Job Description
Position: Financial Equity Specialist
Reports to: Chief Impact & Innovation Officer
Status: Exempt
Hours: Full-Time/minimum of 40 hours per week
Hours of Operations: Mon-Fri 9am-4pm/some weekend or evenings required.
Organizational Description. North Lawndale Employment Network is a comprehensive workforce development agency on Chicago’s West Side dedicated to advancing the economic outcomes of the community’s residents through innovative employment initiatives, including our social enterprises. In August 2021, North Lawndale Employment Network transitioned to a new campus which features a premier community café for residents and stakeholders.
Our Mission. To improve the earning potential of the North Lawndale community through innovative employment initiatives that lead to economic advancement and an improved quality of life.
Opportunity. We are seeking a Financial Equity Specialist for Financial Opportunity Center (FOC) who works under the direction of the Director of FOC to provide direction and support to individual work streams and collaborations through programmatic research, program and partner development, client and community training and coaching. Key skills and abilities for this role include training, coaching, facilitation, influencing, communication, analysis, empathy, problem solving, and high judgment with the ability to use data to make decisions.
Key Responsibilities.
· Research, explore and create innovative financial literacy, training, and workshops based upon client and community needs.
· Coordinate and schedule events, quarterly community workshops, presentations, and one on one sessions, as needed.
- Support the establishment and cultivation of long-term partner engagement relationships with private entities, centers-of-influence and select community-based organizations.
· Coach/Train/Refer clients and the community to appropriate programs, agencies and/or resources.
- Works with clients to improve financial health overall (income increase, net worth increases, credit score improvement) and open new banking accounts; increase financial tech literacy.
- Coordinate activities related to financial workshops and community events.
· Partner with internal stakeholders, development, and workforce to ensure marketing and promotions for all financial programs.
· Attend all required trainings and meetings.
· Capture stories and successes of program participants.
· Work with Director, FOC to monitor subcontracts for training and employment services with private, public, and non-profit employers and educational institutions throughout the service delivery area.
· Efficiently document the process and outcomes of service delivery for all participants, utilizing our client management system, Salesforce.
· Other duties as assigned.
Strengths and Abilities.
§ General Knowledge and understanding of the needs of a low-income working population.
§ Experience working with clients with barrier to employment in the financial or credit counseling industry preferred.
§ Oral and Written communications.
§ Outreach and marketing/communications.
§ Team Building and development.
§ Previous case management or coaching required.
§ Passion for NLEN’s mission and goals
§ Comfortable working onsite in North Lawndale with NLEN’s target population
§ Excellent organizational skills
§ Familiarity with Government funds and funding requirements
§ Familiarity with community needs and resources.
Qualifications.
- Bachelor’s degree from a 4-year college or university in Human Service, Social Work, Financial Literacy, Digital Literacy, Business with 3 year’s work experience; or 10 years work experience in a related field
- Previous program coordination, training and development, case management and/or coaching required.
- Passion for NLEN’s mission and goals.
- Comfortable working onsite in North Lawndale with NLEN’s target population.
- General Knowledge and understanding of the needs of a low-income working population.
- Experience working with clients with barrier to employment in the financial or credit counseling industry preferred.
- Familiarity with non-profit training or social service organizations is a plus.
- Professionalism and dependability.
- Excellent organizational skills
- Flexible Schedule and commitment to work two evenings monthly and two Saturdays monthly.
NLEN Core Values
Neighborhood-focused employment initiatives are fundamental.
Successful programs are neighborhood-focused and community-driven, so they meet the specific needs of individuals.
Quality of work matters.
People who work hard should not be poor. A full-time job must meet basic needs and offer conditions for engagement, advancement, and respect.
Economic mobility is essential to reducing poverty.
Family supporting wages and financial literacy are core to addressing economic insecurity, which disproportionally affects African American, Latino, and other families of color. Economic insecurity is not only impacting the poor; it has grown to threaten the middle class. Self-employment and entrepreneurship are critically important economic mobility strategies to generate income and boost household finances.
We must address the racial wealth gap and social inequality.
The United States’ history of racially charged public policy has created the modern racial wealth divide not just through the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow, but through the more recent race-based discrimination in hiring, housing subsidies, tax subsidies, and veteran benefits as well as other implicitly and explicitly racist public policies.
Everyone deserves human dignity and empowerment.
To uphold this belief, we do all of our work in a manner that values human dignity and eliminates shame, humiliation, and stigma by building on the strengths that help our participants and community survive loss and trauma and rebalance the power dynamic between participants and authority figures.
Job Type: Full-time
Pay: $56,650.00 per year
Benefits:
- 401(k) matching
- Dental insurance
- Employee assistance program
- Health insurance
- Life insurance
- Paid time off
- Vision insurance
Weekly schedule:
Work setting:
People with a criminal record are encouraged to apply
Experience:
- Financial concepts: 1 year (Preferred)
Ability to Commute:
- Chicago, IL 60624 (Preferred)
Work Location: In person