Street Outreach Worker - Covenant House Alaska

At Covenant House Alaska we are in the people business.  We provide holistic services to young people who come to us from circumstances beyond their control.  Our people provide absolute respect and unconditional love to youth who deserve a chance to be the best version of themselves.  When you join our team, you become part of a massive movement to interrupt the path to chronic adult homelessness.  The pay is competitive, the benefits package is best in class and the experience is life changing. We look forward to meeting you. 

Position Summary

All Covenant House Alaska program staff work as advocates and allies for youth experiencing homelessness and human trafficking.

The Street Outreach Worker provides and ensures high quality trauma-informed service delivery to youth experiencing homelessness on the streets or in highly vulnerable situations. The Street Outreach Worker will relentlessly build relationships with youth, engage them in a variety of community programs including Covenant House Alaska (CHA) residential services, and work through their stages of change in order to drive toward long term positive outcomes. The Street Outreach Worker will coordinate with community efforts to help conduct street outreach and provide support, referral, and other services to at-risk youth.

Essential Functions

• Understand, practice, and promote the vision, mission, and five principles of Covenant House Alaska.
• Provide face to face mobile support and intervention to youth in multiple settings.
• Relentlessly show up and be present in young people’s lives, especially through times of relapse and crisis.
• Help youth navigate community resources pertaining to physical and mental health, education, employment, and others needed to achieve well-being and stability.
• Maintain a positive and professional working relationship with the general public, including placement agencies and families of the youth we serve.
• Maintain a high level of ethical standards.
• Ensure the safety and of youth seen by CHA at all times.
• Keep supervisor fully informed at all times.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

General Responsibilities

• Build and maintain supportive relationships with youth
  • Follow up with youth who are no longer in residential services, conducting welfare checks and providing other assistance as needed.
  • Assess youth to ensure basic needs are met, providing necessary referrals within the community to support their housing, education, employment, and social-emotional well-being needs.
  • Advocate for former residents whose services have been limited due to safety issues.
  • In conjunction with Youth Engagement Specialists, maintain relationships and continue supporting youth who have entered into residential services.
• Conduct and Coordinate Street Outreach
  • Maintain daily outreach contact reports and other documentation as required.
  • Establish, build, and maintain relationships with youth on the streets.
  • In the absence of the Street Outreach Lead, Coordinate Outreach daily activities, including street outreach, community engagement and special events for youth involved in outreach programming.
  • Inform youth on the streets of all the services available at Covenant House Alaska.
  • Provide Transportation and transportation resources to youth
  • Engage and interact with young people residing in camps, shelters, or other locations.
  • Distribute and track gateway services to youth on the streets, including hygiene supplies, food, clothing and water in order to promote youth health and build relationships.
• Community & Partner Coordination
  • Engage youth who are victims in human trafficking in a sensitive, confidential manner in order to quickly identify resources to keep these youth safe and supported. Coordinate with the law enforcement and service providers to assist trafficked youth.
  • Engage with service recipients through agency approved social media; maintaining contact with youth not in residency, advertising events and opportunities, and monitoring youth posts in order to intervene when safety concerns arise or other supports are necessary.
  • Participate in community meetings including Coordinated Entry in order to identify, assist and coordinate care for youth experiencing homelessness.
  • Provide advocacy for non-residential youth during appropriate team and community meetings.
  • Closely coordinate with Anchorage’s Community Outreach Response Efforts (CORE), in order to identify, assess, and connect homeless and trafficked youth to wraparound services and housing.
• Provide Nonresident Drop In-Services
  • Provide face to face support and intervention in multiple settings including, but not limited to the Community Center located within the Youth Engagement Center.
  • Engage youth in appropriate educational, vocational, and life skill programming.
  • Work with team to plan and implement engagement activities.
  • Ensure the safety and whereabouts of youth seen by CHA at all times.
  • Assist in maintaining security of the building by following all established protocols and procedures
  • Participate in team, shift change, and staff meetings as assigned.
• Maintain Efforts to Outcomes (ETO) and Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) data bases through data entry of all work with participants, completion of VI-SPDAT assessment, and all other tools as required for evaluation purposes.

Qualifications

Education

Highschool Degree required. Bachelor’s degree in Human Services, Social Work, Psychology or a related field is preferred. Experience can substitute for post-secondary experience on a year-for-year basis.

Experience

Experience working with adolescent or disadvantaged populations preferred; life, volunteer, and internship experience will be considered.  

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities Required

• Understand and comply with all Agency policies and procedures; including Child Protection Policies.
• Understand and comply with all principles of Trauma-Informed Care. Willingness to acquire basic concepts in care coordination for adolescents and young adults and incorporate into service-provision.
• Understand and comply with all tenants of Positive Youth Development, Harm Reduction, and Housing First Models.
• Is approachable, relatable, builds rapport well, and practices active listening with individuals of varied cultural backgrounds, embracing differences in behavior and lifestyle choices.
• Knowledge of community social service resources to assist youth with needs related to housing, employment, education, and social-emotional well-being.
• Knowledge of crisis intervention and ability to address conflict between youth exhibiting challenging behaviors; able to respond quickly and safely while continuing to be a settling influence in crisis situations and emergencies.
• High degree of sensitivity to and respect for diversity and cultural issues involved in working with individuals of varying ethnicities and income.
• Understand best practices in the areas of prevention, recognition, and response to suspected and identified victims of human trafficking.
• Willingness to engage with partner human trafficking service agencies and law enforcement.
• Understand the intersectionality of youth homelessness, mental health, substance misuse, human trafficking and poverty.
• Can maintain confidentiality while understanding and complying with requirements of mandated reporting, duty to warn, HIPAA, and other limits to confidentiality.
• Willingness to utilize training opportunities in support of personal and professional growth, competence development, and to increase overall capacity to serve youth every day.
• Well-developed verbal and written communication skills.
• Able to articulate successes and challenges experienced by youth to inform program development and effectively communicate with CHA staff, community partners, and funding sources.
• Willingness to see past differences in behavior and functioning and ability to passionately advocate for the right of all youth to be valued, supported, and housed.
• Proficient with standard computer operating systems. Ability to navigate Microsoft Office Suite, online databases, and other programs and websites as required.
• Willingness and ability to work outside of normal business hours as well as Holidays and weekends as needed.
• Able to accommodate a wide range of physical activity, including but not limited to walking long distances, moving up and down the stairs, lifting bags or boxes up to 50 pounds, driving a minivan, and physically assist youth if needed.
• Able to navigate through various types of uneven terrain.
• Work outdoors in all types of weather conditions.
• Willingness and ability to attain a CPR/First Aid Certification.
• Possess a current and valid Driver's License.
• Have a good driving record.
• Pass federal, state, and local background check investigations.

Working Conditions 

• Position will work in a variety of settings, both inside and outside, and at times in inclement weather (Snow, Rain, etc.). Position will be based out of the Youth Engagement Center.
• Noise level is mild to moderate, consistent with office and residential environments.
• Must have the ability to communicate information and ideas so others will understand. Must be able to exchange accurate information in these situations.
• Must have the ability to observe details within close range.
• Must be able to remain in stationary position for extended periods of time.
• Must be able to move within the office to access files and office equipment.
• Consistently operates a computer and related office machinery.
• Must be able to ascend/descend stairways within a wide variety of facilities with and possibly without the assistance of an elevator
• Must be able to manage traversing a wide variety of different terrains and gradient levels in order to meet youth within camp environments.
• Occasionally moves items up to 40 pounds while ascending/descending stairways.

Covenant House is an Equal Opportunity Employer