Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion Case Manager (Homeless/Criminal Justice)

PLEASE READ "TO APPLY" APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS AT BOTTOM AND ENTIRE POSTING - APPLICATIONS SENT THROUGH INDEED WILL NOT BE PRIORITIZED; PLEASE APPLY VIA EMAIL WITH RESUME AND COVER LETTER

About Us: Travelers Aid Society of Greater New Orleans has a mission to work to end homelessness. Our vision is a New Orleans where everyone has a safe place to call home. We value compassion, collaboration, best-practices, and a commitment to growth.

Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) Case Manager (Homeless/Criminal Justice Case Management Services)

Position Overview:

The Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) Case Manager is responsible for assisting a caseload of clients who are over-arrested for nonviolent crimes in Orleans Parish. These individuals are most often stuck in the criminal-legal system due to homelessness and/or unmet behavioral health or substance use treatment needs. The LEAD case manager will be responsible for a fixed case load of up to 15-20 individuals who are frequently arrested or cited for nonviolent crimes and will be responsible for helping each person on their caseload to connect to services in line with a low-barrier approach that adheres to the tenets of harm reduction and housing first, both of which prioritize providing housing, services, and supplies to individuals without mandating their sobriety, medication compliance, or ability to work/gain income.

The LEAD case manager will help all caseload-enrolled individuals to accomplish goals in line with their unique service plans, which may include goals like obtaining permanent housing, gaining income, obtaining vital documents, increasing social supports, reducing criminal system involvement/resolving old court cases, and/or connecting to medical and psychiatric care.

The LEAD case manager will support these individuals in diverse environments by conducting home visits, community visits, and office visits as well as by accompanying these individuals to court dates, medical appointments, and elsewhere as needed. While this position is based at the Travelers Aid main office downtown, it will require significant daily time in the field and the PSH case manager will be expected to meet with clients, landlords and other service providers in diverse settings, such as encampments, hospitals, client homes, community sites, benefits offices, and more. This position will require case managers to demonstrate significant flexibility in their willingness to meet clients where they live and engage with them without judgment in those environments and will focus services in the NOPD 6th District (Central City, Irish Channel, Xavier University) and the NOPD 7th District (New Orleans East).

Major Duties and Responsibilities:

• Provide regular, intensive case management support to a caseload of 15-20 LEAD-eligible clients, who have all some regular involvement in the New Orleans criminal-legal system, often for repeat nonviolent offenses such as loitering, panhandling, shoplifting, trespassing, etc.
• Create mutually trusting relationships that encourage clients to engage in the case planning/service planning process and that motivate them to seek available services
• Develop an individualized service plan tailored to meet the needs of clients especially as those needs pertain to obtaining housing, engaging in mental health and/or substance use treatment, obtaining vital documents, enrolling in public benefits (SNAP, SSI/SSDI, Medicaid) and resolving court cases/closing criminal-legal matters. Review and update service plans as necessary.
• Attend appointments with clients as needed including by transporting them in an agency vehicle.
• Participate in staff meetings and trainings
• Independently manage daily/weekly/monthly to-do lists

Essential Skills, Qualities, and Experience/Education for this Role:

• The ability to work independently by prioritizing and maintaining your own schedule and to-do list and seeing all clients as needed on a weekly/monthly basis without daily monitoring.
• The ability to interact with those who have been heavily affected by trauma, marginalization, criminalization, and oppression without judgment of the various means of survival or coping used by these individuals.
• The ability to respond with patience and supportive, non-coercive, service offerings to individuals who may be participating in or affected by substance use, sex work, mental illness, institutionalization, unclean living environments, health/mobility issues, and/or distrust of service providers.
• Bachelors degree (masters degree preferred), preferably in a human services (social work, sociology, counseling, criminal justice) field, with 1 year of case management/outreach/housing/criminal-legal justice experience with a similar population OR 3+ years lived (personal) or professional experience with similar populations, which has exposed you to realities that affect individuals experiencing homelessness, criminal/legal involvement, complex health, and/or substance use conditions in New Orleans.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office and/or similar email/calendar systems or a willingness to learn and commit to using such systems.
• A willingness to receive referrals from New Orleans law enforcement for client enrollment (NOPD officers will recommend LEAD-eligible clients based on arrest history in each police district) and to meet with them in program planning and review meetings several times per month. Similarly, a willingness to meet with client public defenders, court officials, and jail officials as needed to ensure clients' safe release into the community from incarceration when applicable.
• Having a valid Louisiana Driver's License with a clean driving record and access to a personal vehicle for work use is REQUIRED. No clients will be transported in staff personal vehicles, but staff use personal vehicles to travel between sites (e.g., various client homes) throughout the day and are reimbursed for all work-related mileage and parking expenses.

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Travelers Aid Society offers generous sick (2+ weeks/year) and vacation (4 weeks/year) leave and takes every other Friday off, in addition to observing all federal holidays. Employees are provided with parking near to the office and reimbursed for work-related mileage in their personal vehicles. Travelers Aid Society offers health, vision, and dental insurance. The schedule for this position is Monday through Friday during daytime hours - day to day work times can be flexible within reason, hours worked within each biweekly pay period (9 days long due to rotating Fridays off) are expected to average to 70 hours/every 2 weeks.

Travelers Aid Society is an equal opportunity employer.

TO APPLY: Please send a resume and cover letter as PDF attachments via email to jobs@travelersaidneworleans.org and use subject line "LEAD CM Application".

Job Type: Full-time

Pay: From $45,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• 401(k)
• Dental insurance
• Health insurance
• Health savings account
• Life insurance
• Paid time off
• Vision insurance

License/Certification:

• Driver's License (Required)

Work Location: In person