Position Summary: The Community Advocate works directly with survivors of intimate partner and sexual violence on improving their safety and stability. The Community Advocate assesses survivors for eligibility to receive emergency assistance funds, such as eviction prevention, utility assistance, food assistance, and transportation assistance. This position provides both material and financial assistance to meet immediate crisis needs and service coordination to precariously housed survivors to help stabilize individuals and families and prevent homelessness due to intimate partner and sexual violence. The Community Advocate must be comfortable working with individuals to remove barriers efficiently, as the majority of individuals will only be in contact for very brief periods of time. This position will also have a small caseload of long term clients, who need support and assistance long term in community. As such, the position is responsible for maintaining good relationships with area landlords and community resources. Home visits are part of the job. Participants in our programs are traumatized by the intimate partner violence they have experienced. As such, the Community Advocate must be comfortable engaging traumatized people in a sensitive manner and must be comfortable working in a Voluntary Services program model, supporting and encouraging participants in the achievement of their self-identified goals.
Standard Schedule: This position works weekdays, and is expected to provide flexibility up to 10% of the time to accommodate clients who need to meet outside of standard working hours. This position is based in HRM’s confidential Emergency Shelter location in Baltimore City, but is a highly mobile position, expected to be out in the community about 50% of the time. In person is highly preferred, though up to 50% of the position can be conducted remotely if conditions support confidentiality and quality service standards.
Primary Responsibilities:
· Coordinates access to and distributes emergency material and financial assistance available to victims and survivors who are experiencing an intimate partner or sexual violence emergency. This may include eviction prevention, utility assistance, emergency food or transportation/ relocation services, and other categories of need as funding allows.
· Maintains detailed tracking records for assistance distributed, including timely data entry related to each contact in keeping with program standards.
· As part of the Service Coordination team, completes Victim Coordinate Entry (VCE) Intakes for homeless survivors of intimate partner and sexual violence.
· Assists clients in gathering/obtaining documentation necessary to quickly and efficiently process assistance requests.
· Provide up to two years of comprehensive and culturally sensitive coordination of services for a small caseload of clients placed in long term transitional and rapid rehousing, assessing needs, creating a comprehensive and culturally appropriate service plan with timeline for completion, assisting in removal of barriers to goals, coordinating with internal and external providers of services, and providing three to six months of follow up with participants after closing of case file.
· Guides and supports participants to increase self-sufficiency skills, safety, education on domestic violence, and problem solving. Educates participants on self-advocacy skills and advocates on behalf of participants when necessary to achieve participant goals.
· Gather and synthesize information on participant from agency sources and from significant recent and current community support systems.
· Work with participants to clearly identifying support people in the participant’s life and how they might contribute to the participant achieving goals.
· Assess participant’s mental health and substance abuse needs, make recommendations for further treatment and coordinate a plan for addressing those needs that respects the cultural beliefs of participants.
· Coordinate participant’s use of agency and community services to provide comprehensive and unduplicated services that maximize participant success, including organizing team meetings as necessary.
· Works collaboratively with community partners to provide comprehensive and unduplicated services that maximize participant success. Coordinates with program partners to ensure accurate and timely communication and documentation of work.
· Arrange for interpretation services as necessary.
· Visit participants in home environments that have been determined to be safe.
· Participates in weekly Shelter Case Review meetings and monthly Service Coordination Team meetings and makes recommendations concerning individual participant’s expected termination date from the Residential and Service Coordination programs.
· Provides one on one counseling for participants in crisis and to help participants resolve conflict.
· Answers agency 24 hour Hotline and Chatline as part of rotation of staff.
House of Ruth Maryland is an equal opportunity employer that is committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace. We prohibit discrimination and harassment of any kind based on race, color, sex, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, genetic information, pregnancy, veteran status or any other protected characteristic as outlined by federal, state, or local laws
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