Administrative Assistant

Administrative Assistant Role at Garden of Prayer Youth Center

Garden of Prayer Youth Center in Kankakee, IL is seeking an Administrative Assistant to backstop the Director of Administrative Operations and help keep the office running smoothly. This is a full-time, onsite position that blends clerical duties with light human resources tasks, ideal for someone who enjoys organized administration and supporting a program focused on youth and the community.

The organization focuses on youth development and community involvement, and the Administrative Assistant will play a hands-on role in handling office operations, HR documentation, screening and onboarding processes, and maintaining records for clients and staff. The role also involves liaising with vendors and community partners to support the center’s programs and activities.

What You’ll Do as an Administrative Assistant

The role reports to the Director of Administrative Operations and helps manage day-to-day office functions and basic HR paperwork, ensuring processes stay orderly and compliant.

Day-to-day duties span organizing and coordinating activities such as screening intake for employment, scheduling pre-employment screenings, assisting with employee orientation, and gathering documentation during the trial period. It also includes welcoming and guiding new staff, answering and routing messages, and maintaining positive relations with vendors and community officials.

You’ll help establish and maintain positive connections with community supports and stakeholders, including law enforcement, hospitals, and school faculty and administration, and you’ll monitor progress on tasks through to completion with service providers.

Monitoring duties cover keeping office equipment and supplies in good order, recording board meeting minutes, maintaining client databases, assisting with staff trainings, and supporting risk management safeguards and environmental controls. You’ll also keep track of weekly lesson plan progress and report findings to the Program Coordinator, while helping implement a behavioral management system that fosters self-control and respect.

In the direct service sphere, you’ll perform clerical and secretarial tasks such as drafting correspondences and reports, data entry, routing mail, scheduling administrative meetings, and handling incoming calls. You’ll facilitate and arrange employee orientation, maintain accurate employee records, support agency-wide activities, and manage a monthly calendar for the main office and any branch locations.

On the administrative side, the role includes maintaining accurate employee records, documenting unusual incidents related to emergency communications, keeping the employee database up-to-date, maintaining maintenance logs for office equipment, and ensuring every visitor and employee records their time in and out of the facility. It also involves creating, updating and maintaining the client database and supporting ongoing agency activities and training, including attendance at all-staff meetings.

Candidate Profile For This Administrative Assistant Role

Must-have qualifications for this role include:

• Completion of a high school diploma or equivalents
• Two years or more in a clerical service related field
• Ability to communicate and work with children with varying ages and skills, and provide guidance, support and supervision to participants at all times
• Mathematics and language arts proficiency
• First aid and CPR certified
• Visual and auditory ability to identify and respond to environmental and other risks related to an activity
• Excellent communication and organizational skills
• Able to work collaboratively with teams
• Demonstrated reliability regarding attendance and work performance
• Ability to be creative, flexible and adaptive in all activities and responsibilities
• Must be a team player
• Must want to help address the needs of the community

Tips For Applicants For The Administrative Assistant Role

Lead your resume with your clerical experience and education. If you have 2 years or more in a clerical field and a high school diploma or equivalents, place that up front, and note your First aid and CPR certification if you have it.

Demonstrate your must-have skills with concrete examples. Show instances where you handled screening intake, supported new-hire orientation, maintained employee and client databases, and collaborated effectively with teams and community partners.

Be ready to discuss how you manage confidential HR documentation, keep accurate records, and support training and risk management activities. You may be asked to describe how you stay organized when coordinating agency-wide activities and events.

Ask a smart question about the role’s day-to-day workflows, such as how pre-employment screenings and orientation are handled, what tools are used to maintain databases, and how success is measured in this role by the Program Coordinator or leadership. You could also ask about how the office signs in visitors and tracks time for staff and participants, given the emphasis on documentation and safety.