Director of Employment Programs

Able South Carolina (Able SC) is South Carolina’s premier organization promoting disability rights, independence, and equity for individuals with disabilities. Serving throughout the state, Able SC promotes individual leadership, creative teamwork, and cultivates a shared pride in the future of an inclusive state.

Able SC offers a competitive salary with benefits including health, dental, vision, life, Employee Assistance Program, and contribution to a retirement plan. Paid leave includes vacation, sick leave and 18 holidays annually.

PURPOSE OF THE POSITION: The purpose of this position is to reach out to community partners and employers in a collaborative systemic effort to improve employment options and outcomes for individuals with disabilities.  The Director of Employment Programs will coordinate the efforts of the SC Disability Employment Coalition, Hire Me SC, the SC AgrAbility initiative, and will strengthen the organization’s current employment programs. This position is under direct delegation of the Vice President and Chief Community Integration Program Officer.

TO APPLY: Please email your cover letter and resume to jobs@able-sc.org. No phone calls please. People with disabilities are encouraged to apply.

Location: Columbia, SC or Greenville, SC

Hours: Full-time, 40 hours per week.

Salary Range: Based on experience and qualifications.

Supervision: Supervises the Lead Community Work Incentives Coordinator and the Community Training Coordinator.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS AND RESPONSIBILITIES (with or without reasonable accommodations)

• Serve as an advocate for the rights of people with disabilities on the individual and systems level.
• Lead efforts to increase the impact and capacity of employment programs for people with disabilities.
• Serve as a change agent to increase opportunities for inclusive employment programs within the state.
• Disseminate knowledge of IL philosophy to staff, consumers, and the community at large.
• Represent Able SC and the disability community on employment related committees or councils as appropriate.
• Create relationships with local businesses and learn how people with disabilities can meet the needs of employers.
• Lead and facilitate the SC Disability Employment Coalition and provide technical assistance to the
• Generate and preserve positive relationships with the stakeholders of the SC Disability Employment Coalition and disability employment organizations throughout South Carolina.
• Promote best practices in employment rights and services through education, advocacy, and outreach.
• Increase and maintain funding streams relevant to employment programs.
• Cultivate funder and donor engagement for employment programming.
• Identify and prepare funding proposals for employment programs.
• Serve as the organization’s representative for employment programming.
• Participate in Community Work Incentives training from the Virginia Commonwealth University National Training Center and maintain certification as a Community Work Incentives Coordinator (CWIC).
• Coordinate the efforts of the Hire Me SC campaign to challenge stereotypes and misconceptions around employment and people with disabilities.
• Keep abreast with national employment issues, policies, and best practice models.
• Direct all aspects of Able SC’s Ticket to Work and SNAP2Work p
• Develop sample policies and procedures to guide employers to best practice approaches of employing people with disabilities.
• Collaboratively work with the Able Access team to develop and cultivate relationships with employers and organizations to ensure people with disabilities have equal employment access and opportunity.
• Provide content and logistical oversight and support for employment-related events, including the annual Employer Summit. Cultivate relationships with employers and businesses throughout the year that can lead to increased Summit attendance and sponsorship opportunities.
• Network and provide community outreach and education.
• Document program activities via reporting and data entry.
• Maintain reporting requirements and communicate outcomes to funders and stakeholders.
• Carry out additional assignments as delegated by supervisors in a timely manner.

REQUIRED COMPETENCIES:

• Ability to motivate others: Being able to understand the needs and strengths of individuals to help them give their best effort and produce optimal outcomes. As a trainer, the ability to show passion to get others on board with our mission.
• Ability to remain calm under pressure: Steadiness of thoughts, emotions, and mind under stressful situations. Can advocate without escalating tempers and has established coping strategies for stressful situations.
• Attentive to details, high accuracy: Provides clear information in a concise way to the audience, including consumers, stakeholders, and coworkers.
• Clarity in Communication: The willingness to progress, develop, and improve in effort to achieve goals. Takes initiative to learn about new topics and research areas relevant to position and duties. Informed about trends and hot topics within the disability community.
• Commitment to Growth/Excellence: Continually looking for ways to improve employment programming and services, become a respected leader on employment issues, and fighting against systemic boundaries to employment.
• Confident and Engaging: Accepting and trusting one's skills or abilities, and effectively drawing favorable attention or interest from others.
• Conflict Management/De-escalation: Can work with multiple partners with different interests and find a path forward. Calms tension and redirects to collaboration.
• Creates a positive work environment; good team player: Contributes to work atmosphere where employees feel valued, supported, and encouraged through a willingness to work and cooperate with others.
• Creativity/Innovation: The ability to create based on one's own original thought or imagination.
• Delegation: Understanding the strengths of coworkers and giving them clear direction to run with assigned tasks. Checks in to make sure things are progressing in a timely manner.
• Demonstrated success at helping people with disabilities gain employment: Has worked directly with individuals with disabilities in providing employment services successfully. understands what it takes to achieve meaningful outcomes in employment.
• Demonstrates proficiency with cross-disability: Competency supporting and providing services for individuals with a wide range of significant disabilities in a tailored way without making assumptions. Understanding the disability hierarchy.
• Emotional Intelligence: The capacity to be aware of, control, and effectively express one's emotions, as well as understand the emotions of other and react to them in a suitable way. Understands the social cues or consumers, partners, and coworkers and reacts appropriately.
• Ethical, Integrity, Honesty: Acts in accordance with principles of conduct to best serve individuals with disability and the disability community at large. Avoids conduct that could harm the consumer or the organization. Truthful about knowledge of topics or issues and does not speak on issues they are not informed about. Admits mistakes and accepts blame as appropriate. Adheres to strong moral principles as it relates to protecting the organization.
• Expertise in laws relevant to their position: Broad knowledge base related to ADA, Rehab Act, WIOA, FLSA, IDEA, and SC specific laws like the HS Credential.
• Identifies and Manages Risks: Engaging in a continual process of gauging, understanding, and mitigating potential risk.
• Interdepartmental knowledge/understands programs & services: Having a well-rounded understanding of the duties, roles, and responsibilities of multiple departments, programs, and services offered, and how they are intertwined.
• Interpersonal skills: The capabilities to effectively communicate, socialize, connect, and cooperate with other people.
• Knowledge of best practices in employment: Familiar with the landscape of disability services and infrastructure in other states, well versed in successful models.
• Knowledge of employment resources and services: High level of working knowledge about various state and private employment services agencies and the resources and support they can provide.
• Knowledge of govt/politics: Working understanding of policies, procedures, and legislation relevant to governmental regulations.
• Leadership on a state and national level: Building a reputation based on knowledge, expertise, or program success that lends credibility where others want to learn from you.
• Meeting facilitation: Commands attention and leads agenda with opportunity for buy-in and discussion with participants.
• Mentoring: Ability to build up staff's confidence, skillset, and knowledge base. Provides opportunities for shadowing and sharing of expertise.
• Organizational Leadership: Providing insight and input into strategic goals for the organization while also modeling and motivating others to successfully carry out assignments to meet those goals or objectives.
• Partnership Building/Builds Trust: To effectively facilitate partnerships and create new relationships where others are comfortable relying on you or your expertise.
• Personal Accountability/Self-motivated: The willingness to answer for or be accountable for outcomes resulting from your choices, behaviors and actions/being driven by one's own desires, interests, or ambitions.
• Persuasive Communication/Commands Respect: The ability to communicate effectively and understand your audience's needs to persuade and influence others. To speak with authority and show the value the organization can bring to the situation.
• Persuasive report writing: Writes reports to stakeholders and funders in a way that highlights the importance of the agenda we are pushing and establishes buy-in from the specific targeted audience.
• Problem Solving/Multi-dimensional Thinker/Analytical: Brings thoughtful solutions to complex issues; ability to look at problem from multiple perspectives.
• Professionalism: Demonstrates strong work ethic and appropriate professional boundaries for others to see. Adjusts dress, language, and tone to the appropriate level of formally needed for the specific situation. Dresses appropriately, avoids gossip, addresses conflict in a calm, measured way.
• Project management : Ability to see a project through from start to finish, coordinating staffing and resources, managing project works plans, and tracking outcomes for reporting purposes. Takes initiative and implements without prompting and nudging.
• Provides consumer driven services: Supplying offerings, plans, or strategies motivated by consumer desires, aligns consumer expectations with services provided by our organization.
• Prudent/Sound Judgment: Being careful or wise in handling practical matters; exercising common sense and good judgment. When speaking on behalf of the organization, understanding the audience and the implications.
• Public Speaking/Presentation Skills: Effectively addresses audiences and communicates with various groups in a tailored, concise, polished, and meaningful way. Speaks from the perspective of the disability community. The ability to speak to the public at large and the media when assigned to share lived experience or expertise on a particular subject area, after consulting with Dir. of PR.
• Results Driven: Focused on outcomes for individual employment services, TTW payments, goals of employment grants, and overall systems successes for the disability community.
• Social/Field Intelligence: Understanding social situations, relationships, and knowing what to do in each situation. Knowledge of resources and structures to troubleshoot complex situations independently.
• Staff Development: Ability to objectively evaluate staff, determine specific ways to enhance their skills, and implementation of the strategies.
• Stakeholder management: Manages the expectations of the orgs, people, or groups affected by agency programs and finds ways to get them involved and engaged with the organization or program's mission and success.
• Stamina/Ability to finish long-term projects: The capacity and initiative to sustain prolonged effort or activity in order to achieve a work-related goal without losing motivation. Can break into smaller tasks and stick to a timeline.
• Time management/skilled at prioritizing tasks: Adept at juggling multiple tasks and recognizing how to spend time on them appropriately according to importance and urgency.
• Visionary: Thinking about and envisioning the future of the organization's programming with imagination and wisdom.
• Works independently: The ability to complete tasks without continual supervision or direction from others. Being able to think effectively and troubleshoot on your own. Can manage large projects with minimal oversight and assistance from supervisor.

QUALIFICATIONS:

• Education and experience in business, rehabilitation counseling, macro social work or relevant field.
• At least four years of documented experience working with persons with disabilities or personal experience with a disability required.
• Knowledge of disability rights and IL philosophy required.
• Must have advocacy and systems change experience regarding the rights of people with disabilities.
• Experience building and leading coalitions and working in teams to accomplish goals.
• Knowledge of the service system, benefits, entitlements, and supports utilized by people with disabilities, specifically as it related to employment programs and services.
• High level understanding of EEOC, Rehabilitation Act, ADA, and civil rights laws as it relates to employment.
• Experience in the delivery of presentations and training to groups required.
• Experience in program evaluation required.
• Working knowledge of community resources available to people with disabilities.
• Ability to communicate effectively orally and in written form.
• Must have reliable transportation.
• Must be able to operate a computer.
• Knowledge of assistive technology and related resources.
• Must have clearance or be able to clear Social Security’s security screening requirements (can occur after the position is offered).

Able SC is an equal opportunity employer.

Qualified individuals with disabilities who are multi-marginalized are strongly encouraged to apply.

Able SC provides reasonable accommodations to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of the position. Please notify us if you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application and hiring process.