Director of Tennis, Tenacity

Organization Link
Tenacity
Position Description

Tenacity seeks a Director of Tennis to lead its growing 30+ site, 4,600 student summer program. This is an outstanding opportunity for an entrepreneurial individual who is skilled at managing multi-site tennis programs with a large, young staff and at developing and implementing quality tennis curricula that can be effectively delivered.


TENACITY:

In Boston there are approximately 10,000 students each year who do not have access to quality out of school time (OST) programs, like those that include a well-structured mix of academic learning, life-skills training, and sports. Tenacity, a nonprofit serving at-risk youth in Boston, is answering this call by partnering with the City of Boston and other local institutions to bring literacy, academic support, and tennis to those who would not otherwise have that opportunity.

Tenacity programs meet a critical need for safe, healthy, productive after-school, in-school and summer programs for urban youth. Tennis and fitness activities are the magnets drawing interest from kids who otherwise have few athletic outlets. These athletic activities are closely integrated with literacy programs to help build academic motivation and achievement.

Founded in 1999, Tenacity is a Boston-based organization dedicated to helping at-risk urban youth develop skills, build character and find pathways to excellence. Combining tennis and fitness with literacy, tutoring and mentoring activities, Tenacity has served over 20,000 kids through after-school, in school and summer programs.

Tenacity is at work when at-risk kids go the extra mile in a fitness program, the extra step on the tennis court, the extra hour for a final exam or college application.


THE PROGRAMS:

Tenacity offers two core programs, the Summer Tennis & Reading Program (STRP), which operates from June - September and the After-School Excellence Program (ASEP), which operates during the school year. The Tennis Director will work in close collaboration with the ASEP Director and Tenacity’s senior management team to ensure that the tennis component of the programs is functioning at the highest possible level.

More detail on the programs can be found at our website: www.tenacity.org


POSITION: Director of Tennis

As the senior manager for the tennis component of both the summer and school year programs, the Director of Tennis is responsible for hiring, training and mentoring a staff of up to 200 college age and high school personnel who work during the summer, and to collaborate with the ASEP Director regarding the hiring, training and supervision of the ASEP tennis staff. S/He will oversee the staff running our programs at 30+ sites with over 4,500 participants ages 6 to 16. The Tennis Director must have exceptional leadership, organizational, and management skills and experience. His/her primary responsibility is to enable the program to achieve its operating objectives within the framework of Tenacity’s mission. In so doing, a significant amount of collaboration is required with other program areas of the organization to achieve operating synergies.

The Tennis Director is responsible for planning and then implementing the operating goals and objectives of the summer programs on an annual basis. In this role, he/she is responsible for day-to-day program management including: hiring of staff, curriculum planning, training, third party negotiation and relationship management (including the city of Boston and other summer youth programs), week-to-week supervision, and reporting.

Specific areas of responsibility include:

• Program Implementation and Evaluation:
o Provide direct supervision for all Summer Tennis staff, ensuring that life skills and tennis program goals are aligned with Tenacity’s mission.
o Oversee the continuous improvement and execution of tennis program design
o Develop future programming as determined with the CEO/Founder.
o Working with measurement professionals, to continuously evaluate program success.
o Review and revise Tenacity’s tennis program strategies, structure, and curricula. Determine and initiate any content or structural changes as necessary.


• Execution of Strategic Growth Objectives:
o Add staff teams within existing and/or new program sites and achieve agreed upon goals regarding number of participants served.
o Work with the staff, particularly the CEO/Founder, COO, CFO, and School Year Program Director, and partners to refine priorities for the next season of growth and ensure that resources are in place to support the vision.

• Staff and Volunteer Management:
o Recruit, manage, and retain summer program staff and volunteers, exploring all available outreach strategies to ensure the highest competency and greatest diversity.
o Provide overall supervision to a diverse team of Sector and Site Leaders, Literacy and Tennis Coordinators, senior and junior staff, as well as volunteers, work-study tutors, and other part-time instructors.
o Provide guidance to volunteer management personnel to ensure that potential volunteers are both appropriate and identified in a timely manner.
o Establish and maintain a highly organized, spirited, competent, and professional work standard across all program staff teams, members, and partners.

• Student Interaction:
o Act as an energetic ambassador of Tenacity to students.
o Ensure that summer program needs of school year students are met.
o Assist, where appropriate, with identifying potential new school year program students from summer participants.

• External Relations:
o Develop and Maintain Strategic External Relationships: Foster and maintain productive partnerships with program staff at partner programs, city agencies, and other key relationships Identify success stories from the summer program with an eye toward marketing and fundraising content.
o Assist with the creation of program content for semi-annual Tenacity newsletters.
o Assist the CEO/Founder with various fundraising and partnership activities as requested.
o Manage facilities and equipment.

QUALIFICATIONS:

Experience Level

Significant experience with increasing levels of responsibility in multi-site tennis program management. Previous supervisory and management level positions held are a requirement. Previous program director level positions held are strongly desired.

This role requires an entrepreneurial, thoughtful, collaborative, and highly organized tennis manager deeply committed to enabling Boston’s youth to achieve excellence on-court. Experience managing summer outdoor youth programs in multiple locations such as in large city parks and recreation departments is a significant plus.


Personal Qualifications

• A self-starting and energetic leader with ability to elicit the respect and trust of staff and external partners.
• A seasoned professional with a proven track record managing an operation of similar size, complexity, and trajectory; or a highly talented and organized “up and comer” with innate sense of good program management and direct experience serving urban, multi-cultural constituents.
• Ability to multi-task while presenting a controlled and calm demeanor.
• A broad thinker who can foster collaborative translation of an ambitious city-wide vision into realistic strategies to be used by the CEO/Founder and Development Director to ensure well-funded operations. Demonstrated program development and outcomes measurement experience, and the discipline to redirect programs as needed.
• Strong oral and written communications skills, used in one-on-one settings and in large group meetings. The ability to set the tone for an organizational culture that combines respectful collaboration with disciplined productivity within a business-like and process-focused environment.
• Experience managing young people and leveraging external partners.
• A passion for children with diverse backgrounds.
• High levels of integrity, trustworthiness, flexibility, compassion, and humor plus the edginess, creativity, discipline and persistence required to elicit city-wide change.
• Ability to leverage the talents of organization staff, volunteers and outside supporters. Computer literate with the ability to utilize Microsoft Office programs


Education:

College degree required, a graduate degree in business, education, or related field would provide excellent training for what Tenacity seeks to accomplish.

Interested Candidates Send a cover letter and resume to:

Ian Schneiderman
Director of Operations
Tenacity, Inc.
367 Western Avenue, 2nd Floor
Brighton, MA 02135

or email your information with the subject line of "#5 - Director of Tennis" to OPSjobs@tenacity.org

Compensation
Based on experience
Deadline
March 15, 2009