Supervising Parole Success Advocate

Supervising Parole Success Advocate

Location: Oakland

UnCommon Law is seeking a Supervising Parole Success Advocate to join our Home After Harm team. The Supervising Parole Success Advocate will train, manage, and support a team of formerly incarcerated Parole Success Advocates, and currently incarcerated Peer Mentors. This team works to create therapeutic communities inside prisons by facilitating group spaces and one on one support for people preparing for parole and life success. This role will also work collaboratively with all members of our teams, as well as be a crucial member of the leadership team, working hand in hand with the Program Manager and Supervising Attorney for In-Prison Programs. The Supervising Parole Success Advocate will be able to ensure fidelity to our trauma-informed model, including creation of new curriculum materials and revising current materials. This position requires an innovative problem-solver, proactively contributing to meet the various needs and concerns of our programs (Home After Harm and Pathways to Parole Success workshop series), the people we serve, and the organization’s overall objectives and agenda. 

Home After Harm: UnCommon Law’s Pathways to Parole Success (Home After Harm) is currently a pilot program that helps people prepare for the discretionary parole process. Informed by people who have been through the parole process themselves, this program will support participants in taking accountability for past actions, while healing from past trauma. Home After Harm also provides limited legal support from a team of attorneys and legal assistants who will provide individual case feedback. This program focuses on two prisons in which participants will be led through a written curriculum in small group, large group, and individual settings. 

This position requires direct, personal experience with California’s discretionary parole process. Our ideal candidate is someone who is a compassionate leader, highly organized, and possesses strong facilitation, written and verbal communication skills. Creativity and proven capacity for collaboration are also a must. 

We do not require candidates to have a college degree and we welcome candidates with non-traditional backgrounds and experience. The strongest candidates will let us know how their experiences and abilities relate to this role. We greatly value lived and related experience, and transferable skills.

This position is exempt, based in the Bay Area, and will have a salary of $84,710. This position will be required to be in-person in our Oakland office a minimum of two days a week (Mondays and Wednesdays), as well as monthly travel to Salinas Valley State Prison in Soledad and CSP-Los Angeles County in Lancaster, with additional travel to other prisons as needed.

Examples of Duties and Responsibilities:

Supervision 

• Supervise the team of formerly incarcerated Parole Success Advocates, including providing weekly check-ins, guidance and support
• Participate in all review processes, including 90-day and annual reviews
• Oversee supervision of all Peer Mentors, including development and revisions of trainings and ongoing support
• Coordinate hiring, onboarding, and training of new Parole Success Advocates, with support from the Home After Harm Program manager

Program Operations and Materials 

• Participate in meetings with CDCR and BPH as needed, and collaboratively develop and implement overall strategy for engagement with CDCR/BPH
• Collaboratively develop and implement strategy for scaling and expansion of Home After Harm and the Pathways to Parole Success workshop series
• Write, revise, and manage design and development of Home After Harm curriculum and other materials, including coordinating input and editing with consultants
• Co-facilitate Home After Harm program groups and workshops, including regularly traveling to Home After Harm institutions
• Collaborate with the Program Manager and Supervising Attorney for In-Prison Programs to co-develop and revise Home After Harm design

Home After Harm Leadership 

• Collaboratively develop and implement participatory and trauma-informed processes for our team as needed
• Contribute to the development of the Home After Harm annual budget and strategic planning, and manage compliance with program and PSA budget components
• Representing Home After Harm at public speaking events
• Identifying training opportunities for the Home After Harm team
• Occasionally attend and participate in UnCommon Law special events in the community or inside prisons to educate or train attendees

Organization-Wide

• Participate in regular staff meetings and trainings
  • Biweekly in-person attendance is required for Oakland-based staff (frequency is subject to change)
• Occasionally participate in in-person team building activities and retreats 
• Occasionally assist in cross-team collaborative opportunities, such as policy, legal team non-client mail, and fundraising

Who Should Apply: Individuals who have experience living in a correctional setting, personal experience navigating California’s discretionary parole process, strong facilitation skills with trauma-informed and person-centered approaches, a strong ability to lead and manage with inclusivity that fosters growth in others.

Experience

• Experience living in a correctional setting, and personal experience navigating California’s discretionary parole process
• Experience facilitating group and individual settings, with a focus on person-centered and trauma-informed approaches
• Strongly preferred two or more years supervisory experience supporting and leading a diverse team
• Experience with programmatic design and curriculum development 

Abilities and Attributes

• Passionate about the mission of UnCommon Law
• Excellent facilitation and leadership skills that include kindness, non-judgement, and sensitivity to confidential matters
• Ability to work independently and take initiative to learn new skills and concepts
• Compassionate, culturally sensitive, and self-aware with attentiveness to vicarious trauma
• High attention to detail while reading, writing, and organizing information
• Excellent time management skills and able to operate under pressure
• High creativity, problem-solving mentality, and approach to overcoming obstacles
• Ability to use technology platforms such as Zoom and Google Suites (Gmail) and ability to get up to speed on new technologies (including online participant record management system)

About UnCommon Law

UnCommon Law fights to ensure that all people incarcerated for violent crime have access to healing, justice, and effective legal representation.

Through our unique, trauma-informed model of advocacy, we provide the space currently missing in the system for healing, accountability, and safe pathways home from prison. In developing new self-narratives, the people we serve are able to more effectively disrupt violence inside and outside prison and become leaders who change negative societal narratives about those incarcerated for violent crime. Our groundbreaking approach is changing policy and outcomes, driven by the voices and experiences of system-impacted communities.

UnCommon Law’s values include accountability, audacity, authenticity, collaboration, community, empathy, imagination, joy, liberation, and sustainability.

Benefits and Support

Currently, UnCommon Law offers 100% Paid Medical, Dental, and Vision insurance for employees and covers 75% for dependents. To support our team’s mental wellbeing, we also provide a Health Reimbursement Account (HRA) of $200/month in reimbursable funds for therapeutic expenses. We have a flexible time off policy and close for two weeks from late December to early January each year. We offer a generous family leave policy, flexible hours, FSA and Retirement plans, regular access to training and clinical support, and generous sick leave. In addition to the formal benefits, we are committed to building and maintaining an equitable culture that is sustainable and joyful and where each team member can thrive. You’ll see this in the acknowledgements in weekly staff meetings, in-office lunches, and community gatherings.

Application instructions:

Please submit a resume and a cover letter describing your interest and relevant experience for the role, along with contact information for two professional or academic references to our hiring portal (https://uncommonlaw.bamboohr.com/jobs/). Applicants who submit cover letters that are not tailored to the position or the organization will not be considered.

Please note that all correspondence in the hiring process will be through the BambooHR portal. Following the submission of your application, you should receive an automatic response (via email) thanking you for your application. If you do not receive this, please check your Spam folder.

UCL is committed to providing an inclusive, welcoming, and culturally responsive environment for all members of our staff, volunteers, subcontractors, vendors, and clients. UCL does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion (creed), gender, gender expression, age, national origin (ancestry), disability, marital status, sexual orientation, military status, or prior contact with the criminal justice system. We strongly encourage applications from people impacted by incarceration as well as from traditionally underrepresented communities.