Program Manager

PROGRAM MANAGER

Program Summary

Philadelphia Family Voices (PFV) is Philadelphia’s first and only family-led, family legacy organization dedicated to supporting families of children and youth navigating behavioral health, autism, and other child-serving systems. PFV provides family peer support, education, advocacy, system navigation, and opportunities for family voice and leadership to empower families and improve outcomes for children, youth, and families.

Position Summary

Reports to: Executive Director Direct Reports: Supervisors, Family Peer Resource Specialist, and other assigned staff Status: Exempt; 35-hour workweek; may include evenings and weekends

The Program Manager is responsible for the overall management, implementation, coordination, and day-to-day operations of assigned PFV programs and initiatives. Reporting directly to the Executive Director, the Program Manager translates organizational priorities, funded proposals, contractual requirements, and Executive Director directives into effective program operation and ensures programs are implemented as designed, deliverables are completed within established timelines, and services meet PFV quality standards.

The Program Manager provides direct oversight and accountability to assigned staff and is responsible for effective supervision, staffing and caseload management, program implementation, accurate data and documentation, reporting, quality assurance, and program performance. The Program Manager proactively identifies and addresses program needs, barriers, risks, and performance concerns and elevates matters requiring executive-level decision-making.

Leadership Summary

• Provide accountable, solutions-focused leadership that promotes professionalism, collaboration, transparency, respect, family voice, and accountability across PFV programs and teams.
• Serve as a key member of PFV’s leadership team and support implementation of organizational priorities, policies, expectations, and standards.
• Represent and elevate family voice in program development, advocacy, policy, and systems-change efforts at the local, regional, and state levels.
• Establish and maintain professional relationships with families, youth, funders, community organizations, partners, and child-serving systems and professionally represent PFV at assigned meetings, committees, task forces, presentations, and other activities.
• Ensure organizational priorities, decisions, and directives are accurately communicated through the appropriate chain of command and consistently implemented by assigned staff.
• Model ethical and professional conduct and demonstrate initiative, sound judgment, problem-solving, accountability, and follow-through.

Key Duties & Responsibilities

Administrative

• Manage administrative functions of assigned programs and monitor program expenditures to ensure alignment with approved budgets, contracts, program goals, and organizational requirements.
• Support program-related human resource functions, including interviewing, hiring, onboarding, orientation, staff development, training compliance, performance management, and coordination with the Executive Director and/or Human Resources when escalation is required.
• Implement and reinforce PFV policies, procedures, operational expectations, and organizational standards and provide recommendations for improvements when needed.
• Maintain systems for tracking contracts, program commitments, deliverables, reporting deadlines, training requirements, and other assigned responsibilities.
• Prepare accurate and timely program reports, data, and supporting documentation for Executive Director review and/or submission to funders and partners.
• Work with the Executive Director to establish and monitor program performance measures, outcomes, family satisfaction, quality standards, and compliance with scopes of work and funder requirements.
• Maintain appropriate leadership and supervisory coverage and promptly communicate significant staffing, contractual, operational, or program concerns requiring executive-level review.
• Attend required internal and external meetings, ensure appropriate follow-up on commitments and action items, and maintain confidentiality regarding sensitive family, employee, contractual, and organizational information.

Program and Staff Responsibilities

• Develop, implement, and oversee the operational structure of all assigned PFV programs, services, contracts, pilots, and initiatives to ensure compliance with approved program models, scopes of work, contractual requirements, PFV policies, and quality standards.
• Ensure family peer support, system navigation, advocacy, education, and other services reflect PFV’s family-led mission and educate, empower, and support children, youth, and families.
• Lead implementation of new programs, pilots, contracts, partnerships, and initiatives by translating approved proposals, requirements, and organizational priorities into actionable workflows, timelines, staff responsibilities, deliverables, performance measures, and monitoring processes.
• Interview, hire, onboard, train, develop, and evaluate direct reports and ensure Supervisors complete required evaluations and appropriately manage staff under their supervision.
• Provide weekly strengths-based supervision, coaching, and mentoring to direct reports and hold Supervisors accountable for consistent staff supervision, documentation, performance, attendance, communication, productivity, service quality, staff development, and adherence to PFV requirements.
• Establish clear expectations, responsibilities, deadlines, and deliverables; monitor progress and ensure appropriate follow-through and accountability.
• Ensure consistent program and staff meetings, establish and/or support meeting agendas, facilitate meetings as needed, and monitor completion of action items.
• Manage program workflow and caseload operations, including referrals, intakes, assignments, active caseloads, transfers, discharges, service activity, staff capacity, and timely family engagement. Work with Supervisors to address imbalances, delays, inactive cases, service gaps, and other barriers.
• Identify and coordinate staff training and professional development and oversee the development and delivery of family support groups, workshops, trainings, curriculum, education, and other family engagement opportunities.
• In collaboration with the Executive Director, oversee program marketing, outreach, and community engagement, including community and system-partner outreach, program communications and materials, community events/resource fairs, and in-person or virtual presentations and trainings.
• Promote team building and a Trauma-Informed, Resilience-Oriented and Equitable Care (TIROE) environment through strengths-based leadership, communication, transparency, accountability, professional development, and meaningful staff input.
• Oversee program partnerships and collaborations; maintain positive stakeholder, community, system, and funder relationships; ensure PFV commitments are fulfilled; and address barriers affecting successful collaboration.
• Monitor program and staff performance, proactively identify operational barriers, staffing concerns, performance issues, service gaps, and risks, implement appropriate corrective strategies within the authority of the position, and elevate significant matters to the Executive Director and/or Human Resources.
• Maintain program continuity and appropriate supervisory coverage during vacancies, transitions, and planned or unplanned absences and promote effective communication and coordination across PFV programs and teams.
• Follow all PFV policies and procedures and perform other duties and responsibilities as assigned by the Executive Director.

Electronic Health Record (EHR) / Program Database

• Oversee EHR and program database practices to ensure accurate, timely, complete, and consistent documentation across assigned programs.
• Ensure participant information, contacts, services, assessments, goal plans, referrals, activities, transfers, discharges, and other required documentation are entered and appropriately reviewed or approved in accordance with PFV and program requirements.
• Hold Supervisors accountable for monitoring staff documentation and conduct routine data-quality reviews to identify and correct missing, inaccurate, duplicate, incomplete, or untimely records.
• Monitor and reconcile program data, including referrals, intakes, active families, assignments, transfers, discharges, individuals/families served, service activity, referral sources, caseloads, outreach activities, and required program outcomes.
• Conduct regular data review and monthly program close-out and generate, review, and validate program data used for internal, monthly, quarterly, annual, contractual, and funder reporting.
• Identify trends, discrepancies, gaps, and performance concerns and work with Supervisors to implement corrective action; promptly communicate significant compliance or data-quality concerns to the Executive Director.
• Ensure confidentiality and appropriate handling of protected and sensitive information and provide or coordinate staff training related to EHR/database and documentation requirements.

Education, Knowledge, Skills & Abilities

Minimum Experience

• Parent, guardian, or primary caregiver with direct lived experience raising or supporting a child or youth with behavioral health, mental health, emotional, developmental, and/or autism-related needs who has utilized local child-serving systems.
• Five (5) years of progressively responsible experience operating and managing human services, behavioral health, autism, family peer support, nonprofit, or related programs, including staff supervision.
• Demonstrated experience supervising Supervisors, team leads, and/or multiple program teams required.
• Demonstrated experience in strengths-based supervision, coaching, staff development, performance management, program development and implementation, and managing multiple priorities and deadlines.
• Demonstrated knowledge of Philadelphia child-serving systems and experience with program documentation, data collection, quality assurance, outcomes, and/or program reporting.
• Completion of Family Peer Support training within sixty (60) days of hire, Family Peer Support Supervisor training within three (3) months, and required Autism/ASD Navigator training within three (3) months, unless previously completed.
• Ability to obtain and maintain required Child Abuse, Criminal Background, FBI, and other applicable clearances.
• Reliable transportation, valid active driver’s license, and ability to travel throughout Philadelphia and surrounding areas.

Preferred Experience

• Knowledge of Systems of Care, family-driven care, trauma-informed care, and TIROE principles.
• Experience in child/youth/family advocacy and working with families and communities impacted by behavioral health, developmental, and/or autism-related needs.
• Experience in family peer support, family navigation, family-led organizations, Medicaid-funded/billable services, managed care, or publicly funded human service systems.
• Experience with grants, contracts, funder requirements, performance measures, deliverables, EHR/database systems, quality assurance, and program reporting.
• Philadelphia residency preferred.

Minimum Education Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university in human services, social work, psychology, public administration, nonprofit management, education, or a related field required.
• Candidates hired with a bachelor’s degree must enroll in or obtain admission to an accredited master’s degree program in a related field and successfully complete the degree within the timeframe established by PFV as a condition of continued employment.
• Candidates who possess a related master’s degree at the time of hire meet the education requirement.

Preferred Education Requirements

Master’s degree in a related field at the time of hire and/or relevant professional certification, credential, or licensure.

Required Skills

• Excellent written, verbal, interpersonal, active listening, relationship-building, facilitation, and public presentation skills.
• Strong leadership, supervisory, coaching, and performance-management skills with the ability to establish expectations, promote accountability, develop staff, provide constructive feedback, and appropriately address performance concerns.
• Strong program management, organizational, and time-management skills, including the ability to independently manage multiple programs, priorities, workflows, deadlines, and deliverables with consistent follow-through.
• Demonstrated initiative, sound judgment, adaptability, conflict-resolution, and solutions-focused problem-solving, including knowing when to act independently and when executive-level involvement is required.
• Ability to objectively receive and implement organizational directives and final decisions, separating personal opinions, preferences, biases, or disagreements from professional responsibilities and acting in the best interest of PFV, its programs, and the families it serves.
• Ability to professionally communicate questions or differing perspectives through the appropriate chain of command while implementing final organizational decisions once direction is established.
• Strong analytical and data-management skills, including reviewing program data, caseloads, outcomes, discrepancies, trends, and performance measures to support program improvement and decision-making.
• Ability to develop and monitor program budgets and understand the relationship between staffing, program activities, contractual requirements, deliverables, and expenditures.
• Excellent computer skills, including Microsoft Office, email, EHR/program databases, ADP or other HR/timekeeping systems, virtual meeting platforms, and the ability to learn additional required technology.
• Ability to maintain confidentiality, professional boundaries, sound judgment, and ethical, respectful, and accountable conduct.
• Ability to utilize strengths-based, family-driven, trauma-informed, resilience-oriented, and equitable approaches to leadership and service delivery.
• Ability to maintain regular and punctual attendance and work a flexible schedule, including evenings and weekends, as needed.

Physical Requirements

• Ability to perform general office/computer functions and to stand, walk, bend, reach, stoop, and move throughout office, community, and event environments.
• Ability to lift and carry work-related materials and equipment weighing up to 25 pounds, with or without reasonable accommodation.
• Ability to move, organize, arrange, and maintain program materials, supplies, equipment, storage areas, and other organizational resources within the PFV office.
• Ability to assist with setup and breakdown of meetings, trainings, workshops, outreach activities, and community events, including movement and organization of materials, supplies, tables, and equipment.
• Ability to transport laptops, program materials, supplies, and equipment and travel to community and partner locations throughout Philadelphia and surrounding areas.
• Ability to navigate varied community environments, use public transportation and/or drive as required, and work in settings that may involve emotionally challenging or confrontational situations.
• Ability to perform the essential functions of the position with or without reasonable accommodation.

Working Environment

• The Program Manager works in a variety of office, community, virtual, family, partner, and system settings, including PFV offices; schools and community organizations; family homes; behavioral health, autism, healthcare, treatment, and crisis-response settings; Family Court; CBH/DBHIDS and other partner or government offices; community events; trainings; and conferences.
• The position requires regular interaction with staff, families, community members, funders, and partners; local travel throughout Philadelphia and surrounding areas; occasional travel outside the immediate area; and occasional evening and weekend activities. The Program Manager is expected to maintain the on-site and community presence necessary to effectively supervise staff, support program operations, and fulfill organizational responsibilities.