month of placement).
• NeonCRM Training (required and recommended online courses must be completed in the first three months of placement).
• PQAS Professional Development Instructor Certification (must be obtained within the first year of employment for staff with a Bachelor’s Degree).

Benefits:

• Competitive compensation and benefits package.
• Appreciative inquiry and strengths-based review process.