Position Summary: The Contact Center Counselor is a 30 hour per week, every other Saturday position that provides the first (and often only) contact that many victims and others have with The House Of Ruth Maryland. The Counselor offers customer service, information and referral, crisis intervention counseling, and technical assistance in response to telephone, e-mail, fax, and HRM website inquiries. The Contact Center Counselor has two primary responsibilities: to provide Line One coverage and back up coverage to the 24/7 crisis hotline, and to make outreach and follow up calls to former program participants. This position is an expert in the dynamics of intimate partner violence and House of Ruth Maryland’s philosophy, programs, and services. Callers to the Contact Center comprise individuals from the full range of cultural and socioeconomic sectors. Victims and those calling on behalf of victims are scared, hopeful, worried, angry, concerned, and hurt. The Contact Center Counselor must have the maturity and skills to work with people in many different capacities, and must have a firm understanding of trauma, the effects of trauma, engaging traumatized people, and must be comfortable working in a Voluntary Services program model. The Counselor is a creative, energetic problem solver who exercises initiative to help callers and is a skilled professional who has excellent crisis intervention skills including empathy, compassion, listening, patience, and the ability to assess each victim’s situation relative to lethality, assist them in making a safety plan and engage them in appropriate services. The Counselor is responsible for developing an excellent working relationship with other HRM programs and its staff, to ensure the timely, effective and seamless provision of services.
Primary Responsibilities:
- Shares responsibility with other Contact Center Counselors for live response to calls during designated shifts, and works every other Saturday.
- Provides crisis intervention, empathy and immediate safety planning to victims at risk of serious injury from intimate partner violence.
- Provides compassion, support, patience and information and referral to all victims, families, friends, professionals, donors and other individual callers during designated shifts.
- Using follow up protocols, makes outreach calls to victims to survey their experience with HRM, and as needed, offer additional safety planning, intimate partner violence education, linkages to HRM programs and services, and information about other appropriate community resources.
- Immediately upon receipt of daily call sheet, attempts to contact all victims. Makes and documents three attempts to contact victims within 72 hours of receiving reports.
- Refers former program participants still in danger to the Service Coordination program for additional assistance.
- Provides timely and accurate data entry related to each call. When necessary, will enter documentation of calls that were responded to by volunteers.
- Performs other duties as assigned to assist HRM staff, including but not limited to occasional face to face crisis counseling for shelter residents, assessing walk in victims, and front office backup.
- Maintains and refreshes the resource directory to ensure that it is accurate and up to date.
- Responds to requests received through the HRM website, Info Line, and social media.
- Participates in Contact Center Team meetings.
- Provides relief and back-up coverage for Shelter staff on Saturdays in emergency and urgent situations if required.