Family & Friends Support Supervisor

Position Overview

TPCA is seeking a steady, compassionate, and highly organized Family & Friends Support Supervisor to lead our frontline response for people with loved ones inside prisons and jails. Families often reach out during moments of fear, confusion, or crisis, and this role ensures every request receives timely acknowledgment, accurate information, and clear follow‑through.

The Supervisor oversees a team of frontline responders, coordinates crisis flow during high‑volume periods, and helps transform individual family reports into patterns that inform advocacy, communications, and organizational strategy. This is a leadership role for someone who can balance empathy with boundaries, urgency with clarity, and crisis navigation with calm, ethical judgment.

What You’ll Do

The Family & Friends Support Supervisor manages the full ecosystem of incoming family requests and ensures that every interaction reflects TPCA’s values of dignity, accuracy, and care.

Supervision & Case Oversight

• Lead and support coordinators, mediators, and specialists
• Review active cases, escalation flags, and follow‑through
• Ensure documentation is complete, accurate, and accessible
• Conduct regular check‑ins to support team pacing and consistency

Triage & Rapid Response

• Monitor incoming requests across email, forms, and social media
• Ensure no family request goes unanswered
• Activate surge workflows during crises, heat emergencies, or major incidents
• Rebalance caseloads based on urgency, risk, and team capacity

Community Intelligence & Information Flow

• Track patterns in family reports (heat, medical neglect, retaliation, lockdowns)
• Share verified updates with Communications for member‑facing clarity
• Help prevent misinformation by providing timely, accurate information
• Translate frontline realities into insights that support advocacy and strategy

Mentorship & Capacity Building

• Mentor mediators and support staff in trauma‑informed communication
• Identify training needs based on real cases and team feedback
• Partner with training leads to strengthen skills and consistency
• Model calm, grounded leadership during high‑pressure moments

Cross‑Department Coordination

• Provide anonymized insights to Campaigns, Policy, Research, and Executive Leadership
• Support narrative accuracy without exploiting trauma
• Ensure family‑reported conditions inform organizational priorities

Who Thrives in This Role

This position is ideal for someone who:

• Communicates with clarity, empathy, and trauma‑informed discipline
• Navigates crisis conditions with steadiness and ethical judgment
• Holds boundaries firmly while still offering humane support
• Excels at documentation, organization, and follow‑through
• Thinks in systems and can identify patterns across many individual stories
• Enjoys mentoring and developing team capacity

Baseline Expectations

• Maintain confidentiality and handle sensitive information responsibly
• Collaborate closely with Operations, Communications, and advocacy teams
• Escalate unclear or high‑risk situations promptly
• Maintain consistent, high‑quality documentation of all actions

Role Boundaries

To protect families, staff, and the organization, this role:

• Does not provide legal advice or predict legal outcomes
• Does not commit TPCA to legal, policy, or media positions
• Does not promise outcomes controlled by external agencies
• Does not absorb crisis response alone — escalation and shared load are required