About Connections for Children

Connections for Children (CFC) is a non-profit Child Care Resource and Referral agency serving child care providers, educators, and parents in the West Los Angeles and South Bay communities. For nearly 50 years, CFC has been a key community resource, empowering families and child care providers to ensure every child has access to quality early care and education. Through child care referrals, financial assistance, family engagement, and workforce development programs, CFC strengthens the link between families, providers, and the broader community, promoting the well-being and optimal development of young children. Committed to equity and excellence, CFC is a steadfast advocate for the nurturing and educational needs of all children, continually evolving to meet the changing demands of the community.

Connections for Children is focused on expanding programs to serve more people throughout our service area, while investing in staff and organizational capacity to ensure mission success. By establishing a more diverse revenue base, CFC is sustaining and growing its impact, prioritizing equity, and inclusivity in all efforts. This prioritization affirms CFC’s commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging, particularly in serving underserved populations, and positions the organization to embrace innovation and cultivate strong partnerships for the betterment of countless children and families.

About the Position

With the goal of improving child care quality, the Professional Development Coach is responsible for specialized technical assistance and support to child care providers, including on-site quality improvement coaching and promotion of professional development access and attainment. The Professional Development Coach builds and maintains relationships with child care professionals, provides mentoring and resources to help providers integrate new information into child care practice, facilitates the development of an individualized professional development plan, and connects providers to professional growth opportunities.

Primary Responsibilities

• Conduct on-site coaching visits, and build trust with participating providers.
• Observe and gather information about child care sites.
• Assist providers in developing a quality improvement and professional development plan, setting goals, and selecting strategies.
• Model developmentally-appropriate curriculum and practice and act as a resource for participants on child development, quality child care, and professional development.
• Share feedback and information with child care providers and help reflect on progress.
• Build connections with and maintain resources on local higher education institutions.
• Maintain resources on local professional development opportunities.
• Maintain records of work activities and track/monitor progress of participants.
• Encourage self-reflection and provider portfolio development.
• Facilitate networking opportunities.
• Provide customer service to internal and external customers by working collaboratively within the department, the agency, and with the agency’s community partners.
• Represent the agency with professionalism in all interactions. This includes over the phone, in person, using electronic media, and written correspondence.
• Exercise good time management skills in the execution of all specialist duties.
• Utilize resources to maintain industry knowledge including, but not limited to the use of technology, attending workshops, classes and meetings.
• Contribute to the team effort by meeting set departmental goals within departmental deadlines.

Additional Responsibilities

• Participate in events as needed to help maintain R&R visibility.
• Attend designated community meetings and other meetings as needed.
• Provide child care resource and referral services to parents.
• Assist parents in choosing appropriate child care and educates them in finding quality environments.
• Educate parents about resources available in the community.
• Provide technical assistance and information to families and providers.
• Update provider records on a regular basis.
• Perform other duties as assigned

Experience, Knowledge, Skills and Requirements

• Bachelor’s Degree in Child Development, or related field.
• Minimum of 3 years of experience in a child care setting.
• Experience and ability to work with adult learners and diverse client populations.
• Good problem-solving skills.
• Familiarity with child care provider population.
• Effective written and verbal communication skills.
• Knowledge of R&R’s and other community resources.
• Familiar with various child care assessment tools.
• Familiarity with higher education requirements.
• Knowledge of developmentally appropriate practices for children.
• Bilingual English/Spanish Skills Preferred: Excellent Reading, Writing, and Oral Communication.
• Experience working with diverse populations in a culturally sensitive manner.
• Proven ability to work independently, maintain confidentiality and discretion.
• Ease speaking in front of small and large audiences.
• Computer skills: Working knowledge of Microsoft Office (Teams, Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint) required. Comfort using Zoom or other video conferencing platforms required. 
• Demonstrated ability to handle multiple tasks simultaneously. Exceptional organizational skills are needed to meet designated deadlines.

Working Conditions

• Typical of an office environment.
• Must have reliable transportation for local travel.
• Local travel for site visits and meetings required. 
• Eligible for hybrid/telework schedule upon completion of introductory period.
• Must comply with agency health and safety protocols, including vaccination policy.

Organizational Statement

This job description is intended to provide an overview of the requirements of the position. As such, it is not necessarily all-inclusive, and the job may require other essential and/or non-essential functions, duties, or responsibilities not listed herein. Management reserves the sole right to modify this job description at any time. Nothing in this job description is intended to create a contract of employment of any type. Employment at Connections for Children is strictly on an at-will basis.

Equal Opportunity Employment Statement

Connections for Children is committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all employees and providing employees with a work environment free of discrimination and harassment. All employment decisions at Connections for Children are based on organizational needs, job requirements and individual qualifications, without regard to age, race, color, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran, disability status, family or parental status, or any other status protected by federal and CA state laws