Community Engagement Director

Position Summary:

The Community Engagement Director is a new leadership position that will play a pivotal role in ascertaining the needs of the communities that GBLS serves and ensuring that those needs drive GBLS’s collective work and priority setting. The Community Engagement Director will serve as a critical link between GBLS and communities in Greater Boston experiencing the most pervasive inequities, and will coordinate existing and new initiatives arising from community input across all units and practice areas at GBLS. The Community Engagement Director will report directly to the Executive Director and work in close partnership with all GBLS managers/directors and external partner constituencies.

Key Responsibilities

• Identify and pursue opportunities for outreach, partnership and collaboration within the community to advance access to GBLS legal aid services.
• Communicate with a diverse array of stakeholders to learn community needs, especially unmet civil legal needs.
• Build authentic relationships with community partners, including GBLS representation at their community events.
• Synthesize GBLS data and aggregate qualitative feedback from former clients, community organizations, and community members to identify emerging trends and unmet civil legal needs.
• Consult with the Associate IT Director of Data & Innovation, Manager of Central Screening Unit, Pro
• Bono and Volunteers Coordinator, Leadership team, and others within GBLS to identify trends in community intakes and determine programmatic response.
• Lead change management to build out and implement community engagement norms, working with a variety of stakeholders and constituencies within GBLS.
• Increase advocates’ skills and capacity to apply diverse outreach and engagement strategies that are culturally and community responsive.
• Assist advocates working with community groups to navigate strategy and campaign planning, power mapping, communication about what GBLS can and cannot do, and with co
• designing legal strategies and approaches to issues.
• Provide recommendations to Leadership, Program Council, unit managers, project leads and directors in response to community feedback, including collaborating with unit leaders to ensure that unit plans are aligned with community needs and GBLS mission.
• Track and report on outreach activities and their impact on referrals and community engagement with an emphasis on reducing disparities.
• Assist in the development and execution of strategic plans to enhance the organization’s visibility and reputation in the community, especially concerning inclusivity, equity and effective response to the needs of the community members.

Qualifications:

• Seven years or more of direct experience engaging with communities on behalf of non-profit organizations, preferably in connection with legal services.
• Proven experience in organizational change management.
• Sophisticated knowledge of legal equity and effective methods of community engagement.
• Expert level experience cultivating and maintaining positive relationships with multiple and diverse stakeholder groups.
• Ability to lead teams, work independently, prioritize tasks, collaborate with internal and external stakeholders, and drive projects to completion.
• Excellent verbal and written interpersonal communication skills for external partner organizations, community members, internal staff communications, and presentations.
• Capacity to think strategically and analytically about social, economic, cultural, and political issues affecting a community and make recommendations for action.
• Creative problem-solving skills and adaptability in dynamic environments.