World Change Starts with Educated Children®

IMPORTANT: All applicants must be legally eligible to work in the country where the position is located. Room to Read is not able to provide sponsorship.

Position Overview:

The Assistant, GEP spends the majority of his or her time providing guidance and capacitating the Social Mobilizers (SMs) and assists the State Head in carrying out all activities of the GEP. The position will be field based and will involve frequent travel to the areas of work. The work will entail providing guidance to social mobilizers, supporting and sometimes facilitating SM trainings, working with SMs regularly, as defined in the guiding documents to ensure that they are effective in their roles in working with girls. They will also be responsible for strengthening linkages with like- minded organizations, liasioning with block/district level officials, regular program and financial tracking, collecting program data and entering it into RtR’s database and determining and delivering material support for girls participating in the program. The Program Assistant will be required to be in field visit around 60% of time. The Assistant, GEP reports to the State Head and manages a set of SMs and a program administrative assistant.

Responsibilities:

Program Implementation and Training (Manage Social Mobilizers):

• Managing, guiding and enhancing capacity of a team of Social Mobilizers.

• Lead all weekly and monthly review and feedback sessions with direct reports.

• Guiding SMs in planning and facilitating Room to Read’s Girls’ Education Program activities. Support may include guiding an SM set her schedule of lifeskill session with girls, observing a session and providing feedback to the SM, or other activities needed to capacitate SMs to succeed in their core responsibilities.

• Capacitate and guide SMs to mentor girls both in person and through remote mentoring. This may include providing ideas for group discussion topics and coaching the SMs on how to handle difficult topics or ideate with them to identify opportunities for learning visits and engaging resource speakers.

• Lead all learning/exposure visits of girls with support from SMs.

• Guiding the SM in identifying and supporting girls at risk of dropping or failing out of school using Room to Read’s risk and response protocol.

• Conduct regular review meetings (on-line and in-person) with SMs (as per protocol) to discuss and identify solutions to challenges that SMs are facing in program implementation and in working with the girls and communities.

• Lead all the Social Mobilizers’ trainings under the guidance of PO. This may include planning, developing and facilitating and/or co-facilitating training sessions both in person and online.

• Participate in regular trainings and meetings with Room to Read staff conducted by the Country Office.

• Ensure feedback is given to specific Social Mobilizers or Program Admin Assistant and recorded in written regularly.

• Develop a school profile for each of the enhanced schools and regularly updated.

• Participate in donor field visits and provide information to donors about Room to Read’s Girls’ Education Program as needed.

Family, school and community engagement:

• Guide and hand hold Social Mobilizers to conduct parents’ workshop and parents meeting as planned.

• Identify local needs of the community and explore and ideate with SMs and POs regarding probable parents meeting topics.

• Regular meeting and providing program update to school staff including head teachers and creating playing the role of a catalyst promoting the school to think of Girls’ education and solutions to problems affecting girls in the catchment area of the school with support from SM.

• Lead 4 school engagement meeting each year (as per module).

• Develop and update list of scholarship schemes and entitlements with parents in an accessible format.

• Guide SMs to conduct all meeting with community level stakeholders such as SMC, VLCPC etc.

• Maintain a database of all the schemes and benefits our girl’s scholars are getting and facilitating all girls to get the same.

• Lead all community campaigns in respective schools with support from SMs.

Material Support:

• Lead the targeted material support need assessment process.

• Cross verification of the girls proposed for material support.

• Collate data and share further to PO.

• Will be responsible for the programmatic part of the procurement process such as raising PR for approval of PO and State Manager, inter-departmental follow ups and oversee distribution.

Liaising, networking and building linkages at the field, block and district level:

• Networking and liaison with all block and/ or district level government departments and officials.

• Networking and liaison with all village/ ward level stakeholders Plan and organize trainings and meetings for government officials (block and district level).

• Building linkages with like-minded organisations for referral services for girls after discussing with Sate Head.

• Create linkages with school management committees, child protection committees and any other as required to create safety nets for girls and conduct regular meetings with them.

• Develop a linkage with school authorities and communities to ensure support to the program – liase for a GEP room dedicated for life skills classes and mentoring, adequate periods are allocated during school timings for sessions and manage any other operational challenges.

• Exploring and ensuring girls have access to State level scholarships and can also avail citizenship entitlements.

• Support State Head for creating visibility of GEP in District and State level.

Ensuring Quality program at the field level:

• Conduct discussions on Program Quality with SM during review meeting jointly with PO.

• Share learnings from INCO level review meetings.

• Understand and work on factors that may impede quality and fidelity on the field.

• Tracks to see if quality standards are being met and provide updates to PO.

• Use LS observations form and basis this provides feedback to Social Mobilizers and develop coaching plan for each SM.

• Analyses the availability of materials for LS session, mentoring and material support and provides corrective feedback to program Assistant as needed.

• Innovate and ideate on various ways to reach out to girls, school and community remotely.

Planning, Reporting and Documentation:

• Ensure the SM is monitoring and keeping records of girls including attendance, academic performance and other program activities as required per the program design.

• Ensure the SM is planning, documenting, and reporting on school and home visits and parent meetings and workshops.

• Manage program expenses and complete financial reporting as per RTRs accounting and finance policies. Direct and guide Program Admin Assistant appropriately to ensure data as required by HR and Accounts is provided in time.

• Document best practices, case studies, photos and lessons learned and share with the GEP Team.

• Track drop outs of girls and understand reasons, flag issues of concern to State Head.

Annual planning and budgeting:

• Participate in the annual planning and budgeting process.

Other Significant Relationships to be maintained:

• Ensure a client orientation in fulfilling requests of the Social Mobilizers.

• Ensure effective liaison with State finance /Admin and HR where required.

Qualifications:

Required:

• Master’s degree in Education/ Social Work/ development/Gender Studies.

• 2-3 years of relevant work experience in areas of girls’ education, gender and life skills.

• Good interpersonal skills and a team player.

• Basic computer skills.

• Strong organizational and planning skills including the ability to monitor progress of program implementation.

• Ability to juggle multiple priorities simultaneously and take initiative.

• Prior success working closely and building relationships with diverse groups of people.

• Prior experience in facilitation and/or training.

• Experience working with and or counselling adolescent girls.

• Fluency in Hindi/ state specific language and English.

• Familiarity or experience with gender issues, girls’ education and/or community development preferred.

Preferred:

• Prior experience of living and/ working in semi urban and/or urban communities and an understanding of the government school systems.

• Prior experience of working closely with the community, school teachers and government officials.

• Experience in team handling and supervision.

Compensation:

Room to Read offers a competitive salary with excellent benefits. Benefits include thirteenth month bonus, health insurance and a retirement plan. The non-monetary compensation includes a unique opportunity to be part of an innovative, meaningful, and rapidly growing organization that is changing transforming the lives of millions of children in developing countries on literacy and gender equality in education.

Room to Read is a child-safe organization. All personnel are expected to adhere to Room to Read’s Child Protection Policy and Child Protection Code of Conduct.

Child Protection Principles

• Room to Read is committed to the education and welfare of children and protecting them from abuse and exploitation

• Room to Read has zero tolerance for child abuse and exploitation.

• All children have the right to be free from abuse and exploitation, including neglect, maltreatment, and physical, mental or sexual violence, injury or abuse.

• All children should be treated with respect and dignity.

• The well-being of the child is Room to Read’s first priority when dealing with all identified or suspected cases of child abuse.

• Room to Read shall integrate child protection into all its organizational strategies, structures and work practices.

Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) Principles

• Room to Read Representatives must create and maintain an environment that prevents sexual exploitation and sexual abuse.

• Room to Read has zero tolerance for adult sexual exploitation and abuse.

• Sexual exploitation and abuse are serious violations of fundamental human rights and will not be accepted or tolerated.

• All adults should be treated with respect and dignity.

• Room to Read implements a survivor-centered approach, putting the survivor’s rights and dignity at the forefront.

• Survivors referred to available professional assistance (e.g. mental health counselling), upon consent.

Room to Read is an equal opportunity employer committed to identifying and developing the skills and leadership of people from diverse backgrounds.

Read is a child-safe organization; all personnel must adhere to Room to Read’s Child Protection Policy, Child Protection Code of Conduct and Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) Policy.

About Room to Read:

Founded in 2000 on the belief that World Change Starts with Educated Children®, Room to Read envisions a world free from illiteracy and gender inequality, where all children have room to read, learn and grow – creating lasting change. Through our Literacy Portfolio, we train and coach teachers of the early grades in literacy instruction; create and publish quality books and curricular materials in local languages; and establish children’s libraries filled with diverse children’s books that can be enjoyed at school and home. Our Gender Equality Portfolio supports adolescents, particularly girls, in developing life skills that promote gender equality, helping them to pursue lifelong learning and make informed decisions.

We support young people of all genders to overcome gender biases and build the knowledge and skills to create a gender-equal world. Room to Read collaborates with local communities, partner organizations, publishers, and governments to test and implement innovative models that can be integrated into the education system to deliver positive outcomes for children at scale. To date, Room to Read has benefited more than 50 million children in 28 countries.

Learn more at www.roomtoread.org.