Information & Referral Specialist

Reports To: Information & Referral Coordinator

Classification: Full-time | Non-exempt

Salary & Benefits: $25.65 per hour, scheduled 35 hours per week ($46,683 annualized). The Center offers a comprehensive benefits package that includes medical, dental, vision, 401K with an employer contribution, voluntary life and LTD insurance, and paid parental, family care and gender affirming healthcare leave. We also offer a generous paid time off policy.

Schedule: General hours are Fri-Sat from 2:30pm-10:30pm, Sun 12:30pm-8:30pm and Mon-Tues 2:30-10:30pm. Schedule flexibility is a must and may sometimes include evenings, weekends, weekends, and holiday shifts. This position is classified as onsite 5 days per week.

Summary: The Information & Referral (I&R) Specialist facilitates the daily operation of The Center, ensuring a warm, welcoming, and safe environment at all times. I&R Specialists work as a team to greet all Center visitors and staff, answer questions, provide referrals, troubleshoot challenges, maintain a safe space, investigate scenarios that may compromise the safety of the space, and resolve challenges through de-escalation and restorative practices.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Greet and welcome all Center visitors and staff, providing reception support such as answering in-person inquiries, phone calls, emails, and online chats.
• Maintain the safety of the space by proactively engaging visitors and enforcing The Center's Community Agreements; redirecting and supporting anyone who may be breaching the Agreements
• Remain alert at all times, monitor the security cameras, and communicate, as needed, to other team members for support.
• Respond to requests for assistance from Center staff and users.
• Refuse admittance to any person who is known to be prohibited from entering the building.
• Perform regular building tours to assess activity, traffic, and safety conditions.
• Immediately report any unsafe conditions observed or reported to team leaders; closing off affected areas, as needed.
• Call for Emergency Services (i.e., EMTs, FDNY, NYPD), as needed.
• Prepare internal incident reports, as needed.
• Post and be familiar with the daily calendar of events in order to direct people to the appropriate locations.
• Be familiar with all Center-run activities, groups, events, and referral resources in order to answer questions and provide support to visitors and staff.
• Perform building opening and closing procedures safely and consistently, including scheduling doors to lock/unlock.
• Data entry into space reservation system and I&R team logs on a daily basis.
• Oversee the David Bohnett Cyber Center, processing payments and troubleshooting issues when appropriate.
• Receive and process in-person payments for membership and space rental.
• Direct deliveries to the appropriate recipients in the building.
• Maintain supply of Center publications at the front desk and in the displays, and be familiar with their contents in order to answer questions from the public.
• Maintain bulletin boards and literature racks throughout the building.
• Maintain lost-and-found.
• Attend regular I&R team and organization-wide meetings.
• Other duties as assigned.

Position Requirements:

• High school diploma, GED, or equivalent transferable life/professional experience.
• One (1) year of relevant experience working directly with vulnerable populations (examples include but are not limited to work with youth, those experiencing housing insecurity, those struggling with substance use or in recovery, people with mental health and/or physical health conditions), and experience in customer service and safety/conflict management.
• Bilingual in Spanish, a plus.
• Comfortable and willing to work nontraditional hours in a community center/public service setting; availability to include working evening, weekend, and sometimes holiday shifts.
• Ability to adapt to circumstances in a sometimes high-pressure environment and demonstrate sound judgment and critical thinking skills required. Prior history of successful de-escalation and/or conflict resolution experience is preferred.
• Excellent customer service and interpersonal skills.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Demonstrated ability to work with individuals of diverse races, identities, ethnicities, ages, gender identity and sexual orientations in a social justice driven environment.
• Understanding of, and commitment to, undoing structural and institutional racism and bias and the spectrum of gender identity and bias. Consideration of the impacts and outcomes in decision-making processes and on underserved and historically oppressed communities.
• A strong commitment to social justice and the mission of The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center.

The Center’s Commitment to Equity & Inclusivity:

The Center was born of community activism in response to the AIDS epidemic, ensuring a place for LGBTQ people to access information, care, and support that they were not receiving elsewhere. We opened in 1983 to help people who had doors constantly closed in their faces, ostracized by family, friends, and shunned by the general society. Since that time, we have continually provided a wide array of services and programs to serve our community, with an intentional focus on providing support to those who are most vulnerable. We have always taken great care to be a space that responds to community need; engaging in diversity, equity and inclusion work is another outgrowth of those ongoing efforts. We recognize that in order to help LGBTQ individuals and our diverse community achieve parity in health, justice, opportunity and success outcomes, our organization must hold a strong foundation and competency in, as well as invest organizational focus on, equity and inclusion frameworks, practices and policies. This is also true in our hiring and retention of staff.

The Center is an Equal Opportunity Employer.