Domestic Violence Shelter Victim Advocate

**ORGANIZATION**:Hope Alliance has been promoting the fundamental right for all individuals to be safe in their personal relationships for over 35 years. Hope Alliance operates under the belief that physical, sexual, emotional and psychological abuse of one human being by another is unacceptable. Located in Williamson County, Hope Alliance provides crisis services to both adult and child victims of Family Violence and/or Sexual Assault. We attempt to safeguard our clients’ rights through a broad array of innovative, client-centered, trauma-informed direct services, community education, and advocacy. We currently serve more than 2,500 women, men and children annually.

**POSITION**: Hope Alliance is seeking an energetic and accomplished human service professional to serve as a Shelter Victim Advocate at our Williamson County Shelters. The Advocate will provide individualized and trauma-informed services to adult survivors and ensure that residents impacted by domestic and sexual violence are in a safe, secure, healing and sanitary environment during their stay.

**DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES**:

- Provide hotline, intake, crisis intervention, advocacy and case management services in-person and on the hotline, informally assessing for emotional, physical, social, and educational needs and formulating individualized service plans.
- Facilitate support, social skills, and education groups for adults.
- Actively seek out and liaison with relevant community agencies and resources in order to create a continuum of services that elevates the best interest of clients.
- Ensure an adequate level of housekeeping to provide a clean and safe environment for residents, reporting any needed repairs. This can also include organizing closets and pantries, sorting donations, and readying rooms for new clients.
- Cover on-call rotation, responding to survivors in community settings such as hospitals, law enforcement agencies and other social service organizations.
- Maintain communication with others and work to fulfill the agency’s mission, vision and philosophy. This includes attending regularly scheduled team meetings.
- Recognize personal emotions, thoughts and values and how they influence behavior, managing their effects on service provision.
- Report any incident of child or elder abuse as required by state law.
- Assist with the collection and maintenance of data for statistical and programming purposes.
- Perform other duties as assigned by the Shelter Director or senior management.

**QUALIFICATIONS AND EDUCATION**
- Minimum of a Bachelor’s Degree in Human Service field, preferably in Social Work. Relevant experience can be substituted.
- Two years of experience providing residential services to adults and children, with demonstrated ability to respond to individuals in crises and maintain confidentiality.
- Familiarity with the network of social services including children’s services, benefit providers, mental health, and criminal justice agencies in the Williamson County area.
- Must be able to successfully complete the agency-provided State Certification Training, during evening and weekend hours, within 90 days of hire date, and successfully complete a written exam and skills assessment designed to evaluate the special knowledge and skills required for continued certification.
- Must be able to maintain State Certification by documenting annually: six hours of continuing education and the provision of 100 hours of direct services at minimum.
- Experience prioritizing independently, managing multiple and sometimes competing tasks, and meeting deadlines and desired outcomes.
- Experience working with allies and partners such as law enforcement.
- Adequate personal health, social maturity, emotional stability and effective stress management skills.
- Sensitivity to varying cultural, ethnic, and social backgrounds, values, attitudes, and languages, as well as tact, poise, professionalism, diplomacy, teamwork, humor, and ability to interact with people from all walks of life.
- Ability to stoop, bend and lift 25 pounds as well as the ability to move about inside the office to access file cabinets and other office equipment.
- Routinely use computer and other office equipment such as phones, fax, printer, and copier.
- Hope Alliance is an equal opportunity employer._

**Work/Life Balance Benefits include**: 22 PTO days a year and an additional 16 pro-rated floating holidays Agency sponsored wellness program that includes, massage packages, yoga membership, and a subscription to the Calm app.

Schedule: Thursday-Monday 3p-11p

Pay: $36,000.00 - $37,440.00 per year

**Benefits**:

- 401(k) matching
- Dental insurance
- Employee assistance program
- Health insurance
- Paid time off
- Professional development assistance
- Vision insurance

Schedule:

- 8 hour shift
- On call

Application Question(s):

- Do you currently reside within Williamson, Travis, or Bell county?
- The hours for this position are Thursday -