Senior Manager of Playspace

Title/Position: 

Assistant Director of Playspace

Location: 

Roxbury, MA 

Reports to: 

Chief Advancement Officer

FLSA Class, Status: 

Full time/Exempt

Position Grade: 

Assistant Director/Director

Starting Salary: 

$86,000

Date Written: 

June 2025

Our Mission:

Horizons for Homeless Children is a Boston-based non-profit dedicated to improving the lives of young children experiencing homelessness in Massachusetts. We help their families succeed by providing high-quality early education, opportunities for play, and comprehensive family support services. Our advocacy efforts extend our impact and advance our vision of ending homelessness among families with young children. 

Playspace Program Summary:

The Playspace Program is based on the belief that play is essential for child development. Our Playspace Program ensures that children living in homeless shelters in Massachusetts have the opportunity for developmentally appropriate play.  We build age-appropriate, child-friendly, and educational Playspaces in shelters and stock them with books, developmental toys, and art supplies. Playspaces are staffed by trained volunteers, called Playspace Activity Leaders (PALs), who commit two hours weekly for at least six months. In addition to facilitating the play crucial for children’s development, PALs enable parents to participate in activities like parenting groups, budgeting classes or job searches.

Summary of Position:

The Assistant Director of Playspace is responsible for managing the logistics of running a complex network of volunteers, including ensuring accurate and up-to-date records are maintained on our database. The Assistant Director of Playspace assures that the Playspaces are developmentally appropriate and trauma informed places to play. The Assistant Director is responsible for supporting the onboarding and supervision of Playspace Program Specialists in the daily facilitation of Playspace services with shelter partners by sharing knowledge of how to work with young children who have experienced the trauma of being homeless, coordinating volunteer and shelter correspondence promptly, and by proactively ensuring that assigned volunteer shifts are running effectively.  

Responsibilities:

• Supervise a team of Playspace Specialists to ensure successful facilitation of volunteer shifts and early childhood play experiences
• Supervise Playspace Specialists who are responsible for the day-to-day management of the shelter-based programs ensuring the successful management of 700+ volunteers, including recruitment, training, placement and retention
• Ensure the program has an appropriate scheduling process for daily volunteer coverage and that the Playspace Specialists are successfully managing daily and weekly shifts
• Work with Playspace Specialist team to implement effective volunteer and shelter partner communication protocol
• Track KPI’s and use data to drive programmatic goals
• Oversee budgeting and quality control of Playspaces
• Manage data collection of child and volunteer attendance in QuickBase for ongoing funding support
• Coach and mentor the Playspace Specialists using Horizons core competencies as a guide
• Partner and collaborate with Early Childhood and Family Program staff for seamless implementation of organizational and departmental goals
• Partner with the Senior Director of Playspace Development and Early Childhood Partnerships to coordinate the successful buildout and launch of new Playspac