Position Summary: The Bilingual Outreach Specialist is a 40 hour per week, highly mobile position that is often the agency’s first contact with members of Baltimore City and Baltimore County’s underserved and limited English speaking communities. The Specialist has two primary responsibilities; 1. Engage, and triage the needs of victims in underserved communities who walk in to HRM or community partner sites, and connect them to essential services or provide short-term case management and; 2. Educate the communities where underserved populations live and work on what Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is, what services HRM has to offer victims of IPV, what systems and laws are in place to assist victims of IPV, and most importantly, how victims can improve safety and stability. The Specialist is a creative, energetic, problem solver with initiative to understand barriers that clients of diverse backgrounds face. They are a highly skilled professional who has excellent crisis intervention skills including empathy, compassion, listening, patience, and the ability to make a culturally informed safety plan with each client. The Specialist is responsible for developing an excellent working relationship with internal, and external, programs to ensure the timely, effective and seamless provision of services. This position is an essential staff position that works at multiple sites and in the community in all HRM locations: Baltimore City, Baltimore County, Prince George’s County and Montgomery County. Flexibility to provide evening and weekend event coverage and presentations is needed about 30% of the time.
Current populations HRM is focused on reaching include the Spanish speaking and Latinx immigrant communities; Urdu speaking South Asian community; Muslim communities; and LGBTQ communities.
Primary Responsibilities:
- Provides crisis intervention, empathy and culturally informed support to victims at risk of serious injury from domestic violence.
- Conduct high risk victim home visits with Baltimore County Police as part of the Baltimore County Police Lethality Program.
- Under the direction of the Highlandtown Coordinator and Lead Outreach Specialist, identifies and reaches out to communities where underserved victims live and work, providing information on IPV, services available, and systems navigation.
- Identifies and reaches out to agencies and organizations that serve HRM’s underserved populations. Notifies agencies of programming and services available to victims and facilitates partnerships to serve victims better.
- Inventories, orders and distributes food pantry commodities to victims of IPV in Baltimore County.
- Works with program partners to supervise, train and schedule volunteers in the food pantry.
- Provides one on one safety planning, systems navigation, rights education, and resource referral for victims working with HRM staff.
- Under the direction of the Lead Outreach Specialist and Highlandtown Coordinator, uses information collected from formal and informal interviews with program participants, the community, and service providers, to make recommendations and adjust programming to best serve underserved victims within the HRM’s mission.
- Records all efforts and outcomes associated with outreach to victims in the client database (ETO).
- Shares responsibility with Contact Center Counselors for live response to calls, chats, and walk ins during designated shifts as needed.
- Travels to provide in person triage services for walk in victims at HRM sites, and at safe partner locations in the City.
- Assists with outreach calls and data entry for Lethality Assessment and Follow Up Programs as needed, offering additional safety planning, intimate partner violence education, linkages to HRM programs and services, and information about other appropriate community resources. Makes and documents three attempts to contact victims within 72 hours of receiving reports.
- Accompanies police on home visits in Baltimore County for limited English speaking victims.
- Participates in Contact Center Team meetings and shares resource information.
- Spanish speaking staff members share coverage and triage services at HRM’s Highlandtown office to ensure victim access for Spanish speaking victims and survivors.
- Meets weekly with direct reports for a one-on-one check in, or a team meeting, to provide feedback and direction.
- Holds team meetings regularly.
COVID Policy: House of Ruth pledges to maintain a safe and healthy workplace for our staff, the clients we serve, and the public. Therefore, effective on September 15, 2021, House of Ruth MD will require proof of vaccination against COVID 19, or weekly proof of negative COVID 19 test.