Bilingual Community Health Worker

DEPARTMENT: Nutrition Care Services
REPORTS TO: Nutrition Care Manager
LOCATION: Sebastopol HQ
FLSA STATUS: Regular, Part Time, Non-Exempt
HOURS: 24/week
Position Summary
The Community Health Worker (CHW) is responsible for providing culturally competent health and social services to Ceres' clients under the supervision of the Nutrition Care Manager, and in close collaboration with the Client Care Team. The CHW role is essential to building trust and vital relationships with Ceres' client community and the systems of health care and social services clients utilize to improve access to needed services in the community, such as food, transportation, mental health, and housing to improve outcomes of chronic health conditions.
This position is one that is client and community facing; therefore, it requires staff to be warm, compassionate, emotionally mature, organized with excellent follow through and reliability, and able to coach and guide clients experiencing challenging health issues in conjunction with food insecurity and physical limitations. The ideal candidate must be comfortable interacting with clients over the phone or in person and liaising with staff in other community-based organizations and clinics/hospitals. Candidates with lived experience in the communities Ceres serves are encouraged to apply.
Essential Functions and Responsibilities

• Screens and assesses clients upon intake for nutritional/health needs, gathers health data as needed, and determines appropriate level of support.
• Connects clients to community, social and healthcare resources at intake or when transitioning off of the program by providing referral information, training and/or care coordination support for identified areas of need (e.g. food services, in-home care, health insurance, CalFresh/WIC, transportation, substance abuse, mental health support, etc.); provides minimal assistance with enrollment in services as needed and as appropriate.
• Conducts outreach and develops and maintains supportive community relationships and referral connections, and liaises with medical referral partners to gather necessary health information as needed.
• Completes pre- and post-program surveys.
• May provide health education and coaching individually or in groups for clients based on RDN recommendation.
• Sets up appointments for Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN) to complete nutrition consultations.
• Maintains accurate and complete client information in program database and creates necessary reports.
• Performs administrative tasks such as filing, emails, mailings, and preparing and disseminating materials.
• Completes required Ceres trainings (e.g. HIPAA compliance, sexual harassment, trauma-informed care) and any trainings required to obtain or maintain CHW certificate and/or meet minimum qualifications for the position.
• Attends staff and team meetings.
• Other duties as required and requested.

Qualifications

• Bilingual in Spanish required.
• High school diploma or GED required. Some college preferred.
• Previous experience providing health and nutrition education to individuals or groups is highly desirable.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, including the ability to listen, communicate warmly and clearly, and set clear boundaries.
• Must be comfortable working with people with serious illness, physical and mild mental health challenges, older adults and people of varying socioeconomic backgrounds, sexual orientations, and gender identities.
• Candidates with lived experience that aligns with the clients and communities Ceres serves are encouraged to apply. This may include, but is not limited to, experience related to addressing chronic health conditions and/or food and nutrition insecurity. Lived experience may also include shared race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, language, or cultural background with one or more linguistic, cultural, or other groups in the community Ceres serves.
• CHW certification preferred or be willing to complete training to earn CHW certificate within 18 months of hire (training paid for by Ceres); 6 hours of training required annually once certificate is earned.
• Excellent verbal communication skills.
• Excellent organizational skills and attention to detail; ability to prioritize and implement tasks according to a timeline.
• Able to demonstrate cultural competence in working with diverse populations.
• Ability to perform basic computer functions using Microsoft Office; experience using computer database systems desired (Salesforce preferred).
• Demonstrates a good awareness of self and ability to self-assess.
• Ability and desire to be in a work environment that values working as a team, relationships and giving and receiving honest feedback.
• A commitment to Ceres Community Project's mission and operating principles.

Physical Demands/Work Environment
The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by a staff member to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to stand or sit at a workstation for an extended period of time; use hands and fingers to operate a computer keyboard and mouse; talk and hear to communicate with coworkers and clients over the phone.
• Light to moderate lifting of up to 30 pounds, bending, stooping and climbing a ladder is occasionally required.
• The work environment while in the office consists of moderate noise (i.e. nonprofit setting with office equipment, conversation from adjacent coworkers).

COVID-19
Ceres is following the guidance and requirements of the health departments of Sonoma and Marin counties and the state of California. We have protocols in place for prevention of and response to COVID-19 and all new staff will be briefed on these in their onboarding. We need a commitment from all staff that they will abide by these protocols.
Operating Principles

• Heart Centered & Love Guided - We are committed to expressing love, trust, respect and integrity in our lives, work, and organization.
• Everything Matters - Nothing is left out. We work to have every action and choice lead to the greatest positive impact.
• Young People are the Future - Young People are intelligent, responsible, capable, creative, and caring, and must be central participants in shaping our collective future.
• Equitable, Diverse, and Inclusive - We commit to championing policies and practices of social equity that build a diverse, inclusive, and healthy workplace and food system.

Ceres Organization
Founded in 2007, Ceres Community Project works to build healthy communities by restoring whole, organic and locally grown food to its place as the foundation of health, empowering youth, and connecting people in heart-centered ways to others and the earth.
Ceres Community Project's main program, Healing Meals for Healthy Communities, provides free and low-cost nourishing organic meals, nutrition education and caring support to people facing serious illness. All of the meals are prepared by teens that learn about growing, cooking and eating healthy whole foods and the connection between diet and health, develop life and work-ready skills, and discover their power to make a difference. The Healing Meals Program improves healthy eating behaviors among clients, teens and adult volunteers and educates the whole community about the link between healthy eating and the health of both people and planet. It also strengthens the social fabric of the community, another factor that is at the root of health. In times of disaster, Ceres is an emergency nutrition provider for our community.
In addition to operating three program sites in Marin and Sonoma counties, Ceres has trained 13 communities nationally to replicate our model. We are also active at the state and national level in advocating for policies that support equitable access to healthy food and health care, including reimbursement for medically tailored meals by insurers. For more information, please visit www.ceresproject.org.
Ceres Community Project is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All employment decisions at Ceres are made without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, national origin/ancestry, age, disability, marital & veteran status or any other status protected by laws or regulations.