Program Assistant

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What is it?

The Somali American Parent Association (SAPA) is a Minneapolis-based 501 (c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to closing the achievement gap among Somali and East African students. SAPA provides trainings and resources for parents and schools to create common ground, allowing parents and teachers to communicate better and work together to better educate students. For students, SAPA offers tutoring services and an out-of-school-time program for academic improvement and enrichment.

Program Assistants would help assist the speaker with power points and handouts. Once the volunteer is ready, they may facilitate their own session(s) with parents as a part of the parent training and professional development presentations. Specifically for the parent trainings, creating connections with the parents will help retain that they will come to more than one session as well, so speaking directly with the parents will be another task.

• Ability to speak in front of large quantities of people
• Excellent interpersonal skills
• Excellent intercultural communication skills
• Ability to work well independently with minimal supervision
• Detail-oriented
• Patience, flexibility, good humor
• Experience with East African community a plus
• Somali language skills a plus

Sessions are usually once or twice per month and take on average 2 hours to complete. This includes time for transportation but there may be sessions that have longer travel times, but the actual session ranges from 45 minutes to 1 hour.