Community Engagement Specialist, Brooklyn Supervised Release

THE ORGANIZATION

The Center for Justice Innovation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing community safety and racial justice. Since 1996, we’ve worked alongside communities, courts, and those most directly affected by the justice system to build stronger, healthier, and more equitable neighborhoods. With a team of over 900 staff and an annual budget of $130 million, the Center carries out its mission through three core strategies:

Backed by decades of on-the-ground experience and nationally recognized expertise, we bring innovative, practical, and lasting solutions to justice systems nationwide. Learn more about our work ovatingjustice.org.

Brooklyn Supervised Release, the largest operating project of the Center, seeks to re-engineer the experience of criminal court in Brooklyn, New York, by providing judges and attorneys meaningful alternatives to bail and detention. Operating out of community-based offices, Brooklyn Supervised Release is a team of social service providers, court liaisons, mental health practitioners, compliance specialists, and others who seek to improve the quality of justice.

Supervised Release provides pretrial supervision, case management, and voluntary social services to people charged with misdemeanor and felony offenses, and in doing so, uses an arrest as a window of opportunity to change the direction of a participant’s life, avoiding the harmful effects of incarceration. Program participants are monitored to ensure their appearance at court dates and mandatory programming, and receive referrals to services like job training, drug treatment, and mental health counseling.

Brooklyn Supervised Release seeks a Community Engagement Specialist. Reporting to the Community Engagement Coordinator, the Community Engagement Specialist will have comprehensive knowledge, understanding, and lived experience successfully addressing foundational needs through local service providers. The Community Engagement Specialist will utilize this expertise to support participants’ attendance at court dates and engagement in services by meeting with participants in the community to provide navigation support and facilitating warm handoffs between Case Managers, SRP Clinicians, and local service providers when referrals are made or mandated by the court.

Additionally, Community Engagement Specialists will build and maintain relationships with and knowledge of local service providers. Community Engagement Specialists will leverage this expertise to help ensure case management staff are knowledgeable about local service providers by facilitating in-house information sessions.

• Provide support to participants seeking assistance or accompaniment to and from court or social services in the community;
• Develop and maintain relationships with and knowledge of local service providers to understand services, eligibility, intake requirements, and enrollment opportunities and challenges towards the goal of reducing referral barriers and optimizing participant access to services;
• Exploreadditional service providers to assess quality and accessibility of services offered;
• Develop and providepresentations on local social service agencies to the direct practice teams to share information and guidance to optimize successful, quality referrals;
• Maintain accurate and timely data entry and case documentation aligned with the program model, court reporting obligations, and best practices;
• Consistent and effective cross-team communication and collaboration to proactively identify successes, challenges, and opportunities to strengthen programming, create opportunities for meaningful collaboration, and maximize internal and external resources and expertise;
  • Substantive and comprehensive service to participant;
  • Working effectively with the case management and compliance teams to ensure accurate and timely court reporting;
• Conductr…