Community Partnerships Manager — Kent & Ottawa Counties

Community Partnerships Manager — Kent & Ottawa Counties

Family Thread

Location:

West Michigan — Hybrid

Employment: Full-Time

Finding help shouldn't be this hard. Across our communities, there are thousands of incredible people and organizations working every day to help families, yet the system families are forced to navigate remains fragmented and confusing. A family facing a housing crisis, job loss, food insecurity, or another difficult moment may have to call multiple organizations, fill out the same information over and over, tell their story again and again, only to find out they were never eligible or that funding was suspended.

Too often, community leaders measure whether a referral was made instead of whether the family's problem was actually solved.

At Family Thread, we believe there is a better way. We are building Mira
, a new kind of guide for families and the people serving them that helps turn a difficult situation into a clear path forward. Mira helps families understand their needs, navigate the help available to them, take the next step, and keep moving toward resolution, greater stability, and self-reliance. We're starting here in West Michigan, and we're looking for someone who knows this community, understands the people and organizations serving it, and wants to help us change how families get help.

Our goal isn't another resource directory or referral platform. Our North Star is simple: a family moving forward toward a path of self-reliance and not community dependence.

We are looking for a Community Partnerships Manager to lead Family Thread's work across Kent and Ottawa Counties.

You will build strong relationships with schools, nonprofits, hospitals, churches, government agencies, employers, and other organizations serving families. You will introduce Mira, help organizations adopt and use it, learn where families are getting stuck, and bring those lessons back to our team so we can continue making Mira better.

This is not a role for someone who wants to spend every day behind a desk. You will be out in the community, meeting people, building relationships, attending events, and connecting organizations that should be working together. We want someone who takes ownership of the region and becomes the trusted local face of Family Thread.

• Build and manage relationships with organizations serving families across Kent and Ottawa Counties.
• Introduce Mira to community organizations and grow local adoption.
• Develop partnerships with schools, nonprofits, healthcare organizations, churches, government agencies, employers, and community leaders.
• Learn where families are getting stuck and help our team understand how we can solve those gaps.
• Connect people and organizations that should be working together.
• Gather feedback from families and frontline professionals to help improve Mira.
• Represent Family Thread at meetings, community events, conferences, and partner organizations.
• Take ownership of Family Thread's success across Kent and Ottawa Counties.

Your title matters less than the relationships you've built. You may come from nonprofit leadership, community engagement, education, healthcare, social services, government, philanthropy, workforce development, or another community-facing role.

The right person knows how to walk into a room, build trust, listen well, and get people working together. You are comfortable talking with a school liaison one day and a hospital executive or nonprofit CEO the next. You don't wait for someone to tell you what to do next. You see an opportunity, make the call, schedule the meeting, and keep pushing until something happens.

Most important,
you already know this community, and this community knows you.

Requirements

• Strong existing relationships across Kent or Ottawa County
  , with the ability to build relationships quickly across both.
• Experience in community partnerships, nonprofit leadership, education, healthcare, social services, government, philanthropy, workforce development, or a related field.
• Strong communication, relationship-building, and follow-through skills.
• Comfortable presenting Family Thread…