Social Worker

The Akanksha Foundation is non-profit organisation with the mission “to build one of the most innovative school networks that empowers children from low income communities to maximise their potential”. Akanksha currently serves 9800 children and 3500+ alumni, through its 21 schools in Pune and Mumbai Metropolitan Regions in partnership with the municipalities.

**Position**: School Coordinator - Social Worker

**Location**: Pune

**Compensation**: Based on skill sets, experience and sector standards

**Overview of the Social Work team**: The approach of the social work team is, “to support and empower children to lead safe, healthy and happy lives, through strong partnerships that enrich the child’s environment.” The social workers support and empower children by working closely with the parents to increase their investment in their child’s life - education, health and emotional well-being; bettering the lives children lead in the community. This is done through community awareness drives, partnering with other organizations and initiating projects in the community; focusing on the health of children through medical camps, offering guidance for medical concerns, increasing awareness in children and their parents about health, hygiene and sanitation; capacity building of the School Management Committee (SMC) to support the school during events, bettering the services offered to students and to increase parental investment in the school; working closely with students to increase their awareness about personal safety and health; supporting victims of sexual offences and their parents to heal; and working closely with teachers to increase their understanding of families and communities the students come from, so as to provide a context to the teachers for their interactions with the students and their parents. The Counsellors and Social Workers collaborate to support the school in the Youth Development and the Community Engagement goals of the School Development Framework. To do this they work in partnership with the School Leader, the teachers and the Network Support Team members.

**Roles and Responsibilities of Social Workers**:
**1. STUDENT LEARNING AND WELFARE**
- Planning and executing the Admission process
- Maintaining average school attendance
- Control student dropout rate and academic continuity
- Maintaining Student Documentation
- Health & Nutrition along with Mid day meal distribution
- Socio-emotional support to students
- Child Safety

**2.** **COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT**
- Knowledge and Understanding of the community
- School Community Engagement Goal
- NGO networking sourcing

**3. PARENTS AS PARTNERS**
- Parent engagement
- Parent welfare

**4. SMC (Capacity building and involvement of the members)**
- Building the capacity of the SMC members
- Engaging the SMC in school-wide initiatives
- Engaging the SMC in community level initiatives

**5. HELPER GROWTH AND EMPOWERMENT**
- School support
- Building the capacity of helpers

**6. GOVERNMENT LIAISONING**
- Maintain healthy relations with the various government agencies
- Government documentation compliance

**Experience**:

- 1-2 years of experience working with communities and children

**Knowledge/Skills**:

- Strong Oral and Written communication skills
- Good planning and organizing skills
- Understanding of English, Hindi and Marathi (verbal and written)
- Knowledge and understanding of social issues
- Proficient in MS Office (Excel, word and PowerPoint)

**Education**:

- Preferably Masters in Social Work

**Job Types**: Full-time, Regular / Permanent

**Salary**: ₹25,000.00 - ₹27,000.00 per month

**Benefits**:

- Health insurance
- Paid time off
- Provident Fund

Schedule:

- Day shift

Ability to commute/relocate:

- Pune, Maharashtra: Reliably commute or planning to relocate before starting work (required)