Boston’s Higher Ground, Inc.

seeks a

Bilingual/Multilingual Parent Organizer & Advocate (Full Time)

(Must possess experience in affordable housing)

Link to apply here

About Higher Ground

Boston’s Higher Ground, Inc. (“Higher Ground”) is a nonprofit organization that works with residents and partners to achieve excellent outcomes in education and promote health and well-being of children and families in Roxbury, Dorchester, and Mattapan. We offer a different approach – a collaborative, “collective impact” model focused on mobilizing community voices to advance equity in the areas of housing, education, health and community capacity. Higher Ground recently marked its milestone 10th year of operation and has served more than 1,300 students in its partner public schools, has helped place families of more than 400 homeless children into homes, collaborated with more than 65 partners to increase impacts on the well-being of children and families; and has organized parents into an increasingly strong coalition to shift power and disrupt chronic social issues rooted in unresolved inequity.

Higher Ground seeks a full-time Bilingual/Multilingual Parent Organizer & Advocate to support and mobilize families to advocate for themselves, their children, and their community. This role will specifically support the activities of the Family-Led Stability Initiative focused on housing homeless students within Boston and reports to the Family-Led Stability Initiative Manager.

About the Family-Led Stability Initiative: Following a two-year planning process, Higher Ground joined eight public and community partners and in January 2018 helped launch the Family-Led Stability Pilot (FLSP) focused on seven schools in Roxbury and Dorchester. During the 3.5-year pilot phase we housed families of more than 300 formerly homeless students and are now expanding our collaborative efforts to house more families. Current partners include Boston Public Schools (BPS), Boston Housing Authority (BHA), Boston’s Department of Neighborhood Development (DND), Project Hope, Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative (DSNI), and New Lease for Homeless Families. Higher Ground serves as the backbone organization and leads coordination, fundraising and financial reporting for the initiative.

Role Responsibilities and Essential Duties

• Family-Led Stability Initiative (FLSI):
• Meet with school partner principals, teachers, and homelessness liaisons, and identify families of homeless students or at risk of homelessness.
• Work with other staff, attend planning meetings, prescreen homeless families to refer them to housing resources, and assist with data collection.
• Assist families interested in FLSI with housing search, placement, and stabilization.
• Check in regularly with families and shelter case managers and track family progress of housing search and placement.
• Attend FLSI meetings as needed.

• Summer Learning Academy (SLA):
• Maintain contact with families whose children will attend SLA focused on local schools with priority for homeless and recently housed students.
• Work with SLA staff to monitor attendance and coordinate with teachers to ensure student participation in future SLAs and by regularly communicating with and supporting parents.
• General: Meet and communicate regularly with principals and staff at local BPS schools to see what they need and how Higher Ground can help.
• Provide data, information, and individual stories for Higher Ground proposals, reports, and communications with stakeholders.
• Attend Higher Ground meetings.
• Receive weekly supervision from the FLSI Manager.
• Attend professional development training that will enhance Higher Ground’s capacity for implementing and scaling FLSI.
• Be knowledgeable about health and mental health services in the community and the city and be able to refer individuals or families to these services as appropriate.
• Additional responsibilities include active engagement in staff and advisor meetings and support as needed in the areas of fundraising, marketing, and various Higher Ground programs, through thought partnership and peer support.
• Support data collection initiatives with social work interns to effectively track the progress of clinical interventions with students.
• Attend community events and workshops to promote FLSI as a resource and other community resources as needed.

Qualifications

The Bilingual/Multilingual Parent Organizer & Advocate must possess experience in affordable housing and the knowledge, skills and personal attributes needed to support the critical features of community organizing and community development. Qualifications include the below:

• At least 2 years of experience working in affordable housing, with an understanding of Boston and/or Massachusetts housing policies and services, specifically for housing families.
• Bilingual/Multilingual fluency (Spanish-English) required, given the population served.
• Experience supporting families that are homeless or at risk of homelessness with housing search, placement, and stabilization.
• Strong demonstrated commitment to equity, community empowerment, and capacity building.
• Strong, demonstrated commitment to the concept of place-based community initiatives and, in general, to Higher Ground’s vision and theory of change.
• Strong collaboration skills, track record of relationship and trust building with partners, schools, and direct care staff, including shelter managers.
• Experience working with culturally diverse families, communities, and staff and interacting and communicating effectively with children and adults from different cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds.
• Work independently with minimal supervision and organize and prioritize work and assignments.
• Sense of urgency, adaptiveness, and resourcefulness in project completion. Able to react with flexibility and sensitivity to changing situations and needs;
• Can effectively implement the organizational requirements of a rapidly growing mission-driven organization.
• Possession of valid Massachusetts driver’s license and willingness to travel locally using own transportation, with mileage reimbursed, as needed.
• Strong proficiency in Google suite of docs, Microsoft Office, Adobe, and Zoom. Preference for proficiency with Salesforce and/or Cognjto forms.
• Resident of Higher Ground’s impact area (Roxbury, Dorchester, or Mattapan) and/or candidates who reflect the diversity of Higher Ground’s target area preferred.

Education and/or Experience

Bachelor’s degree or demonstrated relevant equivalent experience in education, social work, or related field.

Language Skills

Strong verbal and written communication skills. Ability to write and edit reports, correspondence, and presentations. Ability to effectively present information and respond to questions from managers, clients, and the public orally and in writing. Meeting facilitation and public speaking skills preferred. Fluency in Spanish language skills required.

Reasoning Ability

Ability to define problems, collect data, establish facts, and draw valid conclusions. Ability to interpret an extensive variety of instructions and deal with abstract and concrete variables.

Work Environment

This position is located at Higher Ground’s offices in Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood but with a great deal of time spent in local schools.

CORI and SORI check required.

Compensation

$50,000 - $60,000 gross including basic benefit package (health, dental, short-term disability).

Submit resume (required) and cover letter (optional). Please note, only applications under consideration will receive communication in reply.

Job Type: Full-time

Pay: $50,000.00 - $60,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• Dental insurance
• Health insurance
• Paid time off

Schedule:

• Monday to Friday

Ability to commute/relocate:

• Roxbury, MA: Reliably commute or planning to relocate before starting work (Required)

Language:

• a language other than English (Required)

License/Certification:

• Driver's License (Required)

Work Location: In person