Chief Program Officer / Associate Executive Director

at  FORESTDALE INC

Date: July 30, 2024
Department: Administration
Reports to: Executive Director
Direct Reports: Asst. Exec. Dir. Foster Care, Asst. Exec. Dir. Prevention, Director of Strong Futures, Director of Strong Fathers
Salary Range: $200,000-$250,000
Forestdale, one of NYC’s leading family service agencies, seeks an experienced and dynamic administrator to oversee our programs.

ABOUT FORESTDALE

Forestdale’s mission is to ensure that children and families have the fundamental assets needed to thrive and live independently.
Forestdale is a New York City nonprofit leader, working to end the intergenerational transmission of poverty and trauma. Families that have undergone a crisis or trauma often come to Forestdale seeking help to recover, take care of their children and find a stable and happier future. Forestdale actively pursues cutting-edge, evidence-based approaches to address the changing needs of low-income families across Queens and Brooklyn, serving about 3000 families annually. Forestdale has three primary service goals:
1. Helping Families Heal from Trauma. Our highly regarded preventive programs, foster care program, family enrichment center and integrated health services work with families to understand the after-effects of trauma and help families take steps to heal and find a path to future growth.
2. Helping Parents Raise the Next Remarkable Generation of Children. We are known for our parenting programs, Strong Fathers and Strong Mothers, which combine educational courses with peer support, individual counseling, and mental health supports to help parents become the parents they want to be.
3. Helping Young People Successfully Launch into Adulthood. Our career, education, housing, and life coaching services help young people set and achieve goals on their way to healthy and fulfilling adulthood.
Although Forestdale’s primary work is in providing services to children and families, we also work to change policies, as we know that many of the families we serve have suffered from oppression, and that systems must become more equitable and person-focused to break cycles of poverty and trauma.

CANDIDATE REQUIREMENTS

We are seeking an individual with the rare combination of deep understanding of quality family services and a high level of executive skill. Requirements include:

• Advanced degree in Social Work or a related field
• Extensive experience in program development and oversight, including supervision of program directors
• At least 5-10 years of successful management experience

• Skills include:

  o advanced coaching expertise to develop staff at the program director level
  o understanding of continuous quality improvement, including achievement of outcomes and effective compliance systems
  o excellent written and oral communication skills

  o government relations-related experience.

• Outstanding interpersonal and teamwork skills required. Good sense of humor a plus.

The Chief Program Officer (CPO) works closely with the Assistant Executive Director for Preventive Services to help Forestdale’s 5 Preventive Programs and the new Family Enrichment Center function at a high level; works with the Assistant Executive Director of Foster Care to ensure that children are well taken care of, and families are assisted to advance so they may be reunited with their children and care for them well; works with the Director of Strong Futures to offer educational, career, and life coaching services that effectively help young people reach their full potential; and, works with the Director of the Strong Fathers Program to help hundreds of fathers each year increase their engagement with and financial support of their children, becoming the parents they want to be.
The CPO also plays an important role in agency leadership, as a member of the Executive Team. Discovering innovative approaches to serving the communities, identifying risks to the organization, participating in planning for the future envelope of services, promoting staff job satisfaction and retention, helping to shape the policy agenda, and advancing the relationship with key partners are all examples of responsibilities of the leadership group, of which the CPO is a primary participant. The CPO works closely with other departments, including HR, Finance, Development, Quality Improvement, Health, and Policy. The CPO also has responsibility for overseeing the agency in the absence of the Executive Director.
The successful CPO candidate is likely to have significant experience overseeing programs in a NYC not-for-profit family and child service organization, with some expertise in child welfare services. With this type of background, it is expected that the candidate will have the ability to make sure that families and children seeking help to heal from trauma and forge a path toward future well-being are able to find the answer to their service needs at Forestdale. The areas of responsibility can be summarized as follows: