Job Description

The Relief Support Advocate will provide last minute, on call shift coverage for after hours advocates. They play a crucial role in maintaining adequate coverage for the emergency shelter. This position is responsible for covering any open shifts throughout the week they are on-call. The ideal candidate is compassionate, capable of handling multiple tasks efficiently, and is incredibly reliable.

Priority 1: Equity and Inclusion

• Reflect and understand how identities could give advantages in the workplace—even if they are not asked for or earned—while others might experience disadvantages. Reflect on how our position and power may shift depending on the environment, the people, or the institutions at play. Build the awareness and compassion that is needed and expected to create an equitable and inclusive workplace.
• Create an inclusive environment and behave in a way that ensures that clients and employees feel embraced, no matter what their cultural orientations are, respected and valued, engaged, and connected to the community, and safe from abuse and harassment.

Priority 2: Shift Coverage

• Provide on-call, shift coverage, in person, at the emergency shelter for any and all open shifts. This may be last minute or may have some notice.
• Regularly sign up for on-call weeks to cover shifts in person.

Priority 3: Client Services

• Provide crisis intervention services for phone-in and walk-in survivors.
• Perform entries with accepted clients.
• Promote a positive environment within the shelter for both residents and employees.
• Facilitate activity groups with clients, as scheduled.
• Every hour, complete a walk-through of the building to ensure client needs are met.
• Complete documentation of interactions and calls by the end of the shift.

Priority 4: Supply Assistance

• Replenish necessary supplies in resident rooms, including toilet paper, trash bins and bags, shampoo, and conditioner.
• Wash, fold, and restock bedding supplies to prepare for new residents.
• Create toiletry bags for incoming clients.
• Ensure all living spaces meet the shelter’s cleanliness and safety standards through regular walk-throughs and inspections.
• Assist Shelter Facilities Support Specialist with cleaning and preparing rooms for new residents after a resident has left the program within 3-5 business days of their departure.

Other Duties/Responsibilities: Other assistance to support the overall goals of the department and organization. DVIS retains the right to add or change duties and/or responsibilities at any time.

Supervisory Responsibilities: None

Budgetary/Fiscal Responsibilities: Acts as a good steward of DVIS’s resources.

Responsibility for Confidentiality: The nature of this work requires safeguarding against the release of confidential and proprietary information of DVIS and its clients.

Contact with Others: This position will interact with managers at all levels and staff members across the organization, in addition to members of external organizations and the public.

Documentation: Maintains up-to-date and accurate files for each client according to agency guidelines and current professional standards.

Meetings and Training: Attend meetings and training as requested by supervisor.

Hours: provides on-call and holiday coverage evenings, overnight, and weekends.

Requirements

Education: Bachelor’s degree in social work, psychology, or counseling, is required or preferred, or in a related field, or any equivalent combination of education and/or experience.

Experience: None.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

Proven computer skills including Microsoft Office Suite are necessary.

Understanding and sensitivity toward the issues involved in domestic violence, particularly as they relate to survivors of any gender, race, socioeconomic status, religion, sexual orientation, etc.

Ability to learn and grow trauma-informed, client-centered approaches

Ability to work with others in a collaborative decision-making process.

Knowledge of or experience working with social justice issues, specifically intimate partner and gender-based domestic and sexual violence, and racial, class, gender, sexual orientation issues, and intervention/prevention services strongly preferred. Requires dedication to diversity, equity, and inclusion, excellent organizational skills, written and oral communication skills, attention to detail, and ability to prioritize work and tasks. Requires adaptability to produce and meet deadlines in a fast-paced, multi-task, and changing environment, with frequent pressure related to meeting deadlines and scheduling requirements. Must be able to work independently and as part of a team.

Requires the ability to embrace, support, and integrate DVIS’s philosophies to promote and demonstrate DVIS’s commitment to diversity, inclusion, equity, and anti-racism.

Diplomacy in confronting personal, individual, and internal discrimination requiring sharing and discussing personal identities relative to the work environment is strongly preferred.

Schedule Availability: Must be available to be on call for a week at a time and during that week, must be available to cover shifts Sunday-Saturday 445p-1045p, Sunday-Saturday 1030a-830a, and Saturday and Sunday 815-5p.

Licenses/Certifications : Valid driver’s license; current CPR and First Aid certification preferred.

Physical Requirements

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met to successfully perform the essential functions of this position. Reasonable accommodations may be made when requested to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Ability to communicate and understand in English effectively, in person, and in writing. Ability to hear adequately in person and by phone, in personal and group settings, and function with periodic distractions such as people, telephone calls, and noise.

Ability to work with, and process information from, a variety of individuals and media (e.g., computers, projected images, printed materials), and occasional sitting and/or standing for long periods of time.

Mobility is necessary to access various offices and a wide variety of settings. Mobility is necessary to perform a variety of tasks that involve intermittent standing, walking/traversing, sitting, stooping, kneeling, bending, and twisting, occasionally climbing stairs or using an elevator, and possibly reaching chest high and overhead for materials.

Ability to reach for, move, and/or lift up to 25 pounds and the use of hands to finger, handle, or feel objects, tools, or controls, including frequent repetitive movement such as extended periods of keyboarding.