The application deadline is November 2, 2024 at 11:59 pm Pacific.
We are seeking a Universal Developmental Screening (UDS) Manager (Project/Program Manager III) to guide the work of the Best Starts for Kids UDS strategy within the Prenatal to Five investment area. The main role is to support community-based programs to successfully adapt developmental screening practices and messaging to support families’ interests in ensuring their children’s development is emerging in alignment with their priorities and their culture.
Job Duties
To be considered minimally qualified, applicants must demonstrate a background that provides the knowledge, skill and ability to:
- Provide guidance to existing UDS programs while working toward the UDS vision and strategic plan. This includes:
- Providing ongoing education about culturally responsive developmental screening practices.
- Collaborating with other Best Starts for Kids P-5 strategy leads to increase developmental promotion activities in their programs.
- Managing contracts for UDS-funded community-based partners.
- Serve as the main contact and program manager for UDS-funded community-based partners. UDS awards currently include 15-20 community-based partners funded to carry out unique UDS programs. The program manager will:
- Share information, opportunities, and foster connections among community and system partners.
- Respond to requests for information, professional development, technical assistance, and capacity building.
- Build relationships with each UDS contractor to learn about their work in the community, document learnings and emerging themes, share updates, answer questions, and provide guidance as needed.
- Design and implement collaborative workgroups for UDS contractors that facilitate peer connections, support skill building, and are responsive to participant needs and interests.
- Design and implement quarterly convenings for all UDS contractors.
- Analyze data, manage budgets, develop requests for proposals, write, review, and monitor contracts, approve invoices, and engage with performance and evaluation activities in alignment with team members and with the support of fiscal, contracts, and evaluation partners.
- Prepare, administer, manage and monitor Requests for Proposals and contracts with community-based service organizations for UDS while building a strong partnership for mutual learning.
- Create an environment that fosters open communication, teamwork, commitment to quality service, fostering a culture of learning and continuous improvement.
- Plan, convene and staff various internal and/or external work groups or committees, as needed.
- Plan, build agendas and effectively facilitate meetings within departments, community partners, providers, governmental professionals, advocacy groups and others to support alignment and solicit input and feedback.
- Perform other related duties as assigned.
Experience, Qualifications, Knowledge, Skills
- Deep knowledge of equity, racial and social justice (ERSJ) principles and practices, and understanding of the effects of place, race, and policy and systems-based inequities on marginalized communities and populations.
- Deep knowledge of early development and developmental milestones for children prenatally through age five.
- Knowledge of the various early learning sectors in King County and Washington State.
- At least two (2) years’ experience leading projects and/or strategies in early childhood programming.
- At least two (2) years’ experience administering developmental screening tools, including Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ), Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (MCHAT), and/or Survey of Wellbeing in Young Children (SWYC), with diverse children and families.
- Experience supporting families’ home cultures and languages and centering racial and disability justice.
- Experience facilitating participatory meetings with diverse groups and designing group and individualized learning supports using adult learning approaches.
- Ability to identify intersecting issues, multiple perspectives, and opportunities for collaboration, including strategies to promote equity and to advocate for process improvements.
- Ability to work independently with attention to details, to work under deadlines and on several tasks simultaneously, and to organize and prioritize quickly in response to changing needs.
- Ability to work collaboratively with people with diverse needs and perspectives including families, service providers, partners, co-workers, and funders.
- Ability to travel throughout the County in a timely manner.
- Skills to share complex information to support decision making, including skills to prepare visuals, written documents, presentations, and spreadsheets.
Desired Qualifications
- Experience training or coaching providers who do early childhood developmental screening with diverse children and families.
- Experience with program leadership, contract management, and supporting continuous improvement efforts.
- Experience navigating referrals for developmental evaluations and locally available support services including Early Support for Infants and Toddlers (ESIT), Early Childhood Special Education, and private therapy services.
Best Starts for Kids
Building on the deep knowledge, connections, and skills within King County communities, and backed by what science and research tells us about human development, the Best Starts for Kids King County initiative meets children and families with the right services at the right time. The first Best Starts for Kids levy, approved by King County voters in 2015, reached 490,000 of King County’s youngest children and their families and 40,000 youth and young adults, catalyzing strong starts in a child’s earliest years, and sustaining those gains through to adulthood. In August 2021, King County voters chose to renew the levy with over 62% approval for another six years. The plan for Best Starts for Kids 2.0 will maintain current Best Starts for Kids investments in promotion, prevention, and early intervention, while deepening our investments to address critical needs in our community. View the Best Starts for Kids Implementation Plan: 2022 – 2027.
