Director of Mental Health and Wellness (Los Angeles)

Join a dedicated team that fosters autonomy and creativity, while receiving a competitive salary, opportunities for career and personal growth, and the gratification that comes from creating positive multi-generational change.

Ednovate Background

Ednovate is a network of public, tuition-free, high-performing college prep high schools in Los Angeles and Orange County. We serve first-generation college-bound students from traditionally underserved communities. Our students have a 99% college acceptance rate, but what matters even more is that we’re graduating self-aware, engaged young adults who are headed toward a life of purpose and impact.

Our team is made up of world travelers, nacho connoisseurs, KPOP business owners, and Taylor Swift fans. We love LA and OC, and we're our students' biggest cheerleaders. We are looking to hire innovative changemakers who aim to continue our goal of becoming the high school experts across Southern California. Sound like you? Keep Reading.

Information regarding our schools can be found here.

What You’ll Do

• Lead network-wide strategy for mental health and wellness work, including use of Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) as a Tier 1 support for all students provided through instruction during our advisory blocks and through Ednovate’s tenets around how all staff can support the Whole Child vision, and more individualized Tier 2 and 3 supports provided by Social Workers, aligned to whole school outcomes around students thriving in high school and beyond

  • Bring an entrepreneurial spirit to our evolving network of schools, providing visionary leadership in a crucial area of our work that is less systematized and developed than others

    • Envision, build and maintain systems for how our Social Workers operate in schools and coordinate their efforts across schools

    • Establish a robust approach to Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) for mental health and wellness

    • Enthusiastically approach the work of establishing network-wide systems and vision as an exciting opportunity

    • Influence and build conviction across members of the network and school-based teams around the importance of mental health and wellness supports as a key piece of the puzzle driving towards Ednovate’s overall vision of positive multigenerational change

• Set and manage long-term vision for SEL work (Tier 1 supports around mental health and wellness for all students) at Ednovate

  • Build a common language around SEL across schools, parents and students

  • Generate and communicate a vision for how SEL and Academics work together to drive towards Ednovate’s Whole Child vision

  • Lead integration of SEL into all components of student model at Network team meetings

  • Support schools to implement the SEL tools chosen through a piloting process in Spring 2024, including providing training and guidance around their use during advisory blocks

  • Push initiatives started by the Whole Child Report Card (WCRC) working group in the 2023-24 school year forward and monitor progress around those initiatives

  • Oversee the rollout of the new Annual College Readiness Indicator (ACRI) for SEL, chosen by the WCRC working group in Spring 2024, ensuring all school staff are trained on the platform it requires, it is integrated into all other programming and it is implemented consistently across schools

  • Set goals around the SEL ACRI, analyze data, identify trends, lift up issues, and coordinate action planning to address issues

  • Ensure that all advisors are fluent in the SEL ACRI and consistently engage students around it in their WCRC conferences

  • Explore opportunities to further integrate the WCRC

• Set and manage long-term vision for Tier 2 and 3 supports around mental health and wellness at Ednovate

  • Serve as an advocate for Social Workers on the Network team and navigate their concerns (e.g., provide prompt responses to questions including those that involve network’s legal team, ensure network policies and practices align with clinical best practices)

  • Provide ongoing support to school leaders around a shared understanding of Social Workers’’ roles at school sites

  • Evaluate effectiveness of current interventions in addressing wellness at the network and school level, make suggestions for improvements, and work with Social Workers on implementation

  • Develop and maintain a consistent, network-wide culture of Social Workers, including creation of structures for practitioners to connect with each other and with network leaders

• Support the hiring, onboarding, and professional development for Social Workers

  • Ensure candidates have the right credentials– either are Licensed Clinical Social Workers (LCSW) or have a pathway to attaining this license

  • Provide subject matter expertise and lead monthly Professional Development sessions for Social Workers

• Design network-wide social work systems, create materials for and facilitate training around the systems and integration of the systems into other Ednovate programming, and manage implementation of the systems across school sites

  • Escalation protocols for truancy

  • Approach to addressing crises

  • Approach to management of 504 Plans and accommodations

  • Interventions for common student challenges (i.e. 9th graders that are isolated/withdrawn, gang involvement)

• Manage and support the Lead Social Worker in his/her work with Social Workers and provide central oversight for programs that Social Workers manage across all school sites

  • Social Work Interns

  • Homeless/Foster Youth Liaisons

• Report to the Chief Schools Officer and Senior Director of Academics, as Ednovate’s mental health and wellness work is a crucial part of our mission to create Positive Multigenerational Change. In order for our students to find success in college and beyond, lifting up their family for generations to come and making our community stronger, we believe that they need space and intentional programming in high school to develop skills in all parts of their lives, not just academics. This Whole Child Vision leads us to push for different elements of programming to not happen in silos, but instead be meaningfully integrated. We believe that academic outcomes and social-emotional development outcomes are interconnected, so all work at Ednovate around mental health and wellness comes under the umbrella of our overall vision for schools.

• Provide school-site support for Social Workers, in coordination with school principals who will continue to provide their direct management

• Provide clinical supervision for Social Workers and/or management of clinical supervision and monitoring of licensure hours

• Coach each Social Workers Individually, through 1:1 meetings at least monthly, around on a range of topics including:

  • Compliance requirements

  • Data from the WCRC SEL ACRI, and action plans to address trends that arise as well as support for individual students with significant needs identified

  • Caseload management

  • Organization of time

  • IEP responsibilities (e.g., providing counseling, writing goals, attending meetings)

  • Follow-up support around topics covered at monthly network-wide Professional Development sessions for Social Workers

• Be on-call support for crisis management (e.g., conducting crisis interventions and risk assessments, deciding if a student needs a 5150)

Who You’ll Be

• A Lifelong Learner: Professional development is our love language. We are committed to improving academic outcomes for all students through innovative training at a network level.

• A Part of Our Family: Join an active, lively school community with vision and purpose. We uplift each other, debate, problem solve, and celebrate our collective work together.

• An LCSW with at least 8 years of experience that includes:

  • Clinical experience providing mental health services in the community across different populations and levels of severity of mental health issues, at least some of which has been as a high school Social Worker

  • Conducting formal and informal assessments, communicating with parents, and providing behavioral interventions

  • Preferred: experience working in urban charter schools and/or in low-income communities

• Knowledgeable about the licensure process and can manage the process of ensuring all MSWs get the appropriate Clinical Supervision hours

  • Preferred: Eligibility to directly provide Clinical Supervision to MSWs seeking licensure

• Well-versed in SEL with conviction that SEL drives students’ academic outcomes and ability to thrive after graduation

• A systems-builder who enjoys a fast-paced, entrepreneurial environment

• A great communicator with finesse across multiple stakeholder groups, especially in navigating difficult conversations

• Resourceful, flexible, intelligent, innovative, and open-minded

• A leader who is able to set a big picture vision and actualize it

• Able to motivate and build conviction across stakeholders around SEL/wellness priorities

• Someone who thrives in settings that are collaborative and provide high levels of autonomy, flexibility, and a a high degree of transparency and accountability for results

• Able to set boundaries to hold sacred time for systems-building rather than on-the-ground individual case support, no matter how urgent; someone who can lovingly message to team of school-based mental health practitioners: “I’ll do the forest, you do the trees”

• Ability to coach mental health practitioners around personal time management, prioritization, and implementation of systems

• Ability to analyze and synthesize network-level data to identify targeted supports needed with a focus on research and data-based decisions and interventions

• Experienced in creation/facilitation of mental health training workshops for mental health practitioners and individuals not in the field

• Preferred:

  • Bilingual (English/Spanish)

  • Candidate who has established a mental health team at a district or network, supporting Social Workers across multiple school sites

  • Child Welfare Attendance (CWA) Credential

We're Committed To Giving You

• Salary Range of $120,000-$180,000 based on your years of experience.

• Full Medical, Dental and Vision Coverage, as well as family leave benefits

• Generous paid time off and holidays

• 403b retirement savings plan, with company matching up to 3%

• A place to grow, learn and be a part of the Ednovate family

To Apply

To submit an application, please visit our website at http://ednovate.org/careers.

Ednovate is strongly committed to hiring a diverse and multicultural staff, and we encourage applications from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds. Ednovate does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, gender, handicap, age, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, ethnic origin, or any other reason prohibited by state or federal law.