Job Description

ABOUT US: - We believe that everyone deserves a home!

Breaking Ground operates nearly 4,000 units of housing across New York City, along with housing in upstate New York and Connecticut. Supportive housing - affordable housing paired with services designed to help people maintain their homes for the long-term - is widely recognized as a proven and cost-effective solution to chronic homelessness.

But we didn't stop at providing housing. Breaking Ground's programs and services help people experiencing street homelessness - especially those who have been on the streets the longest - to come indoors. Through our Street to Home outreach program and transitional housing resources, we help people get, and stay, on the path to a permanent home.

Breaking Ground’s Street to Home program makes regular contact with more than 2,000 street homeless individuals and connects more than 500 individuals to housing, medical and mental health services, substance abuse counseling, and other essential supports each year. The caring, individually tailored attention clients receive at each stage of their journey from street to home ensures that more than 95% of people who Breaking Ground places remain stably housed.

Reporting to the Assistant Director, Programs, Outreach, the Outreach Coordinator manages and supervises street outreach teams, providing coordination across the teams to ensure there is always staff deployed in the field and helps to triage and prioritize urgent requests or developing situations. The Outreach Coordinator ensures the teams utilize Harm Reduction and Housing First approaches when conducting street outreach and engage with individuals to determine homelessness history, services needed, and appropriate placement options from the field in the moment. The Outreach Coordinator creates shift schedules, ensuring continual coverage in the field, and that Housing Advocate teams are compliant with data entry requirements into DHS’ system contractual requirements.

The Outreach Coordinator is responsible for gaining a holistic understanding of the homeless population and works in collaboration with the community and other partners to implement appropriate housing and service solutions. The Outreach Coordinator manages their teams’ responses to community concerns, oversees Code Red/Blue alerts, identifies new hotspots and encampments, plans weekly canvass schedules for the teams, and oversees all 9.58 assessments and removals for the shift.

Programs staff are required to locate and assist street homeless individuals under the most extreme weather conditions. Managers are required to be in the field during Code Reds and Code Blues. Staff must be willing to engage with street homeless individuals and can handle multiple tasks in a fast paced, dynamic, team environment.

This position is primarily the evening shift and has a 35-hour work week as well as on-call responsibilities.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITES:

Successful oversight and performance management of street outreach teams including Housing Advocates and a Team Leader II who supervises an additional street outreach team and a part time Social Worker

Provide regular, structured supervision meetings for direct reports

Responsible for implementing supervisory strategies, and systems of accountability to ensure that staff have adequate support, guidance, and oversight at all times

Create and implement shift schedules that ensure teams are deployed at all times; find coverage for callouts, vacations, and vacancies

Ensure canvassing incorporates feedback from the team, community, DHS, historical 311 data, etc

Promote effective strategies for outreach work, following Housing First, Harm Reduction, Crisis Prevention Institute (CPI), Motivational Interviewing and trauma-informed care models of practice

Ensure adherence to program contracts, regulatory requirements, and internal guidelines, ensuring all performance targets and service delivery benchmarks are consistently met

Responsible for ensuring documentation, reporting, and referrals are accurately completed on time and in compliance with DHS and Breaking Ground requirements

Provide support and guidance to staff in managing difficult situations and successfully de-escalating conflict

Oversee and participate in Code Blue/Red Alerts, providing clinical leadership to the teams when they encounter challenging situations

Assess and complete 9.58 involuntary removals to a hospital and ensure all required documentation is accurate and completed on time

Serve as a liaison with community partners, intergovernmental stakeholders, DHS staff and other community stakeholders to respond to emergent concerns, including 311 calls and encampment engagement

Develop strong collaborative relationships with external partners and service providers, NYPD, EMS, etc

Attend onsite meetings with community partners

Provide on call coverage as needed for the program

Perform other duties as assigned

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:

NYS Licensed Masters Social Worker (LMSW) required

Minimum 3 years supervisory experience required

Obtain 9.58 credentialing within first 3 months of hire required

Understanding of Housing First, client centered motivational interviewing, Harm Reduction models, behavioral and medical health systems

Experience with crisis intervention, including, risk assessments and incident management

Excellent communication skills (verbally and written) and ability to work with diverse population

Superb collaborative skills; ability to work successfully with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders

Detailed oriented and can manage team tasks

Excellent scheduling skills

Valid NY, NJ, CT, or PA driver’s license with a good driving record, as defined by Breaking Ground, is a condition of employment

Proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite programs including Word, Excel, Outlook, and Microsoft Teams

Bilingual Spanish/English preferred

EOE/M/F/Vet/Disabled