Lead Residential Family Advocate

JOB TITLE: Lead Residential Family Advocate (
Bilingual Preferred
-English and Spanish)

SUPERVISED BY: Director of Housing Services

HOURS: Full-Time, Non-Exempt;
Monday-Friday 8am-5pm, on-call responsibilities, some flexible scheduling required to meet with clients and facilitate groups.

SALARY & BENEFITS: $24.00-$26.00 per hour (bilingual pay differential); generous PTO; 11 paid holidays; health, dental benefits and HSA with employee match;
Simple IRA with employee contribution.

The Lead Residential Family Advocate provides comprehensive case management support and intervention to shelter residents seeking services related to relationship abuse. Advocates provide crisis response to individuals accessing Safe Haven’s 24/7 free and confidential crisis services, facilitate assessments, and ensure survivors have access to trauma informed care when seeking support. The Lead Residential Family Advocate will lead psycho-educational support groups, provide outreach services to survivors, and supervise Bachelor’s level interns.

They will also provide key leadership and expertise to the team, providing training and coaching to staff, leading the team in best practices, as well as oversight to Safe Haven’s advocacy program to ensure excellent delivery of services.

Safe Haven Ministries—a nonprofit organization located in Grand Rapids, Michigan—believes in a multi-faceted approach to serving victims/survivors of domestic violence and human trafficking, while also working to prevent violence in our community. Safe Haven offers confidential housing services; emergency safe shelter; individual case management; support groups; children’s programming; and primary prevention training and technical assistance for the entire community. Safe Haven is committed to serving all individuals impacted by domestic violence, sex trafficking and labor trafficking, and values creating a safe haven for all.

• Provide crisis intervention, assessment, advocacy, and case management to individuals seeking crisis support
• Share crisis shift responsibilities, including handling hotline, text, and chat communications, assisting with safety planning, offering emotional support, and navigating resources
• Provide residential advocacy training and coaching to residential advocacy staff and interns
• Provide direction, training, and programming overview to staff, volunteers, and interns
• Stays up to date with current best practices in the delivery of advocacy services
• Strive to create a caring and safe environment marked by empathy, understanding, and acceptance
• Be available to staff for advocacy consultation, shelter assessments and client assistance in the absence of the Director of Housing or Director of Client Services
• Outreach and relationship building with agencies and communities to promote services and awareness of Safe Haven programming
• Ensure appropriate and timely data collection, maintain case notes, and complete client files
• Review client documentation to ensure compliance with VAWA/VOCA documentation standards
• Supervise interns as assigned
• Attend and participate in program meetings, weekly staff meetings, individual supervisions, staff in-services, and other meetings as assigned
• Observe professional confidentiality; protect the rights of clients and their families and observe the Safe Haven Ministries Code of Ethics at all times
• Create and strengthen working relationships internally and with relevant community organizations

• Bachelor’s Degree in social work or related field required
• 3 years of case management experience required
• Bilingual (English and Spanish) strongly preferred;
  Pre-employment assessment required
• Knowledge of the dynamics of domestic violence; previous work with domestic violence preferred
• Active listening, crisis intervention, and problem resolutions skills
• Ability to work independently and as a team
• Excellent written and oral communication skills
• A commitment to continued research, training, and education on issues of domestic violence and social work
• Must be self-motivated, self-directed, and able to…