Job Description

PURPOSE:
Jewish Community Services (JCS) takes a population health approach to supporting the mental health and well-being of New York City’s Jewish community. JCS works to reduce stigma, prioritize prevention, and strengthen the resiliency of individuals, families, and communities. Key areas of focus include grief, addiction, and teen mental health initiatives. JCS engages and equips Jewish communal organizations to provide mental health support to their members through psychoeducation and resources, peer-led initiatives, and screening/referrals for treatment when needed.

The Director of the Grief Program will lead the revitalization and strategic growth of JCS’s grief and bereavement initiatives, positioning grief as a flagship pillar within JCS’s population health portfolio. This leader will design and implement innovative, community-based programming that supports individuals and families impacted by loss through a culturally sensitive, trauma-informed, and stigma-reducing lens.
This role will focus on prevention, education, early intervention, and connection—meeting Jews across NYC with multiple pathways into support. A central emphasis of the role is building and scaling peer-led models, including peer-led groups, peer-led communities, and a 1:1 peer companion model. The Director will provide training, supervision, and ongoing support to peer leaders, ensuring programs are both deeply human and appropriately structured.
The Director will also build a robust digital platform that offers practical grief resources and toolkits for individuals, families, and communal professionals. In addition, they will design community programs and events that strengthen communal response to grief and create models that synagogues can implement within their own communities.
The Director will report to the Sr. Director of Population Health and collaborate closely with other JCS leaders and Jewish Board departments. In addition, they will work in close partnership with the Grief Advisory Board to guide strategic decisions and move the program forward in alignment with community needs and values

KEY ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS:
• Relaunch and grow the Grief Program as a core JCS initiative, aligned with population health principles and community needs.
• Partner with the Grief Advisory Board on strategic direction, program planning, and community engagement.
• Build and implement a comprehensive peer support strategy, including but not limited to:
◦ Peer-led support groups and peer-led communities
◦ A peer companion = model with clear training, boundaries, and referral pathways
◦ Ongoing training, supervision, and support structures for peer leaders
• Develop and launch Peer Leader Training, including curriculum, recruitment, onboarding, facilitation coaching, and quality supports.
• Create a scalable model that synagogues can implement in their own communities (e.g., a synagogue toolkit, implementation guide, and optional train-the-trainer pathway).
• Build and maintain strong relationships with synagogues and other bereavement organizations across NYC to expand reach, deepen impact, and coordinate offerings.
• Design and deliver community-facing grief programming and education, including workshops, talks, and events that increase awareness and reduce stigma.
• Build a robust digital grief platform, including:
◦ Resource strategy and content roadmap (toolkits, guides, next steps, etc.)
◦ Partner engagement to ensure the platform is widely used and shared
◦ Ongoing content review and refresh cadence
• Track participation, assess outcomes, and use data to guide program growth and improvement
• Coordinate closely with other JCS programs and Jewish Board departments to strengthen alignment and shared learning.
• Provide program management and supervision as applicable, including interns and close coordination with peer leaders.

CORE COMPETENCIES for the position include:
• Deep understanding of grief and bereavement, including diverse grief presentations, family systems impact, trauma considerations, and ethical boundaries in community-based support.
• Strong cultural competence in Jewish religious, spiritual, cultural, and communal practice, and comfort working across a range of denominational and cultural contexts.
• Demonstrated ability to develop trainings and/or curriculum (e.g., peer leader training, synagogue implementation tools, workshops, facilitator guides, and/or staff education materials).
• Strong volunteer management skills, including the ability to recruit, motivate, support, retain, and meaningfully engage volunteers in roles with clear scope, accountability, and care.
• Proven ability to translate big-picture vision into actionable, scalable models that work in real community settings.
• Skilled at cultivating trust and collaboration with communal partners, stakeholders, and individuals with lived experience.
• Strong planning, facilitation, and follow-through in delivering effective community programs and trainings.
• Self-starter who thrives in an evolving environment, with strong judgment, creativity, and the ability to build structure where it doesn’t yet exist.
• Excellent organizational, time-management, and communication skills.
• Solution-focused, collaborative, values-driven leadership approach; strong decision-making and integrity.

EDUCATIONAL/TRAINING REQUIRED:
• Master’s degree in social work, public health, mental health counseling, psychology, or related field preferred.
• Clinical experience required, with meaningful training or experience in grief and bereavement strongly preferred.

EXPERIENCE REQUIRED/LANGUAGE PREFERENCE:
• Strong cultural competence regarding Jewish religious, spiritual, cultural and communal practice.
• Minimum 5 years of experience in program development, public health/community mental health, bereavement services, and/or community engagement.
• Demonstrated experience building programs including designing models, piloting, refining, and scaling.
• Experience working within the Jewish communal landscape strongly preferred (synagogues, Jewish communal organizations, schools, JCCs, etc.).
• Experience developing peer-led or volunteer-driven models highly preferred.

COMPUTER SKILLS REQUIRED:
• Experience with excel, data collection, and navigating social media
VISUAL AND MANUAL DEXIERITY:
• The candidate should be able to read paper and electronic documents and perform significant data entry into various computer programs. Manual dexterity and hand-eye coordination to travel independently using public transportation.

WORK ENVIRONMENT/PHYSICAL EFFORT:
• This role is hybrid; it will include community-based work that requires travel to different locations
• This role is primarily based in NYC. Given the community-facing nature of the position, the Director should have flexibility to work occasional evenings and weekends to support community programs, trainings, and partnership needs.
• To perform the essential functions of this job the candidate must be able to travel within the five boroughs carrying equipment such as a notebook, forms, laptop, mobile hotspot and cell phone weighing up to approximately 10 pounds.
• To perform the essential functions of this job, the incumbent is routinely required to sit (70% of the time) and stand (30% of the time)
• The work environment generally does not involve physical risk or hazardous conditions

We are an equal opportunity employer that does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, marital status, veteran status, or any other status protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.