Shelter Support Advocate

Description

Position Summary 

The Shelter Support Advocate will after hours support for all safe housing residents. They play a crucial role in providing after business hours support and care to clients. This position is responsible for maintaining the emergency shelter, assisting clients with accessing basic needs, and promoting wellness and safety within the emergency shelter. The ideal candidate is compassionate, capable of handling multiple tasks efficiently, and is incredibly reliable.  

Essential Duties & Responsibilities ? 

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: Client Services

 o Provide crisis intervention services for phone-in and walk-in survivors.

 o Perform entries with accepted clients. o Promote a positive environment within the shelter for both residents and employees. o Facilitate activity or psychoeducational groups with clients, as scheduled.

 o Every hour, complete a walk-through of the building to ensure client needs are met. 

 o Complete documentation of interactions and calls by the end of the shift. ? 

Priority 3: Supply Assistance

 o Replenish necessary supplies in resident rooms, including toilet paper, trash bins and bags, shampoo, and conditioner.

 o Wash, fold, and restock bedding supplies to prepare for new residents.

 o Create toiletry bags for incoming clients. o Ensure all living spaces meet the shelter’s cleanliness and safety standards through regular walkthroughs and inspections.

 o 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. 

Requirements

Job Requirements/Experience: 

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 survivors of any gender, race, socioeconomic status, religion, sexual orientation, etc. 

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

Skills in individual advocacy and case management, with the ability to effectively facilitate and coordinate activity groups. Active listening skills and ability to engage clients in assessing needs, and problem solving. 

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

Knowledge of or experience working with social justice issues, specifically intimate partner and genderbased 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: 

Sunday, Wednesday and Saturday 4:45p - 10:45p, as scheduled. 

Licences/Certifications: 

Valid Oklahoma driver’s license; current CPR and First Aid certification preferred.