Here’s the key to finding the right candidate to run your program…do not look for programs that search resumes for key words, rigid hiring criteria or try to tie this type of position to a particular professional licensure.  You will eliminate your pool of original thinkers, motivated to learn about your community and who are adept at becoming experts in all the areas necessary to head up this type of programming.  Read your candidates’ resumes and cover letters, look for unconventional people who are capable of great ideas, find people whose actual motivation to do the work makes you believe that they want to be a part of your organization and community.

When I was hired to head up the Struthers Juvenile Diversion Program, I had just over a year of professional experience, working only as a Child Care Worker in a Residential Treatment facility.  I had a Bachelor of General Studies with concentrations in Applied Conflict Management and Psychology and had just started graduate school for Community Counseling.  I had notably shown promise having begun developing curriculum for the Partial Hospitalization Program at the facility, challenging myself to come up with unique ways to deliver the group programs such as bibliotherapy.  When the opportunity for Diversion Officer came up, they actually approached me.  I previously applied for the same position in a neighboring community, who had not hired me due to my lack of experience, but they had apparently liked and remembered me, passing my information along to the City of Struthers.

It was not my credentials or experience that made me the ideal candidate.  The first thing you need is a person who believes that under any and all circumstances, they can create a program that will fit the specific needs of your community, no matter the challenges you describe.  The person must be a creative thinker, who may not have the answers available at the interview or from their past experience, in fact, knowing that your community’s specific needs will require original solutions and that they shouldn’t just try to apply cookie cutter solutions from previous experience shows a willingness to meet your specific needs.  Of course, knowing when to draw on other models is a prerequisite, but a person without experience can be willing to seek and find models to use as examples.

Second, a person must be driven to do this work.  Passion to be successful in this field is worth far more than a related degree.  It goes without saying that you want an educated candidate, but if you have someone with a degree in economics or fashion design who stands before you and tells you that they want to change the course of life for at-risk youth, those involved with the justice system, or any other population, you should consider that candidate and at least see if they have any ideas how to see through their ambition.  We all know there are a lot of people who are degreed in specific areas, with excellent resumes and interview skills, but once they have the job, they just go through the motions… you can’t turn this job over to that person.  You will do more harm than good.

You must have a person to who supports and aligns themselves with the ideals of the community.  One of the most important things I brought to the job was the willingness to understand and support the town’s core values.  This town had extremely conservative beliefs, some of which I didn’t necessarily think led to the best policy decisions.  What was important was that I understood why these beliefs were important to the community-at-large; that I developed programming that was cohesive and made policy recommendations that were inline with this and that I conducted myself in a way that actively demonstrated support of these ideals from dress, to talk, to action at all times.  This was key to the success of the program.  The leadership of the town felt that the decisions being made were being made in support of the community’s ideals and standards.  You must find a candidate who is willing to provide this support.  When you are working with individuals who demonstrate any risk, they need a program administrator who, in all their actions, can put out the message that even if they don’t agree with certain policies, they will act in accordance with them.

When I was working in Struthers, it was a very conservative town…predominantly Catholic, with very traditional values and some of the beliefs carried into the school’s dress code.  They insisted that boys were clean-shaven, with hair that did not touch their collars and students were not allowed to have hair colors that were not naturally occurring (I don’t remember the exact wording)…these were some of the regulations (I’m sure in 2015, most of you are laughing as you read this, but the community valued it).  I don’t necessarily think that kids shouldn’t be allowed to have blue hair; however, I understood this community’s thinking.  Conservative, family values were important and they didn’t want to contend with any dress or look in school that could possibly be distracting from education.  It was important that I was able to support their ideals and also help mitigate any thinking about behaviors that truly were not risk factors.  On some occasions, professionals, who were truly acting in the best interest of the kids, had misconceptions that some of the things that the kids were doing – some of their dress and hair – were indications of greater risk and it was part of my job to make sure that they understood that this was a natural part of development and expression.

Likewise, someone working in a predominantly liberal arts town should recognize and respect the looser values, but be able to help communicate with leaders and raise red flags if they think the boundaries are not strict enough. I’ve seen examples of towns like this, where the community-at-large has a relaxed attitude about substance use, particularly marijuana.  Someone leading a program that may involve providing interventions to at-risk youth has to understand the principles, overall, in a very artistic community and still be able to communicate that smoking, period, is unhealthy for youth, but that the lax attitude with marijuana especially with at-risk youth sends the wrong message.  The candidate you are looking for needs to be able to have these conversations with professionals and parents, while still respecting the community values.

You need to hire a person that both the professionals and at-risk population will trust and believe in and this is something that will only partially hinge on the person’s professional and educational experience.  Truly, they must have the ability to be able to relate to all populations.  Their success will be a direct result of how well they understand and respect the populations they serve and the other professionals with whom they work.  Usually, the professional you are hiring to manage a program like this will not have a background in the same skill set as the other professionals who work with the population they are managing.  It is so key that the individual you hire is willing to understand the limitations of their expertise and to actively solicit feedback and input from the other professionals, to understand their point of view and be keenly aware of the need to effectively collaborate with these individuals as they will be the key to success.

Your best candidate must be humble enough to want to learn from the other professionals and attempt to become as much of an expert in their fields as possible.  Likewise, the candidate should also be able to assure the population being served that they are willing to learn from them about their struggles, that they don’t think their past work makes them an expert on everything and that the understand this specific population is unique, that each person in the population has their own story to tell and deserves individual consideration…this is so valuable.

Even if, in the articles on this page, I were able to lay out all the tools that gave us the success we had, you need a candidate that is capable of adapting it to your specific community.  I will be the first to tell you…this was ours and it worked for us…it worked because it was highly collaborative and it changed over time to fit the needs of both the population and the people serving the population. You need a leader who has the skill to do the same for you.  Take the tools you choose to use and know that there are no tools on the planet…no matter what marketing genius makes you believe otherwise…that can be used across all populations, across time effectively and an excellent leader will take a good tool and make it highly effective for your town and program or, even better, rewrite it and entirely adapt and enhance it for your specific community.

Finally, you need a person willing to make themselves an expert in all systems that your program is going to touch.  I barely had experience with at-risk youth and mental health when I began in my role.  I was hired to perform a joint role for both the School District and City/Police Department.  Immediately, I needed to become an expert on the matters of education, law enforcement and municipal government, as they related to the work I was doing.  This does not mean going out and seeking further education in these areas, in fact, that would have been a longer and more inefficient route.  I had access to all the professionals I needed to provide me the expertise I needed.  In order to run a program of this nature, you have to be aware that you are going to become an advisor to all of the people in the systems your program touches and, if you do not have a background in their profession, it is unlikely that they will receive your input openly, as you do not have a firsthand understanding of their challenges.  I chose to get my education from every person within each organization that I would be working with and learn every detail about their work as it related to my role that they believed was significant.  This made our collaboration stronger, made my ties to the community and understanding of the community ideals greater and very quickly allowed me to gain the expertise needed.

Remember, when seeking your ideal candidate your best bet is a passionate, driven person who is a highly creative thinker.  You should make the effort to meet with anyone who sends a cover letter expressing a sincere, passionate desire to do the work and enthusiasm as an out-of-the-box thinker to come with new, creative ideas or anyone who is recommended to you by a known and trusted party as someone who would be really good at this job.  These unconventional and unusual candidates will likely bring more to your program than somebody who sends a resume that reads like a checklist of skills for which you think you are looking.

Remember, the right person is the key, more than the program.