It is the policy of Pathways Vermont that all employees and applicants shall receive equal consideration and treatment in employment without regard to race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, veteran status, age, sex, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identification, or disability. Pathways Vermont is committed to a diverse workplace that reflects the communities we serve, and is particularly interested in receiving applications from a broad spectrum of people including people with military experience, individuals with disabilities, and people of color.
The Company: Pathways Vermont is a dynamic nonprofit agency which believes in transforming the lives of individuals experiencing mental health, substance abuse and other life challenges and permanently ending homelessness. Our Specialized Supports Program provides community-based supports to a small group of individuals with unique needs in order to reduce or avoid institutionalization.
The Role: Support Specialists assist service recipients in their physical, social, emotional and daily life skills development with a focus on supporting participants to increase their independence and ability to live in the community. Services provided include community based support, crisis planning, service coordination, and life skills training on a one-to-one basis. The Support Specialist plans, develops, implements and evaluates recreational, social and/or educational activities for service recipients served by the organization, performs frequent welfare visits to service recipients at home and in the community, and also provides transportation. This position utilizes a high level of flexibility and interpersonal skill to support service recipients with unique and intensive needs.
Service Area: Southeastern Vermont with occasional travel to Washington County
Full Time: 35 hours/week
Supervised by: Specialized Supports Team Lead
Schedule TBD with availability ranging from 10am to 9pm
Job Responsibilities:
- Spend time in recreational activities one-on-one with service recipients in the community
- Engage in relationship building/rapport building with service recipients and provide service from a “Choice” perspective as well as client centered, harm reduction, and strengths based approaches.
- Provide one to one support and counseling on life skills, housing concerns, and health maintenance, including such tasks as medication support, housekeeping, and assisting service recipients to manage their monies, including preparing budgets with service recipients and computing expenses.
- Assess for unusual or potentially harmful activity
- Recognize and report potential crisis situations, analyze such situations accurately, and develop strategies for support, informing supervisor when such incidents arise
- Contact and engage with local authorities (police and/or mental health crisis screeners) if deemed appropriate
- Document all residence checks and client-related interactions in electronic health record
- Perform other related duties as required
- Act as a liaison to other agencies, professionals, government officials and the community
- Coordinate service with team members and with other inpatient and outpatient community treatments, supports and social services
- Provide support and feedback to service recipients and their support networks
- Act as a positive role model and support system for service recipients
- May assist with hygiene, dispensing medication, and additional tasks as necessary
- Document all client-related interactions in electronic health record
- Perform other related duties as required
Physical Requirements:
- Occasional exposure to outside environmental conditions for community-based meetings.
- Often meeting with persons in the community and/or visiting different businesses
- Extending hand(s) and arm(s) in any direction at times when collecting paperwork, assisting with applications, etc.
- Extensive reading responsibilities
- Ability to ascend and descend stairs occasionally required (in instances when apartments, businesses and/or meeting places do not have an elevator)
- Regular operation of a computer and other office machinery including frequent typing.
- Grasping. Applying pressure to an object with the fingers and palm such as stapling, completing hand-written forms, etc.
- Frequent talking and listening in participation of exchanging ideas through spoken word and occasional receipt and giving of detailed information through oral communication at normal speaking levels.
- Occasionally lifting and carrying up to 30 pounds, occasionally exerting up to 20 pounds of force and/or up to 10 pounds of force frequently (opening doors at meeting places/businesses, etc.)
- The worker is required to have visual acuity to operate motor vehicles.
Qualifications:
- Patience, creativity, flexibility, compassion, and sensitivity to persons with disabilities and other minority populations.
- Previous experience working with people with mental health challenges, histories of substance abuse and/or trauma, hospitalization, or incarceration
- Excellent communication, writing, and computer skills.
- Valid driver’s license, a reliable personal vehicle available for work purposes and current automobile insurance.
- Ability to lift and carry 50 pounds.
- Ability to work within a Housing First, client centered, harm reduction framework
- Good communication skills and the ability to work effectively as part of the team.
- Ability to structure time, develop work priorities independently, and meet program expectations with regard to documenting interventions
- Experience with Housing First services a plus
- Lived experience with mental health, substance use, homelessness and other life challenges will be considered an asset
- Personal qualities of integrity, credibility, and commitment to the mission
To learn more about our mission and programs, please visit www.pathwaysvermont.org.
To apply, send cover letter and resume to employment@pathwaysvermont.org.
