Consultant

Company Overview

Focus Strategies is a national consulting firm based on the West Coast dedicated to helping communities improve efforts to end homelessness through community-based planning, informed by local data and national best practices. For more than 18 years, we have provided consulting to jurisdictional and community leadership in communities across the country to support their efforts to reduce homelessness.

We are dedicated to partnering with communities through strategic consulting and technical assistance to design and implement housing-focused, equity-informed, and person-centered solutions that reduce homelessness. We are committed to working with our clients to understand their community’s context, including the experience and dynamics of homelessness in the region as well as the unique strengths and challenges of existing strategies. Together, we partner with our clients to develop programs, create strategic action plans, identify policy solutions, and evaluate efforts to improve outcomes for people experiencing homelessness.

Position Overview

Project Management

• Serve as the project manager for consulting and technical assistance contracts relating to homelessness response system development and planning.

Research and Analysis

• Conduct research and analyses related to homelessness response systems and programs, identifying key findings, and proposing person-centered, data- and equity-informed solutions.
• Analyze data from single systems (e.g. homelessness) and multiple disciplines, including health, mental health, homelessness, and affordable housing.
• With support from analytics team colleagues, synthesize research findings into recommendations for practice.

Technical and Policy Writing

• Author Focus Strategies technical documents, publications, and reports, including developing report outline and structure, drafting content, integrating feedback from supervisor and client, and producing final content.

Planning and Design

• Deliver a range of planning and design activities to help communities develop systems and policies to end or reduce homelessness through an equity- and data-informed lens, including community input processes, data analysis, documentation of existing and proposed system processes and structures in both written and chart form, and best practices research.

Training Development

• Develop training and technical assistance materials for a range of audiences (e.g. providers, policy makers, funders, professional meetings), tailor materials to client needs, make presentations and deliver trainings, assess results, and modify over time to meet needs.

Internal and External Relations

• Work closely and collaboratively with supervisor and company leadership to set priorities, organize project workflow, and provide timely updates.
• Engage with diverse communities of clients, partner organizations, and people experiencing homelessness to collect and accurately interpret information about existing systems and possible solutions; Facilitate meetings using mindful and anti-racist strategies to promote participation and inclusion.
• Make presentations to community stakeholders.
• Represent clients in meetings to identify and resolve problems including speaking publicly in formal and informal settings.

Additional Responsibilities

• Actively participate in continuous learning and process and product improvement efforts with the Focus team.
• Engage in Focus Strategies collective processes (e.g., discussions, readings, committees) to advance equity-informed internal and client work approaches.
• Contribute to team effort by accomplishing related tasks as needed.

What the Consultant will Gain from Position

• Advanced experience with complex policy, technical, and community issues using a systems approach within the field of ending and reducing homelessness
• Ability to develop innovative solutions and analyses to common and emerging problems related to homelessness response systems of care.
• Opportunity to deepen skills in program, systems, and policy analysis using data and information from multiple sources.
• Be the lead support to communities working to reduce homelessness.
• Opportunity to lead the development of complex plans, evaluations, and reports.
• Experience with consultation for public benefit.
• Increasing responsibility over time.
• Opportunity to be part of an evolving and growing consultation practice.
• Opportunity to work with an expert and dedicated team of professionals in a fast-paced and supportive work environment.