Bilingual Early Childhood Specialist

Summary of Job Description:

The Bilingual Early Childhood Specialist will serve as a key member of both the Family Support and Early Care and Education teams. This position is responsible for supporting Spanish-speaking professionals and enhancing the accessibility and quality of services across Wisconsin’s statewide Family Recourse Center Network and Child Care Resource & Referral Network. Key responsibilities include:

• Providing high-quality Spanish translation and interpretation services
• Designing, coordinating, and delivering professional development trainings in Spanish, with an emphasis on ensuring instructional quality and relevance
• Supporting continuous quality improvement initiatives, offering professional development opportunities, and providing technical assistance for Spanish-speaking staff within Network agencies
• Offer bilingual programs and services for Network agencies
• Building and maintaining strong, collaborative relationships with Network Member Agencies, statewide partners, and contract managers

Required Qualifications

• Wisconsin Registry Level 13 or higher
• Wisconsin Registry Tier 3 Trainer Endorsement
• Wisconsin Registry Spanish Language Endorsement
• Bilingual fluency in English and Spanish (oral and written)
• Valid driver’s license, current auto insurance, and the ability to travel statewide, including overnight stays as needed
• Availability to work evenings and weekends, as required

Preferred Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in early childhood education, family studies, human services, or a related field
• Minimum of three years of experience in early childhood education, family support services, or a related field
• Experience translating written materials and oral presentations from English to Spanish
• Demonstrated experience delivering professional development, training, or technical assistance in Spanish
• Familiarity with evidence-based and evidence-informed parenting programs such as Triple P (Positive Parenting Program), Nurturing Parenting, Parents as Teachers, Healthy Families America, Early Head Start Home Visiting
• Experience facilitating training in both virtual (e.g., Zoom) and in-person settings
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office, SharePoint, email, and internet-based applications, with the ability to learn new software systems

Ideal Candidate Will Have

• Strong interpersonal and cross-cultural communication skills
• Ability to build relationships and effectively engage with diverse communities and stakeholders
• Confidence in public speaking and presenting in both English and Spanish
• Skilled in working independently and managing multiple priorities and deadlines
• Adaptable and comfortable in a fast-paced, multi-project work environment
• Effective at collaborating with multidisciplinary and cross-sector teams
• Strong organizational skills with attention to detail
• Competence in collecting, analyzing, and reporting program data and outcomes

Primary Responsibilities:

Family Support (50%)

• Translate family support trainings, workshops, resources, and materials into Spanish to advance the field of family support
• Become an approved trainer in key Family Support content areas (e.g., Parent Leadership, Play Groups, Protective Factors) to deliver professional development for field professionals.
• Coordinate and deliver family support trainings to Spanish-speaking professionals in a variety of formats, including in-person, virtual, online, and blended modalities.
• Provide bilingual technical assistance and coaching to local agency staff to support best practices, continuous quality improvement (CQI), and the delivery of high-quality services.
• Organize and lead quarterly community of practice calls to facilitate peer learning, skill-building, and knowledge-sharing among bilingual family support staff.
• Support the development and adaptation of Spanish trainings on Thriving Wisconsin’s online training platform.
• Assist in implementing local family support programming for Spanish-speaking families in partnership with member agencies, as needed.
• Stay informed on current trends and emerging practices in the family support field.
• Assist with coordination and participate in Thriving Wisconsin’s Family Resource Center Network activities.
• Support data collection and monitoring of family support activities, professional development, contract deliverables, member engagement, etc.
• Analyze data to recommend potential models and frameworks of implementation, family support best practices, evaluation and data collection in family support
• Report progress and outcomes of family support funding through quarterly reports.
• Build and maintain relationships with family support agencies and other collaborating partners.
• Assist with Thriving Wisconsin Membership benefits activities and member recruitment efforts.

Early Care and Education (40%)

• Collaborate with the Child Care Resource & Referral Network to support the delivery of high-quality, Spanish-language trainings for early care and education professionals. Training topics may include Child Care Foundational Training, Abusive Head Trauma Prevention and Mandated Reporting, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome Risk Reduction, and Strengthening Families.
• Provide coaching and technical support to Spanish-speaking trainers to build their capacity, ensure content mastery, and maintain fidelity to training standards when providing training and other supports to child care providers.
• Translate training materials, resources, and curricula into Spanish to expand access and support consistent, culturally responsive training delivery across the Network.
• Contribute to the development, implementation, and quality assurance of Spanish-language training modules within ECExplorer, the CCR&R Network’s Learning Management System.

General (10%)

• Promote Family Resource Center and Child Care Resource & Referral Agency services through participation in Thriving Wisconsin’s social media initiatives, community events, conference presentations, and tabling opportunities
• Represent the organization in local and statewide workgroups to strengthen relationships with stakeholders, support collaboration, and enhance outreach efforts
• Assist with data collection, documentation, and reporting to meet program and grant requirements
• Participate actively in monthly virtual staff meetings and quarterly in-person staff gatherings
• Support the organization’s mission, vision, strategic goals, and contribute to action items as needed
• Contribute to the development of Thriving Wisconsin’s external communications, including publications, digital campaigns, social media content, and resource development
• Perform other duties as assigned to support team and organizational priorities

Other

• Understands agency mission and represents mission to public
• · Must pass criminal background check/s prior to final employment offer
• · This position is contingent upon grant funding
• · This position is fully remote with some required travel throughout Wisconsin

Physical Demands

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. While performing duties of this job, the employee is frequently required to stand, walk, use hands to finger, handle, or feel, reach with hands and arms, stoop, kneel, crouch or crawl, talk or hear and taste and smell. The employee must frequently lift and/or move up to 10 pounds and occasionally lift and/or move up to 30 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and ability to adjust focus.

Work Environment

The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals and disabilities to perform the essential functions. While performing the duties of this job the employee is occasionally exposed to outside weather conditions. The work environment is fully remote with some required travel to events where noise level in those work environments can be moderate.