Senior Manager, Adult Education & Career Development
Full Time, Salaried, Exempt Position
Founded in 2003, GiGi's Playhouse Inc.’s mission is to change the way the world views Down syndrome and send a global message of acceptance for all. We profoundly change lives through national campaigns, educational programs, and by empowering individuals with Down syndrome, their families, and the community. All programs are free and are therapeutic or educational in nature. Each one of our programs is designed to work on specific skill development, including speech and language, literacy, socialization, and fine and gross motor skills. GiGi’s Playhouse has opened over 60 locations across North America and growing by several locations annually.
Job Description:
The Senior Manager of Adult Education & Career Development provides strategic and operational leadership for adult education and career programming at GiGi's Playhouse Hoffman Estates and McHenry. This position owns the participant experience and adult program continuum, from recruitment, enrollment, and delivery through GiGi University, career and Ambassador development, internships, employment, and meaningful community engagement.
This leader is responsible for growing participation, strengthening program quality and measurable outcomes, developing community and employer partnerships, and ensuring adults with Down syndrome have opportunities to build skills, increase independence, contribute to their communities, and pursue meaningful employment and volunteer opportunities.
The position leads the GiGi Professional internship and career-development program and oversees GiGiWORKS as a work-based learning environment where participants develop and demonstrate transferable workplace skills.
Beyond the local Playhouses, this position serves as a national leader and spokesperson for GiGi's adult education and career-development model. Working closely with the National Program Team, the role will pilot innovative approaches, identify and share best practices, support the development of scalable career pathways, and represent GiGi's Playhouse with employers, universities, funders, community organizations, and other external partners.
Goals of this role include:
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Increase adult participant enrollment, engagement, retention, and program hours across Hoffman and McHenry.
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Develop an annual community outreach and participant recruitment strategy with measurable enrollment goals.
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Build and maintain an active pipeline of transition programs, schools, colleges, employers, community organizations, and referral partners.
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Increase the number of participants progressing from adult education into internships, competitive integrated employment, Ambassador leadership, or meaningful volunteer placements.
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Establish measurable skill-development outcomes for participants working within Hugs + Mugs and the internship program.
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Develop employer partnerships that create internships, job-shadowing, workplace tours, employment opportunities, and volunteer placements.
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Track participant outcomes beyond program completion, including placement, retention, advancement, and continued skill development.
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Establish Hoffman and McHenry as demonstration sites for excellence in adult education and career development that can inform programming across GiGi’s network.
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Represent GiGi's Playhouse nationally through presentations, employer engagement, conferences, funder conversations, media opportunities, training, and storytelling.
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Partner with the National Program Team to pilot, evaluate, document, and scale successful adult education and career-development practices across the network.
Reports to: Executive Director
Location: Role is 100% in person in Hoffman Estates, IL
Essential Job Functions:
Adult Education & Group Program Leadership
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Provide overall leadership and ownership of adult education programming at the Hoffman Estates and McHenry Playhouses, ensuring consistent, high-quality participant experience across both locations.
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Develop and execute the annual adult education strategy for both Playhouses, including program schedules, enrollment targets, participant outcomes, staffing and volunteer needs, community engagement, and growth goals.
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Lead implementation of the full adult education continuum, including GiGi University, GiGi Professional, GiGi’s Ambassadors, career development, internships, employment preparation, and meaningful volunteer pathways.
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Ensure programs are delivered with fidelity to the curriculum, Standards of Execution, and expectations established by the National Program Team.
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Maintain a strong presence at both Playhouses and build relationships with participants, families, volunteers, staff, and community partners.
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Identify gaps in programming, participation, or outcomes and proactively develop solutions to strengthen the adult participant experience.
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Establish Hoffman Estates as a demonstration site for excellence and innovation in adult education and career development.
Participant Recruitment, Engagement & Outreach
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Own participant recruitment and enrollment for adult programming at Hoffman Estates and McHenry, with measurable goals for growth, retention, and engagement.
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Develop and execute a proactive community outreach strategy to identify adults with Down syndrome who could benefit from GiGi’s adult education and career programs.
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Build referral relationships with high schools, transition programs, colleges and universities, disability organizations, state and local agencies, service providers, employers, and other community partners.
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Represent GiGi’s Playhouse at transition fairs, resource fairs, employment events, community events, conferences, and other outreach opportunities.
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Develop strong relationships with prospective and current families, helping participants and caregivers understand available pathways and identify programs aligned with each participant’s goals, strengths, interests, and support needs.
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Maintain consistent communication with participants and families regarding progress, opportunities, expectations, and next steps.
Participant Development & Individualized Pathways
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Ensure each adult participant has a clearly defined development pathway focused on building confidence, independence, health, communication, leadership, career readiness, and community engagement.
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Oversee participant assessments, individualized development plans, progress trackers, certifications, and transition planning.
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Regularly evaluate participant progress and help individuals advance into the next appropriate opportunity within GiGi University, GiGi Professional, GiGi’s Ambassadors, internships, employment, or community volunteer service.
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Work directly with participants as needed to reinforce skills, overcome barriers, and prepare for increased independence and responsibility.
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Ensure programming maintains high expectations while providing individualized support necessary for participant success.
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Partner with families and caregivers while maintaining the adult participant as the central voice in goal setting and decision-making.
GiGi Professional, Career Development & GiGiWORKS
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Own the GiGi Professional career pathway, moving participants from skill development into internships, employment, Ambassador, or meaningful volunteer opportunities.
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Lead GiGiWORKS and manage staff to ensure operations provide meaningful work-based learning and skill development.
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Oversee participant career readiness, individualized development plans, certifications, internships, and employment preparation.
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Build employer and community partnerships that create internships, job shadowing, volunteer opportunities, and competitive integrated employment.
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Coordinate placements, job coaching, and follow-up while tracking participant progress and employment outcomes.
National Leadership, Innovation & Spokesperson
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Serve as a national subject-matter leader and spokesperson for GiGi’s adult education, career development, and employment initiatives.
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Represent GiGi’s with employers, corporations, universities, funders, conferences, media, and community partners.
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Partner with the National Program Team to pilot, evaluate, and scale innovative practices using Hoffman Estates and McHenry as demonstration sites.
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Share best practices and elevate participant and Ambassador voices across the GiGi’s network.
Program Quality, Volunteers & Continuous Improvement
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Lead long-term program planning, growth, and quality for adult programming across Hoffman Estates and McHenry.
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Recruit, train, and manage volunteers and interns, including building university partnerships to support programming.
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Ensure programs meet established standards, participant needs, and measurable outcomes while continuously identifying opportunities for improvement.
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Collaborate with Playhouse leadership and the National Program Team to strengthen and advance adult programming.
Data, Outcomes & Accountability
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Establish and monitor measurable goals for participation, progression, internships, employment, volunteer placement, and retention.
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Ensure accurate tracking of participant progress, certifications, program hours, volunteer hours, and career outcomes.
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Use data, feedback, and participant success stories to demonstrate impact and drive program improvement.
Competencies:
The Senior Manager, Adult Education & Career Development must enjoy working within an entrepreneurial environment that is mission-driven, results-driven, and community-oriented. The following competencies describe the ideal candidate:
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Teamwork: Balances team and individual responsibilities; exhibits objectivity and openness to others' views; gives and welcomes feedback; contributes to building a positive team spirit; puts success of team above own interests; able to build morale and group commitments to goals and objectives; supports everyone's efforts to succeed.
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People Management: Includes staff and key volunteers in planning, decision-making, facilitating and process improvement; takes responsibility for subordinates' activities; makes self-available to staff; provides regular performance feedback; develops subordinates' skills and encourages growth; solicits and applies customer feedback (internal and external); fosters quality focus in others; Improves processes, products and services; continually works to improve supervisory skills.
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Collaboration: Ability to work collaboratively and professionally with families, participants, local and national office staff, board members, committee members, volunteers, and donors. Ability to work collaboratively within the community; expand networking opportunities for GiGi’s Playhouse. Exhibits good listening and comprehension.
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Communication Exceptionally strong written and oral communication skills with ability to express ideas and thoughts verbally; writes clearly and inspirationally; Edits work for spelling and grammar; Varies writing style to meet needs; keeps others adequately informed; selects and uses appropriate communication methods.
- Initiative: Proactively anticipates needs and works to solve issues before they arise. Takes prompt action; is a total self-starter, taking independent actions and calculated risks to take advantage of opportunities.
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Planning /Organizing: Prioritizes and plans work activities; Uses time efficiently; Plans for additional resources; Sets goals and objectives; Organizes or schedules other people and their tasks; Develops realistic action plans.
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Problem Solving: Identifies and resolves problems in a timely manner; Resourceful; Gathers and analyzes information skillfully; Develops alternative solutions; Works well in group problem solving situations; Uses reason even when dealing with emotional topics.
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Adaptability and Calm Under Pressure: Adapts to changes in the work environment; Manages competing demands; Changes approach or method to best fit the situation; Able to deal with frequent change, delays, or unexpected events. Maintains stable performance when under heavy pressure or stress.
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High Standards: Expects personal performance to be exceptional; improves processes to continually improve operations.
Qualifications
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Experience: Five+ years of relevant experience in program leadership, adult education, career development, disability services, or a related field.
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Leadership: Proven ability to lead programs and teams, build partnerships, and drive measurable outcomes.
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Communication: Strong written, verbal, and public speaking skills with the ability to represent GiGi’s to diverse audiences.
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Technology: Proficiency with Microsoft Office and ability to effectively use or learn Salesforce.
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Physical Demands: Ability to occasionally lift and/or move up to 50 pounds, with reasonable accommodation as appropriate.
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Work Environment: Primarily in-person with travel between Hoffman Estates and McHenry and flexibility for evening, weekend, and community events.
GiGi’s Playhouse Core Values: GiGi’s challenges all staff and volunteers to embody the following core values:
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Enthusiasm: Bringing positive, high energy to our work
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Best of All: Always looking to improve in all that we do. Challenge yourself every day.
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Get It Done: Making things happen and blasting through barriers when needed; figure it out.
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Believe: Believe in ourselves, believe in our mission, believe we can achieve all that we set out to achieve
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Locally Concerned, Enterprise Minded: To best serve our local communities, we share our location’s best practices and have the humility to leverage the collective learnings from across the GiGi’s network.
