Position Title: Mary’s Home Community Advocate
Accountable To: Mary’s Home Lead Family Advocate
Schedule: Full time, hourly
ORGANIZATION OVERVIEW
Dream Centers is a faith-based non-profit organization founded in 2011 to provide health and hope to people of Colorado Springs who are working to rebuild their dreams. Mary’s Home, a program of Dream Centers, opened in 2015. Mary’s Home is a faith-based supportive housing program that provides single mother families with the opportunity to gain holistic health and sufficient career resources so as to live a stable and successful life.
JOB SUMMARY
The Community Advocate (CA) provides a critical communication link between the participants and the Mary’s Home staff and plays a vital role in helping participants maintain a positive learning and living environment throughout their transitions in the program. The Community Advocate’s responsibilities include overseeing the Peer Leadership team, managing areas of safety and operations within the community, meeting with participants to identify community and safety needs, providing assistance in community concerns, answering inquiries, and resolving issues promptly and efficiently. Furthermore, a Community Advocate may develop programs or projects for the participants, all while adhering to Mary’s Home policies and procedures. Specific areas under their authority include: Peer Leadership Team.
REPORTING AND WORKING RELATIONSHIPS
The Community Advocate reports to the Lead Family Advocate, meets regularly with the Operations Manager, oversees the Peer Leadership team, and works in close coordination with other Mary’s Home staff, volunteers, partners, service providers, and donors, as well as the Dream Centers support staff and executive staff.
SPECIFIC JOB FUNCTIONS OF COMMUNITY ADVOCATE
-
Assess mental, emotional, physical and spiritual health of the community and recommend necessary services, coaching, and support to promote healthy community culture.
-
Assess and monitor safety of the community and recommend necessary services, coaching, and support to promote a safe community culture.
-
Oversee community-building gatherings.
-
Oversee community tasks such as daycare run (will include driving), laundry room scheduling,
security and safety procedures and systems.
-
Assist in leading and building accountability within the community by regularly contributing to
and often moderating The Table.
-
Provide supervisory oversight and coaching to the Apprentice, and Peer Leadership team in
professional development, excelling in individual roles, developing team unity, and collaboration
to maintain the health and wellbeing of the community, staff, and families of Mary’s Home.
-
Collaborate with the Admissions team by participating in staffing of potential applicants, joining
the interview process, examining application materials, and assisting in intake of new families.
-
Meet appropriately with participants per phase to build relationships, set goals, ensure follow
through and progress. Conducts meetings as needed with participants (individually and in small groups) to assess community health.
-
Meet regularly with the Operations team to review professional development, community safety, program systems, and community dynamics to address any complex issues as needed.
-
Collaborate with the Advocacy team to research and develop standards for assessing community health. Contributes to and participates in the strategic planning and development of the program, processes, systems, and training with staff, volunteers, and community partners.
-
Meet regularly with the Advocacy team to review professional development, community health, program systems, and community progress to address any complex issues as needed.
-
Meet with incoming participants to help establish them in the community.
-
Will be on call approximately 50% of nights, weekends and holidays, sharing this responsibility
with the Apprentice
-
Operates and maintains the Alarm System under the oversight of the Operations Manager.
-
Oversees access codes for gate systems.
-
Operates security camera system under the supervision of the Operations Manager.
-
Other Mary’s Home duties as needed.
-
Point of contact for participants and Peer Leadership with issues regarding all security and
emergency situations throughout the Mary’s Home community .
-
Oversees the arming and disarming of the alarm system in the FLC.
-
Ensure community areas are properly supplied.
-
Collects and shares impact stories from the community with Dream Centers staff.
-
Other Mary’s Home duties as needed.
RELATIONAL JOB FUNCTIONS
-
Uphold the Mary’s Home values of safety, teachability, connectedness, accountability and self-assessment. Live out the principles associated with these values in building community, open communication, and thorough implementation of program operations, procedures, and guidelines.
-
Commit to ministry minded serving by living in community, proactively building relationships, fostering staff teamwork, and engaging in professional and personal growth.
-
Maintain a trauma-informed environment for the participants in order to encourage self-efficacy and nurture a healthy and peaceful community.
-
Collaborate with the Mary’s Home staff in order to best serve the well-being of the participants and community through authentic partnership, excellent communication and regular touch bases.
-
Assure timely, neat and accurate documentation and communication with staff of daily operations
and on-call operations according to operations procedures and protocols.
-
Engage in supportive services as needed to address personal needs related to vicarious trauma,
maintain healthy boundaries and prioritize self-care.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
-
Attend and participate in program and corporate staff meetings, volunteer training, professional training, events, and other meetings relevant to professional and program development.
-
Attend and participate in Mary’s Home special events and community networking meetings and events as the schedule allows.
