Leaphart Place Program Manager at Growing Home in West Columbia

Leaphart Place Program Manager

Salary: $65,000 - $70,000

FLSA Status: Full-Time/Salaried/Exempt

Reports To: Chief Executive Officer

Location: Onsite –West Columbia

Position Summary

The Leaphart Place Program Manager provides strategic, operational, and hands-on leadership for Growing Hope’s Leaphart Place, our supportive transitional living for young adults aging out of the foster care system.

This person will be responsible for program development, financial management, funding, compliance, housing operations, partnerships, and outcomes. The leader establishes the program’s policies, workflows, staffing structure, service expectations, and escalation procedures. The Program Manager supervises a team of 3-4 and is ultimately responsible for maintaining excellence in supervision, service quality, referral pathways, and documentation, as well as leading community partnerships, risk management, and supporting cross-program coordination.

This role requires a leader who is both strategic and practical. The Program Manager must be accessible, responsive, and willing to work alongside staff in the office and the community.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Program Leadership and Oversight:

• Provide accessible leadership, consultation, oversight, and support for staff managing complex situations.
• Ensure assigned programs operate in alignment with Growing Hope’s mission, values, policies, service philosophy, and strategic goals.
• Develop, implement, and maintain clear workflows, procedures, service expectations, and accountability structures across Leaphart Place.
• Provide oversight of day-to-day program operations and help resolve barriers that impact service delivery, staff effectiveness, or client and tenant outcomes.
• Ensure services are trauma-informed, young adult-centered, culturally responsive, and grounded in dignity, respect, and accountability.
• Facilitate and support coordination between housing, behavioral health, and other internal programs.
• Track and measure data, outputs, and outcomes of the program.
• Lead planning of graduation ceremonies and other celebrations throughout the year.
• Support program growth, service expansion, and improvements based on staff feedback, client and family needs, community needs, and organizational priorities.
• Identify and engage community partners in long-term support of Leaphart Place, including volunteer and in-kind support.
• Seek and apply for grant funding that supports core operations as well as supplementary program support benefiting young adults.
• Coordinate volunteer events that support program and capital improvements.
• Contribute to agency-wide planning, problem-solving, and decision-making.

Staff Supervision and Development

• Provide direct supervision, coaching, and support to program supervisor and any other assigned reports.
• Ensure assigned reports understand their roles, service expectations, documentation requirements, boundaries, and escalation pathways.
• Support onboarding, training, professional development, and ongoing skill-building for assigned staff.
• Conduct regular supervision meetings, team meetings, and case consultation as appropriate.
• Address performance concerns in a timely, fair, and supportive manner.
• Support staff retention by creating clear expectations, strong communication, and a healthy team environment.
• Identify training needs and coordinate internal or external training opportunities to strengthen staff practice.
• Promote reflective supervision and help staff process challenging work in a constructive and professional manner.
• Create a team culture rooted in accountability, trust, communication, responsiveness, and shared problem-solving.

Leaphart Place Management:

• Oversee supportive housing operations in coordination with program staff.
• Coordination and facilitation of onsite repair and maintenance needs in coordination with Leaphart support staff.
• Manage Leaphart Place program budget, including budget development and monitoring of revenue and spending, reviewing variances, anticipating needs, and working with finance to address funding gaps, ensuring fiscal responsibility in all related accounts and vendor partnerships.
• Ensure tenant referral, screening, interview, onboarding, lease signing, and move-in processes are clear and consistent. Authorize final resident acceptance procedures, ensuring that required paperwork and checks are completed and timely.
• Participate in tenant support meetings, treatment team meetings, corrective action planning, or non-renewal discussions when needed.
• Monitor tenant stability, service participation, incident trends, and housing-related risks.
• Ensure Leaphart Place balances compassion, accountability, safety, and community wellbeing.
• Coordinate with leadership when significant tenant concerns, safety issues, or lease enforcement decisions arise.
• Lead the establishment of a workable 24/7 emergency maintenance line and response process.

Compliance, Documentation, and Quality Improvement

• Ensure assigned programs comply with internal policies, funder requirements, licensing standards, accreditation expectations, and applicable legal and ethical requirements.
• Ensure all HUD required housing laws and regulations are strictly adhered to, and audit information is collected and monitored routinely for accuracy.
• Monitor documentation quality, timeliness, accuracy, and completeness across assigned programs.
• Lead program preparation for internal and external audits, file reviews, corrective action planning, and quality improvement.
• Partner with compliance, finance, billing, human resources, and leadership to ensure program accountability.
• Develop and monitor program goals, outcomes, performance measures, and improvement plans.
• Use data to identify trends, risks, service gaps, staff needs, and opportunities for program improvement.
• Leaphart Place grant monitoring and reporting, in partnership with finance and development staff.
• Ensure incidents, grievances, safety concerns, mandated reports, and critical events are documented and escalated appropriately.
• Support preparation for audits, reviews, accreditation visits, funder monitoring, and internal quality checks.

Community Partnerships and Outreach

• Build and maintain strong relationships with community partners, referral sources, funders, schools, housing partners, behavioral health providers, DSS, courts, and other service systems.
• Represent Growing Hope in community meetings, partner conversations, outreach activities, and collaborative groups.
• Create warm hand-offs to implement ongoing partner engagement opportunities within the program.
• Support outreach efforts to increase awareness of Growing Hope’s services.
• Ensure referral partners understand program eligibility, expectations, service pathways, and communication processes.
• Identify opportunities to strengthen the broader community's continuum of care.
• Promote Growing Hope as a responsive, collaborative, and mission-driven partner.

Risk Management and Crisis Response

• Support staff in identifying and responding to safety concerns, crisis situations, behavioral health needs, family instability, tenant concerns, and high-risk dynamics.
• Ensure staff follow appropriate escalation procedures for urgent or high-risk situations.
• Support mandated reporting compliance and ensure reports are made when required.
• Partner with executive leadership, clinical supervisors, compliance staff, legal counsel, and external partners when significant risk concerns arise.
• Monitor program risks related to housing stability, client safety, staff safety, behavioral health needs, family preservation, documentation, and service compliance.
• Help develop proactive plans to reduce risk while maintaining a supportive and client-centered approach.
• Provide calm, steady leadership during incidents, crises, or periods of program instability.
• Serve on call hours as needed for resident emergency/crisis coverage
• Other duties as assigned.

Key Qualifications

Required Qualifications

• Master’s degree in social work, counseling, psychology, human services, public administration, nonprofit management, or related field required.
• Minimum of five years of experience in human services, behavioral health, child welfare, housing support, family preservation, prevention services, or related fields.
• Minimum of three years of supervisory, management, or program leadership experience.
• Experience working with children, youth, adults, and families impacted by trauma, poverty, housing instability, mental health needs, foster care, child welfare involvement, family instability, or other complex life circumstances.
• Experience supervising staff who provide community-based, field-based, or direct service support.
• Strong understanding of trauma-informed care, family-centered practice, and community-based service delivery.
• Experience with program operations, staff supervision, documentation expectations, service coordination, compliance, and quality improvement.
• Demonstrated experience with budgets and program implementation.
• verbal and written communication skills. skills.
• Strong organizational, problem-solving, and follow-through skills.
• Ability to respond calmly and effectively to complex, urgent, or high-stress situations.

Preferred Qualifications

• Licensed or license-eligible clinical background, such as LMSW, LISW-CP, LPC, LMFT, or related credentials.
• Experience with transitional aged youth, supportive housing, or residential programming.
• Experience with family preservation, prevention services, child welfare, foster care, or DSS-related services.
• Experience with grant development/reporting.
• Experience with COA accreditation, Medicaid, state licensing, DSS contracts, behavioral health compliance, or other human service regulatory standards.
• Experience developing policies, workflows, dashboards, performance measures, or program improvement plans.
• Experience with HUD and housing compliance.
• Experience leading multidisciplinary teams.
• Experience supporting staff in the field during home visits, outreach, crisis response, or family engagement activities.
• Lived expertise as a former foster child and/or kinship, foster, or adoptive parent.

*This position is contingent upon external funding approval. The expected start date is January 2027.

Required Qualifications

• Master’s degree in social work, counseling, psychology, human services, public administration, nonprofit management, or related field required.
• Minimum of five years of experience in human services, behavioral health, child welfare, housing support, family preservation, prevention services, or related fields.
• Minimum of three years of supervisory, management, or program leadership experience.
• Experience working with children, youth, adults, and families impacted by trauma, poverty, housing instability, mental health needs, foster care, child welfare involvement, family instability, or other complex life circumstances.
• Experience supervising staff who provide community-based, field-based, or direct service support.
• Strong understanding of trauma-informed care, family-centered practice, and community-based service delivery.
• Experience with program operations, staff supervision, documentation expectations, service coordination, compliance, and quality improvement.
• Demonstrated experience with budgets and program implementation.
• verbal and written communication skills. skills.
• Strong organizational, problem-solving, and follow-through skills.
• Ability to respond calmly and effectively to complex, urgent, or high-stress situations.

Preferred Qualifications

• Licensed or license-eligible clinical background, such as LMSW, LISW-CP, LPC, LMFT, or related credentials.
• Experience with transitional aged youth, supportive housing, or residential programming.
• Experience with family preservation, prevention services, child welfare, foster care, or DSS-related services.
• Experience with grant development/reporting.
• Experience with COA accreditation, Medicaid, state licensing, DSS contracts, behavioral health compliance, or other human service regulatory standards.
• Experience developing policies, workflows, dashboards, performance measures, or program improvement plans.
• Experience with HUD and housing compliance.
• Experience leading multidisciplinary teams.
• Experience supporting staff in the field during home visits, outreach, crisis response, or family engagement activities.
• Lived expertise as a former foster child and/or kinship, foster, or adoptive parent.