Client Support Specialist

Monday through Friday: 3pm to 11pm

Organization

Emma Norton Services works with women, children, and families who are on their journey of recovery from homelessness, mental illness, chemical dependency, and other life stressors. Emma Norton Services provides safe, permanent housing in combination with programs and support services, through a housing first, harm reduction lens under the Sanctuary Model, to provide an environment where victory over homelessness, mental illness, and chemical dependency is possible.

Purpose

The Client Support Specialist provides support and assistance to clients, team members and visitors at Emma Norton Residence, a 50-bed residence for single women who have experienced homelessness. Programming provided at Emma Norton Residence provides stability, education and awareness, with harm reduction and Housing First practices integrated throughout the services.

Responsibilities

1. Provides program support

· Interacts with clients in a courteous, respectful and responsive manner

· Ensures safety and well-being of clients and community by communicating information, addressing concerns, answering questions and maintaining physical safety of the space

· Ensures confidential information is protected and shares confidential information only as necessary

· Assists in responding to and managing client crises and conflict as trained, and provides incident follow up to on-call staff

· Gives clients their medication and mail at their request

· Assists with room cleaning tasks as decided by the team for future residents

2. Interacts with community and performs basic administrative support

· Greets guests/visitors, and answers phones in a courteous and responsive manner

· Answers questions for prospective clients and community members about the program, providing referrals to daytime administrative staff as appropriate

· Manages outgoing mail and packages, and distributes incoming mail for clients and staff

· Distributes documents, supplies and other materials to clients and staff as needed

· Receives and processes in-kind donations

· Completes projects and duties as defined by supervisor and/or through team decisions

3. Function as a team member

· Follows through with own job responsibilities and assignments

· Engages in creative problem solving and conflict resolution, provides support to team members when needed

· Follows up with team members’ questions in a timely and effective manner

· Offers assistance to team members as needed

· Willing to give and receive feedback to and from team members

· Takes direction from supervisor, provides input to the decision making process of the team, and accepts and implements team decisions as made

4. Other duties

· Participates in monthly staff meetings, team meetings, one-on-one supervisory meetings, and group clinical supervision

· Promotes community awareness of Emma Norton

· Participates in agency efforts to promote diversity, equity and inclusion by participating in trainings, contributing to conversations toward improvement, asking questions for growth, and providing support to team

· Completes and maintains up-to-date knowledge and expertise in areas related to job duties including the completion of HIPAA and Vulnerable Adult training within the first 7 days of hire

· Performs other duties as identified or assigned

Requirements

1. High school diploma or GED equivalent, and within the previous 10 years, three years of personal life experience with mental illness, or within the previous 10 years, three years of life experience as a primary caregiver to an adult with a mental illness, traumatic brain injury, substance use disorder, or developmental disability, or within the previous 10 years, 2,000 hours of work experience providing health and human services to individuals

2. Ability to undergo and pass a background study as detailed in Minnesota Statute 144.057 and Chapter 245C

3. Able to interact with people in a manner which shows sensitivity, respect, and professionalism

4. Ability to communicate effectively orally and in writing with a willingness to learn and improve

5. Able to maintain professional boundaries, and ask questions for clear understanding

6. Moderate physical effort, with intermittent lifting or carrying limited to no more than 50 pounds

7. Duties may require physical ability to climb stairs

8. Ability to type information in to an electronic medical record, and/or ask questions for clear understanding

9. Ability to work in a fast-paced environment, while setting priorities as necessary, where interruptions are frequent and switching from one task to another may be needed

Don’t meet every single requirement? Studies have shown that women and people of color are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. At Emma Norton Services we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive and authentic workplace, so if you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.

At Emma Norton Services we are committed to living our definitions of DEI.

Diversityis the recognition that there are differences between people, and that these differences must be intentionally valued as a part of the whole. These differences extend beyond what we can see physically, and include ways of being/knowing/living/working. We continuously work to achieve and maintain diversity in our staff and relationships, in alignment with the ways that the communities we serve change and evolve.

What does Diversity look like at Emma Norton? No one is the same, and every person has inherent value. People aren’t only different based on their physical bodies, but also in their minds and life experiences. We need all these differences to make us better.

Equity:An organizational perspective that emphasizes collaborative processes; equity strives to center around the needs of those most impacted by organizational decisions, acknowledging autonomy, and facilitating different ways of being/knowing/living/working.

What does Equity look like at Emma Norton? When important decisions need to be made, leadership seeks input from all relevant members of the organization, and gives extra weight to the opinions of those whose day-to-day work would be most impacted.

Inclusion: Establishing and maintaining a transparent environment that lays the foundation for policies and practices that are welcoming to all, community-directed, and support different ways of being/knowing/living/working.

What does Inclusion look like at Emma Norton? We want everyone involved with Emma Norton to be able to bring their whole self to the work. No one should be made to feel that their life, self, or needs are judged or unimportant. We see new requests for accommodation not as challenges, but as opportunities to create stronger community.