Join Our Team

The Program Director must exhibit perseverance and an entrepreneurial spirit in their pursuit of establishing and growing the Friends of the Children program in the East Valley. This position oversees the management of programming including designing, implementing, and sustaining programming, as well as research, supervising, evaluating the efforts of all professional mentors (“Friends”), and for the overall integrity of the program. The role leads in the child identification and selection process and maintenance of relationships with schools and community members.

The Program Director is a member of the senior management team, who is expected to interact constructively with members of the community, partner schools, and other key stakeholders, including potential donors and other third parties.

Under the direction of the Family Engagement Director, the Family Engagement Assistant provides administrative, coordination, and programmatic support to the Family Engagement Department in alignment with Friends LA’s 2Gen Model.

The FEA plays a supporting and assisting role in caregiver engagement efforts by helping to coordinate services, maintain systems, support events, assist with resource navigation, and reinforce the Strengthening Families Protective Factors. While the FEA interacts with caregivers and families, they do not serve as the primary lead for ongoing caregiver case guidance or crisis response, which is held by the Family Engagement Director (FED) and Family Engagement Manager (FEM).

The FEA supports high-quality, consistent family engagement by helping ensure systems run smoothly, information flows clearly, and caregivers are connected to resources in a timely, organized, and respectful manner.

Friends of the Children is a nonprofit that is impacting generational change by empowering youth through relationships with professional mentors. We do this by providing children facing the most obstacles with a long-term, paid, professional mentor, who we call a “Friend,” from kindergarten through high school graduation, 12+ years – no matter what. We are currently seeking an extraordinary professional to embark on a new career journey as a Friend at our new West LA/SFV, SPA 2/5 location.

At Friends of the Children, we put children first and use our values to change the way the world treats and views youth facing great barriers. As a Friend you will nurture long-term relationships from a foundation of love, acceptance, and practices. Do you want to help urban, rural, and Indigenous youth discover their limitless potential, by fostering their internal resiliency? Are you ready to help build relationships within the communities of our youth and families to strengthen social networks and provide bridges to new opportunities? If so, the impactful role of a Friend might be for you.

The Antelope Valley site of Friends of the Children – Los Angeles (Friends L.A.) is looking for passionate, committed, professional mentors, who we call Friends, to support our mission to impact generational change by empowering youth who are facing the greatest obstacles through relationships with trained full-time professional mentors—12+ years—no matter what.

A Friend works intensively with eight (8) children as a positive adult role model to develop a caring, trusting and sustained relationship with each child. For each child, a Friend will set positive expectations; nurture and promote their strengths, talents and abilities; help assure physical and emotional well-being; teach life and academic skills; provide enrichment activities; and model responsible behavior. A Friend will fully document activities and participate in an ongoing evaluation process. Friends will work primarily one-on-one with their children while empowering their parents to advocate for their children through an ongoing, respectful, and strengths-based partnership. A Friend must also know, understand, honor and support the organization’s mission, vision, values, principles and policies, and be able to clearly articulate the organization’s function.

The ideal candidate is an innovative project manager with a strong connection to the communities we serve and a commitment to positively impacting the lives of children and families in East L.A. Priority will be given to candidates who reside in the area and/or have extensive experience working within the East LA community.

Friends of the Children – Los Angeles (Friends LA) is looking for a passionate, committed, professional mentor, who we call Friends, to support our mission to impact generational change by empowering youth who are facing the greatest obstacles through relationships with trained full-time professional mentors—12+ years—no matter what. Our model is proven to break the cycle of generational poverty for children who face the most barriers by providing paid professional mentors to thousands of youth across the country.

A Friend works intensively with eight (8) children and their families as a positive adult role model to develop a caring, trusting and sustained relationship with the whole family. A Friend will set positive expectations; nurture and promote their strengths, talents and abilities; help assure physical and emotional well-being; teach life and academic skills; provide enrichment activities; and model responsible behavior. A Friend will fully document activities and participate in an ongoing evaluation process. Friends will work primarily one-on-one with their children, and link and support their families to resources as appropriate. A Friend must also know, understand, honor and support the organization’s mission, vision, values, principles and policies, and be able to clearly articulate the organization’s function.

The ideal candidate is an innovative project manager with a strong connection to the communities we serve and a commitment to positively impacting the lives of children and families in Los Angeles. Priority will be given to candidates who reside in the area and/or have extensive experience working within the Los Angeles community.