Youth Support & Development Specialist

Why Choose Unity?

Are you a highly motivated and empathetic professional seeking a rewarding career with an organization committed to a healthy work culture? At Unity, we’ve committed and dedicated ourselves to creating a great working environment through engagement with the Predictive Index and through our cultural commitments of Open Communication, Social Responsibility, Growth & Change, Safety & Security, & Integrity. Unity personnel create a meaningful impact in the lives of individuals and families in the community through diverse service delivery.

Job summary

This position provides direct support to children and adolescents participating in Unity's youth programs, both individually and in group settings. The Youth Support & Development Specialist creates a safe, supportive, and engaging environment and helps youth participate successfully in programming based on their individual needs, abilities, communication styles, and developmental level.

This position requires compassion, creativity, flexibility, sound judgment, and the ability to respond effectively to changing situations. Youth served may have behavioral health needs, developmental disabilities, autism, limited or nonverbal communication, or other support needs.

This position involves making rapid decisions, often based on very little information. The ideal candidate must present novel ideas with confidence and be comfortable navigating quickly changing conditions.

Challenge and pressure are the norm. There is a good degree of difference from one day to the next, with shifting priorities and new problems to solve daily. Problems may be situational, factual, or people-based. Solving them involves analysis, creativity, and the ability to work with others.

When working with other people, this person must have authority, confidence, and influence. They should communicate with energy and conviction, with the goal of getting others to take action. Though their words are often direct, this person should also care about how those words are received, tailoring the message to effectively motivate others. The work requires flexibility and strong communication skills.

This person challenges the status quo. They will question established company policies or systems in an effort to create positive change. Their efforts should be creative and innovative, and may involve risk. Because their work is often unproven, this person must be confident in their solutions, even when faced with strong opposition.

This job focuses on achieving goals. The end result is more important than the details of how work gets done. Someone in this role must delegate details to others, following up closely to ensure timely results.

There is much freedom in this position, with a heavy focus on independence and self-reliance. Expect to have agency when setting priorities and objectives. A broadly focused role, this job requires a generalist who is more concerned with the strategies needed to drive results than with a specific set of tactics.

Job characteristics

• Must be comfortable balancing multiple simultaneous projects in a potentially fast-paced, rapidly changing environment.
• Requires a venturesome nature, working with others to solve problems. Will need to comfortably navigate conflict of ideas, opinions, and people.
• Decisions will need to be made rapidly, with little background information. Requires tolerance for risky decisions.
• Communication must be confident, direct, and poised. Ability to direct others and motivate them to take action.
• Delegates strategies, details, and implementation freely in pursuit of goals. Leadership style is confident and flexible, providing strong direction and encouraging team participation.

ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Provide direct support to youth in group programming and/or one-to-one settings as assigned.
• Demonstrate unwavering compassion, patience, and empathy toward youth experiencing behavioral, emotional, developmental, or social challenges.
• Foster a safe, respectful, culturally sensitive, and non-judgmental environment where youth feel heard, valued, and supported.
• Build positive relationships with youth while maintaining appropriate professional boundaries.
• Use creative, engaging, individualized, and developmentally appropriate interventions to encourage participation, communication, emotional regulation, and positive skill development.
• Adapt communication and support strategies for youth with limited or nonverbal communication and varying developmental abilities.
• Assist youth with transitions, routines, activities, social interactions, and other aspects of daily programming.
• Provide redirection, prompting, encouragement, positive reinforcement, and other approved support strategies as appropriate.
• Recognize changes in presentation, functioning, safety, or support needs and communicate concerns to appropriate supervisory or clinical staff.
• Respond appropriately and calmly to challenging situations, emotional dysregulation, and potential safety concerns, utilizing supervision and agency procedures as needed.
• Collaborate with program and multidisciplinary team members to promote consistent and individualized support for youth.
• Promote Unity's services of care utilizing the core values of Unity with clients, families, and personnel.
• Continuously expand knowledge and skills through ongoing professional development and required training.
• Assist youth with personal care and activities of daily living when required based on the needs of the youth served.

Youth Program Support

• Support implementation of assigned group activities, lesson plans, therapeutic activities, recreational activities, and community-based programming.
• Assist in maintaining a structured, predictable, and supportive environment while remaining flexible to individual youth needs.
• Help youth develop and practice communication, social, coping, self-regulation, problem-solving, and other age-appropriate skills.
• Utilize approved interventions and support strategies identified by the treatment/program team.

Documentation

• Maintain accurate and timely documentation related to youth participation, support provided, and significant events.
• Complete incident reports and other required documentation in accordance with agency policies and procedures.
• Document relevant observations and communicate significant changes or concerns to supervisory or clinical staff.

Supervision

• Attend scheduled supervision meetings and required staff meetings.
• Respond to supervisor directives and seek guidance when questions, crises, or concerns arise.
• Utilize supervision appropriately when challenging situations or issues arise.
• Comply with rules and expectations of supervision.
• Conduct oneself in a professional manner
• Demonstrating respect for youth, families, coworkers, and other professionals and disciplines.
• Promoting agency mission, core commitments and cultural commitments.
• Express self in an articulate, organized, and grammatically correct fashion in both oral and written communications.
• Maintaining confidentiality and appropriate professional boundaries at all times.