Title: Adolescent Mental Health Specialist

Location: Full-time Remote Position
Division: Grassroot Soccer, Inc.
Reports to: Mental Health Technical Advisor

To Apply:  Please submit a resume and cover letter to [email protected] with “Mental Health Specialist” on the subject line.  Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

Application Deadline:  November 16, 2022

Overall Description:  The Adolescent Mental Health Specialist is a dynamic and passionate public health professional who will help coordinate and grow Grassroot Soccer’s (GRS) new adolescent mental health practice area. As member of the GRS Global Research & Development Team, the Specialist will provide cross-functional support to GRS impact teams and functional units with a range of adolescent mental health activities, including program design, curriculum development, training, research, monitoring and evaluation, business development, and strategic communications/marketing. While remote, the position is expected to travel 25-30% within Sub-Saharan Africa to provide technical assistance to GRS country teams and programs.

Grassroot Soccer (GRS) is a rapidly growing adolescent health organization that leverages the power of soccer to educate, inspire, and mobilize at-risk youth in developing countries to overcome their greatest health challenges, live healthier, more productive lives, and be agents for change in their communities. Since 2002, GRS programs have reached 13 million young people in over 60 countries with life-saving HIV prevention and sexual and reproductive health information and services. GRS is looking to continue scaling its impact via technical assistance and partnerships over the next five years.

In January 2022, GRS launched a multi-year strategy to guide organizational growth in adolescent mental health and elevate it as an organizational priority alongside existing focus issues such as HIV and sexual and reproductive health. Since this launch, GRS has already started mental health programming in Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa, and Zambia. To achieve our goal of improving adolescent mental health and well-being, GRS is pursuing a set of four strategic priorities:  INTEGRATE — mainstream positive mental health content in all GRS “SKILLZ” programs; INNOVATE — develop innovative mental health promotion and prevention programs; ADVOCATE — reduce stigma and create environments that support adolescent mental health; and EVALUATE — identify a clear and compelling research and learning agenda for adolescent mental health.

Responsibilities:

Program Support and Leadership (70%)

• Work closely with assigned teams to ensure high-quality implementation of  mental health activities, guided by the organization’s approach and mental health strategy.
• Work closely with curriculum and training teams to produce adolescent mental health information, education, and communication (IEC) materials such as educational curricula and magazines.
• Travel to country programs to lead mental health trainings and project support visits.
• Under the direction of the Mental Health Technical Advisor, support in developing new and innovative adolescent mental health programs and services.
• Contribute to monitoring and evaluating the organization’s adolescent mental health work, including working with research staff and external researchers to carry out, write up, and disseminate evaluations.
• Contribute to developing lessons learned from programs and projects related to mental health and apply these lessons to modify existing programs and improve the design of new programs.

Internal and External Communications (30%)

• Support the development of funding proposals, concept notes, presentations, and other technical materials required in fundraising efforts.
• Work closely with program and communications teams to develop mental health-related external communication materials in various formats.
• Manage internal communication and learning related to mental health, including conceptualizing and planning webinars, briefs, and newsletters.
• Remain informed on the adolescent mental health field, staying alert to developments that affect the organization’s mental health programming.

Qualifications:

• 3-5 years of project management and/or coordination experience, involving both project management and people
• Bachelor’s degree with experience in and/or deep understanding of public health, mental health, and education
• Experience with adolescent/youth programming strongly preferred
• Excellent quantitative, analytical, writing, and verbal skills for engaging with a diverse audience, including internal staff and leadership, as well as external donors, governments, and partners
• Ability to travel regionally up to 25-30%

Ideal candidate should have exceptional skills in the following:

• Be a curious, enthusiastic, and self-directed learner and leader
• Be highly organized and effective at keeping organizational process moving
• Be able to build relationships with a wide range of staff and external partners, as well as operate within diverse social and cultural contexts, often virtually over multiple continents and time zones
• Know how and when to dive into the details versus think big picture
• Be a strong writer, with lots of experience in Microsoft Word

Successful leaders at Grassroot Soccer are bold, yet humble. They are passionate about the mission of Grassroot Soccer and understand their role on the Grassroot Soccer team to achieve its mission.

Day to day, they are…

• Proactive:  can anticipate both opportunities and obstacles and take action
• Professional:  level-headed; ability to de-escalate difficult situations, behave exceptionally, and manage/minimize distractions
• Problem Solvers:  comfortable with ambiguity, can creatively unlock bottlenecks and turn problems into opportunities
  …they demonstrate lots of…
• Common Sense:  prioritizing the right things at the right time; making good, quick, informed decisions balancing multiple issues and points of view
• Self-awareness:  know where one’s blind spots are, recognize differences, and build a team to complement one’s skills and weaknesses

…and a strong bias for…

• Follow-through and Outcomes:  deliver results, not just create lots of activity
• Treating People Well:  empathetic, kind, great listener, yet can make tough decisions and hold oneself/others accountable