Community Specialist, Social Work

Springboard to Opportunities– Community Specialist

Springboard To Opportunities is a 501(c)3 organization that connects families living in affordable housing with resources and programs to help them advance themselves in school, work, and life. We are practitioners, working on the ground and deeply embedded in community and guided by our radically resident driven model, ensuring all we do is informed by the voices and wisdom of our residents and implemented in partnership with them.

Our hope is that residents of affordable housing recognize their power to create change in their lives, community, and the larger social structures around them and feel equipped with the tools, resources, and support systems necessary to enact that change.

Community Specialists work directly with residents of affordable housing communities to help them reach their goals in school, work, and life. They do this by building relationships with members of the community, helping residents meet their basic needs, connecting them with resources to support them in their goals, and facilitating opportunities for community building and social connection. Community Specialists utilize a coaching approach when working directly with residents and strive to build collaborative, transparent, relationships with everyone in the community, and treating every resident with respect.

Community Specialists meet at least annually with every resident in their community and continue to meet with and support residents, utilizing a coaching approach, as they work toward their goals and navigate other support systems. Community Specialists build on an individual's strengths and strive for collaborative, transparent, relationships with everyone in the community.

• Serve as the go-to, on-site contact for residents of affordable housing communities where Springboard To Opportunities provides services.
• Provide resident-centered coaching for residents, offering support, knowledge, and resources as they work toward their personal goals.
• Co-create coaching plans and roadmaps with residents to help them achieve their goals. Provide encouragement and compassionate accountability throughout the process.
• Offer continued one-on-one support with residents as they work toward self-defined goals, and to offer support, care, and respect as resident navigate through the complexities of their lives and situations.
• Develop supportive, professional relationships with residents to get to know their families, their needs, and their goals for themselves, their children, and their communities.
• Work together with the Springboard team and leadership to uplift resident needs and goals to develop solutions and strategies to best support families.
• Help create and maintain a local network of partners in collaboration with the Community Specialist team for community resources and assistance, ensuring residents can meet their basic needs, access essential services, and work toward larger goals.
• Collaborate with Property Management teams to understand when residents are at-risk and preemptively work alongside residents to ensure needs are met and they can maintain stable housing and meet their family’s needs.
• Help conduct community outreach and disseminate information on-site for Springboard initiatives such as fellowships, The Magnolia Mother’s Trust, and other programs and other pertinent knowledge products and information.
• Create strategic and engaging opportunities for residents to participate in programs designed to satisfy the service requirements in each community.
• Develop and implement periodic community events as opportunities for residents to get to know each other, build trust and community, and disseminate…