Program Assistant

Position Title: Program Assistant

Department: Refugee Resettlement and Integration

Division: Community Integration Programs

Number of Positions: One (1)

Reports to: Associate Director, Community Integration Programs

Status: Full-Time/Exempt

Location: Arlington, Virginia

The Ethiopian Community Development Council, Inc. (ECDC), established in 1983, is a non-profit, community-based organization that advocates for refugee and immigrant issues; conducts cultural, health education, and socio-economic development programs; and resettles refugees in the U.S. through a network of affiliate partners and branch offices. While organized to respond initially to the needs of a growing Ethiopian community in the Washington, D.C., area, ECDC, from its inception, has been serving newcomers from diverse cultural backgrounds while maintaining a focus on African refugees and immigrants. Currently, ECDC has a network of 26 local resettlement sites that resettle refugees and provide employment and other social services to help newcomers become economically self-sufficient and integrated members of their communities.

Job Summary: The Program Assistant works with the assigned program on administrative tasks such as maintaining office calendars, scheduling team meetings and calls with affiliates, taking meeting notes, assisting during training, ordering office supplies as needed, preparing meeting rooms and equipment or technology, and organizing and updating program-related folders in shared drives.

KeyResponsibilities

Maintains Filing System

• Responsible for organizing the resettlement drive, shared drive, Google Drive, and Dropbox; mapping documents and assisting with monitoring, reviewing, updating, storing, and retiring office files, both paper and electronic. Developing a protocol for document retention and storage as needed.
• Track submission of files such as proposals (Site plans, budget, and budget narratives) State Refugee Coordinator consultation reports for proposals, quarterly progress reports, carryover budgets proposals, and other programmatic documents; store in the appropriate folders, preparing affiliates' document submission tracker in their respective folders.

Assist with Meetings, Training, Events, and Reporting:

• Assists with organizing meetings, training, and events, including preparing agenda items and circulating them to attendees such as affiliate staff, HQ staff, etc.
• Helps coordinate program schedules and activities.
• Attends all meetings, training, events, and conferences; takes meeting notes; sensitizes information; and shares it with attendees in a timely manner.
• Reserves conference rooms or other appropriate facilities, notifies participants, and sets up equipment, including virtual or in-person spaces for meetings, training, and events.
• Sets up virtual rooms for training and peer discussions and manages the setup of team members in virtual subgroup sessions with training organizers or program officers.
• Ensures the storage of training materials in the resettlement drive and Dropbox and, immediately after training sessions share the Dropbox link for training participants.
• Assists program officers in assembling and formatting training materials, and preparing presentations and reports.
• Coordinates additional logistics for events and activities.

Managing Deadlines and Compliance

• Receives, manages, sorts, and monitors general email accounts, coordinating with program staff to respond promptly, and ensures compliance with deadlines.
• Works on responses to issues and grievance questions received from federal funders, clients served by the ECDC affiliate network, and other partners, including communicating with affiliates and following up, combining documents, and ensuring that the responses are submitted promptly.
• Collects 30-day interactions and 90-day reminders from the PC Data team and informs program officers to take the necessary action monthly.
• Monitors leave and travel schedules and makes requests as needed to accommodate changes or unforeseen circumstances.

Affiliate Support

• Facilitates affiliates’ new staff to access ECDC’s database.
• Provides Dropbox and ProProfs training links for new affiliate staff.
• Collects information/input for newsletters from the PC database, training plans, monitoring plans, and PC program guidelines to use for monthly affiliate updates and reminders or PC newsletter production and distribution.

Monitoring Support

• Prepare and submit pre- and post-on-site monitoring administrative forms such as travel request forms, credit card request forms, travel reimbursement, and fund request forms.
• Purchase flight tickets, book hotel rooms, and rent a car for monitors.
• Format and final editing of monitoring reports when needed.

Outreach and Integration Support

• Helps organize, prepare, and catalog any HQ and affiliate-developed outreach and integration materials.
• Supports design and development of Outreach and Integration materials using design tools, such as Canva
• Supports delivering targeted support to affiliates needing help with Outreach and Integration

Other activities

• Responsible for providing administrative support to assigned program team members.
• Participates in relevantfunder, working group, and partnermeetings when requested.
• Maintain the affiliate contact directory up-to-date.
• Monitoring office supplies and ordering new stationery and office equipment as needed
• Assisting with preparing facilities and office furniture, computers for new employees
• Performs other tasks assigned by the supervisor.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required.
• One (1) year of work experience in refugee resettlement and/or other similar organizations, preferred.
• Excellent and effective written and verbal communication skills.
• Demonstrated ability to use Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and the Internet.
• Ability to use Teams, Zoom, Doodle, Google Docs, Qualtrics, Survey Monkey, Canva etc.
• Detail-oriented with the ability to manage multiple assignments and provide “error-free” work.
• Ability to work independently and as a team member.
• Ability to plan and manage work to meet deadlines; occasionally under limited time constraints.
• Must be legally employable in the U.S.
• Must pass a background check.