Ostrich Bay Mobile Outreach Worker

Organization Description

The People’s Harm Reduction Alliance (PHRA) is a peer-centered community-based nonprofit that has provided harm reduction and other health services to people who use drugs since 2007. Our programs and services throughout King and Kitsap Counties, as well as the mail-order naloxone program serving all of Washington State, focus on protecting the health of people who use drugs, stopping the spread of bloodborne infections, and preventing overdose. We provide a wide variety of harm reduction supplies, health services, and supportive referrals within a respectful, nonjudgmental context to help people who use drugs lead safer and healthier lives. We also serve our larger communities by providing safe syringe disposal, overdose prevention and response education, and through our advocacy work.

Position Description

The Ostrich Bay Community Outreach Worker is responsible for supporting the Ostrich Bay Mobile Outreach Coordinator in conducting field-based harm reduction outreach and community health support to individuals throughout Kitsap County. This position will drive and/or ride in the mobile outreach van to various locations throughout Kitsap County to provide harm reduction supplies and education to participants.

Key responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

• Conduct street outreach & delivery services to provide harm reduction supplies and information on safer drug use to program participants (e.g. substance-specific information on safer injection techniques, use of smoking equipment, assessing overdose risk, avoidingand responding to overdose including how to administer naloxone, preventing transmission of bloodborne pathogens, etc.). This includes meeting participants at their place of residence (house, apartment, RV, encampment, etc) or other mutually-decided meeting locations.
• Provide information about PHRA’s servicesto participants, outreachcontacts, peer educators, and members of the public, as well as providing participants with referrals to other programs and services.
• Maintain and develop service-appropriate confidential relationships with participants while engaged in outreach, including participants who may be displaced regularly and/or not have phones.
• Maintain and develop relationships with other service providers, community organizations, neighborhood associations, government organizations, faith-based organizations, etc.
• Assist in managing supplies and inventory, including items from multiplesuppliers. Assist in logging distribution data on all supplies for required reporting.
• Assisting in stocking/maintaining mobile outreach van, including proper disposal of biohazardous waste.
• Attend and participate in staff and community partner meetings.

Essential Qualifications, Experience, & Skills

• One or more years related experience, which can include any combination of: lived experience, volunteer experience, professional experience, &/or formal education.
• Commitment to conveying PHRA’s philosophy of harm reduction and demonstrating harm reduction strategies to anyone they interact with, including: participants, volunteers, staff, and the general public. Demonstrated excellent communication skills with the ability to communicate complex information in a culturally appropriate, consistently respectful, and non-judgmental manner to a wide variety of audiences including people who may be drug-impaired, mentally ill, and/or angry.
• An explicitly anti-racist commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion.
• High integrity and commitment to transparency.
• Demonstrated current knowledge of and commitment to ongoing learning about street life; slang vocabularies; drug use practices; harm reduction concepts and principles; HIV/AIDS, STIs, hepatitis and other blood-borne infections, particularly in relation to injection drug use; local drug treatment; health care; and criminal justice systems and resources.
• Experience resolving conflicts and defusing aggressive and/or violent situations, including between third parties.
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively both independently and as a member of a team following established protocols/policies while carrying out assignments and responsibilities in a thorough, accurate, and timely manner.
• Full COVID-19 vaccination and boosters.
• Valid WA driver's license, clean driving record, and ability to drive large organizational vans.

Desired Qualifications, Experience, & Skills

• Lived or living experience and/or education that demonstrates an understanding of substance use.
• 1+ years of experience working in fields such as harm reduction, syringe exchange, social services, street outreach, &/or case management.
• Bilingual or multilingual communication skills, especially Spanish.

Physical Requirements

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job.

• Ability to work in environmentally-challenging conditions (e.g. walking up and down embankments; working outdoors in all seasons; conducting outreach in sanctioned and unsanctioned encampments; working in environments where there may be domestic and wild animals present).
• Ability to converse with and listen to people in many different settings, including crowds and busy roads.
• Ability to use a computer and phone, as well as other standard office equipment.
• Ability to regularly push, pull, lift, and/or carry equipment and supplies up to 35 pounds.
• Ability to drive.