Family Outreach & Engagement Specialist

Family Outreach & Engagement Specialist

About the Platform of Hope

The Platform of Hope is a pilot program that began in September 2018 to combat the displacement of low-income families of color from Adams Morgan/ Ward 1 by supporting families in accessing resources and connecting to their community. Our program works to change the paradigm of traditional social services delivery to center the voices of families in making holistic decisions about their life, as well as uphold social capital between families as a key factor for long term success. POH’s model looks at the integration of housing, education, employment, family stability, physical health, mental health, etc. to partner with families to identify their goals and then self-direct plans to accomplish those goals. POH was formed and continues to have active participation from our founding partners, four anchor institutions in Ward 1: Jubilee Housing, Jubilee JumpStart, Mary’s Center/ Briya Public Charter School and Sitar Arts Center. POH believes in systems change that centers the lived experience of families and we hope to further our advocacy work as the program continues.

The Platform of Hope is seeking applicants for the position of full-time Family Outreach & Engagement Specialist . The is an important part of our team and is responsible for driving the Platform of Hope’s work forward including aspects of our operations, supporting family care, communications, and administrative responsibilities. All staff are expected to support program and organizational initiatives such as our annual fundraiser (s), Family Saturdays, orientation, graduation, and onboarding as well as evening programming. As this role will recruit participants with various language abilities, bilingual candidates in English/Spanish, English/Amharic are preferred.

Responsibilities:

Program Responsibilities:30%

• Establishing supportive, professional relationships with all participant families;
• Recruit families in concordance with strategic plan and maintain waitlist of families for program capacity
• Conduct family intake/onboarding in person for interested applicants being admitted into the program
• Facilitate,coordinate relationships for community events, workshops/initiatives, family Saturdays etc as needed in collaboration with ED and team
• Support in identifying/ cultivating families for leadership opportunities on Advisory Board and Planning Committee, and program initiatives as well as support coordination of their participation, as needed
• Facilitation of annual program benchmarks (orientation, graduation, etc)
• Attends Family Planning Meetings and coordinates family Saturday gathering throughout the year as well as family planning committee selection
• Lead recruitment and onboarding of program volunteers to insure adequate support and consistency with program activities
• Coordinates with vendors for childcare, translation, catering, etc. and oversees payment processes for program
• Other duties as assigned

Communications: 20%

• Designs and coordinates regular family messages/emails/newsletter/calls/texts
• Oversee and create all family-centered bilingual communications as well as disseminating communications for participants and partner organizations
• Researching and disseminating resources and support for participant families.
• Conduct RSVP and reminder communications (calls/texts etc) for upcoming events
• Other duties as assigned

Outreach: Lead family recruitment, partnership building, external family supports (35% of time)

• Identify and partner with organizations,community organizing groups/campaigns that participate in systems change work
• Build relationships with community partners to provide resources, workshops, and family support
• Seek and recruit family participants from other partners
• Participate in forums and coalitions to help raise POH profile and find opportunities to share family voices
• Other duties as assigned

1. Data Collection, Analysis, and Reporting: (15%)

• Create, track and follow-up on participant forms for recruitment, orientation, onboarding, and program evaluation
• Collect, Analyze and present on quarterly family surveys
  • Evaluate family engagement and facilitate feedback sharing with team
• Document program elements such as curricula, individual stories and group outcomes
• Ensuring attendance collection for all POH events, workshops and Family gatherings
• Assisting in planning and tracking of all program assessments, evaluations and surveys;
• Other duties as assigned

Candidate Qualifications

The Platform of Hope is seeking a team member with the following required characteristics:

• Effective communication skills for building relationships
• Bilingual Spanish or Amharic and English is a plus
• Bachelor’s degree in Social Work, Counseling, Psychology, Education, or related field with an emphasis on supporting and addressing needs of families and community a plus
• Experience in a start-up environment; comfortable with ambiguity and flexibility as needed for program changes
• Experience within the nonprofit sector and working with families of color-- particularly Black and brown communities, including first generation immigrants
• A “family first” approach to providing services that centers communities in decision making and values families’ innate knowledge and abilities, upholding families’ dignity and self-determination as core pillars
• An emphasis on trust and authentic relationship-building with families, with compassionate and non-judgmental approach
• Experience developing and facilitating training opportunities for adult learners.
• Experience in systems change, community organizing, communications or development in a nonprofit, government, or business setting.
• Experience working with community based or family supporting organizations.
• Experience developing and maintaining relationships with volunteer and community partners.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to make effective public presentations.
• Excellent organization skills and follow-through
• Ability to analyze data and systems that can affect parents.
• Interpersonal skills that emphasize team building.
• Ability to organize networks of support for programs or initiatives.
• Openness and approachability, with ability to connect to people of diverse backgrounds
• Experience and comfort collecting, analyzing and presenting data for social impact work

An ideal candidate will be:

• Comfortable with creating digital media
• Interested in social impact analytics and data visualization
• Interested in being a part of a small team and in developing new shared processes
• Interested in collaboration , coalition building and innovation with other organizations
• Committed to base building among communities to decide on goals and advocate together with the vision of larger systems change
• Someone who already has a network in place or is aware of the existing networks for social services in DC and has lived or professional experience in accessing social services

Reporting Relationship and Schedule

The Family Outreach & Engagement Specialist will report to the Platform of Hope Executive Director but work closely with all staff.

Please note that some evening and weekend work is required as part of this position in order to best accommodate families’ schedules. Platform of Hope uses a hybrid schedule with staff working in person and remotely. Please note that, as per the policy of our fiscal sponsor Social Good Fund, this person must be fully vaccinated from COVID-19.

Position Status, Salary, and Benefits

This is a full-time, salaried position. Benefits include health, vision, and dental insurance; short-term disability, long-term disability, and life insurances; paid vacation, sick leave and holidays.

Starting Salary: $50-55,000 commensurate with experience or bilingual language skills (English, Spanish, Amharic)

To apply:

Interested candidates should send their resume and a cover letter to info@platformofhopedc.org Applicants are encouraged to apply as soon as possible. Ideally, this person would begin on May 30, 2025 though we can be flexible.

Statement on Non-Discrimination

The Platform of Hope strives to be an anti-racist organization and uphold our founding goals to confront systems of inequity, accessibility and inclusion. All interested and qualified applicants should feel welcome to apply regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability, or other status protected by applicable law. Women and people of color are strongly encouraged to apply.