Rural Community Policy and Prevention Specialist

Rural Community Policy And Prevention Specialist

The Rural Community Policy and Prevention Specialist is part of the Community and Behavioral Health (CBH) Unit within Adams County Health Department's (ACHD) Strategic Health Initiatives Division (SHI). The Rural Community Policy and Prevention Specialist is instrumental to creating healthy communities in rural Adams County through facilitating work related to establishing community partnerships with various partners and ensuring rural voices are incorporated into the chronic disease prevention work of ACHD.

This position contributes to tobacco and nicotine grant-funded prevention, policy, and systems change work that addresses the social determinants of health impacting Adams County. This role leads and participates in community coalition and collective impact work, youth engagement, and program development and implementation with a focus on rural Adams County. This position completes all grant monitoring and reporting using a critical eye and attention to detail.

Partner Engagement and Community Outreach (65%):
Lead and execute evidence-informed, culturally and geographically relevant shared risk and protective factor health strategies that support tobacco and nicotine prevention and cessation activities.

• Works closely with rural community partners to engage youth, young adults, and community members in creating and distributing resources, education, and programs to support their mental well-being and help them remain tobacco-free.
• Maintains active working knowledge of the social determinants of health, principles and practices of community outreach, the principles of population-based health promotion and disease prevention; principles and practices of youth and rural engagement, coalition building, and developing community partnerships and policies in rural communities.
• Supports a wide range of perspectives, builds, and maintains relationships with community and business leaders as well as partner organizations to understand community assets and priorities, creates connections across organizations, and ensures achievement of program objectives.
• Supports community coalition(s) based on community need (i.e., facilitation, coordination, participation, training, transferring skills to community partners) with a focus on rural communities.
• Helps to facilitate the process around policy shifts affecting rural Adams County including coalition building, policy development, community engagement, coalition building, implementation, and monitoring.
• Completes all grant-related progress reports and documentation and actively participates in all grantee meetings and trainings.
• Develops and conducts ongoing quality improvement that support the implementation of grant-funded prevention, policy and systems change work.
• Communicates effectively, both verbally and in writing, to inform, educate and advise the community, elected officials, government officials and internal partners, including presenting data to inform local policy initiatives considered by City Councils, Mayors, County Commissioners, and other community partners.

Capacity Building and Training (25%):
Deliver and support a variety of trainings collaboratively with the CBH Unit through a train-the-trainer model.

• Collaborates internally and externally, with multiple partners, to provide interested/affected groups with education on evidence-based strategies and best-practices in program, policy, systems, and/or environmental changes for population health.
• Identifies community partners and/or organizations that could benefit from both internal and external training opportunities.
• Ensures that community voices, decision-making processes, and policy approaches involve the impacted community.
• Contributes to the development of educational models and materials to promote policy, system and environmental changes.
• Supports colleagues to convene different groups (including youth and adult community groups, organizational leaders, and elected officials) with identifying and addressing tobacco priorities.
• Demonstrates leadership abilities, including educating, mentoring, training, and developing colleagues and community…