Community Safety Worker

Founded in 2016, Focused Interruption was created by a small group of community members, many of whom have been directly impacted by gun violence and the criminal justice system. These volunteers were committed to taking action to end the growing gun violence in Dane County. Over five years, Focused Interruption has provided counseling and support to over 300 victims and perpetrators of gun violence, visiting area hospitals at all hours of night and day partnered with the City of Madison to address gun violence.

Our mission is to use a holistic approach to reduce generational trauma by providing evidence-based intervention and prevention services to the people, neighborhoods, and families most impacted by gun violence.

The Community Safety Worker is a community-based professional within our Focused Interruption Organization. This role focuses on low-level community engagement — building everyday relationships, being a steady and trusted presence, supporting Community through minor conflicts, and connecting people to social and crisis services.

This is the relationship-building and prevention side of the program. The Community Safety Worker helps create the trust and stability that make communities safer over time. Higher-risk situations and acute violence response are handled by dedicated violence-interruption staff. The Community Safety Worker's job is to recognize those situations and hand them off, not to manage them alone.

This is a rewarding, people-first role for someone who is approachable, patient, and genuinely invested in the well‑being of the neighbors.

• Work in pairs during community-based assignments, following Focused Interruption’s safety procedures
• Maintain a visible, consistent, and approachable presence in the neighborhoods served.
• Build everyday relationships with community members, families, business owners and community groups.
• Serve as a friendly, trusted first point of contact for questions, concerns and requests for help.
• Attend and support community meetings, events and gatherings.

• Respond to minor disputes, neighbor disagreements, and everyday tensions in a calm, non-judgmental way.
• Use active listening and simple de-escalation to help people work through low-level conflicts.
• Follow up to help repair relationships and prevent small issues from recurring.
• Recognize when a situation carries a risk of serious violence or is beyond the scope of this role, and refer it promptly to violence-interruption staff or the appropriate emergency services.

• Identify community members who may benefit from support and provide warm, hands-on referrals.
• Help people navigate social services, crisis lines, healthcare, housing, food and other community resources.
• Follow up to make sure community members were able to access the help they needed.
• Maintain up-to-date knowledge of local services and strong relationships with partner organizations.

• Keep accurate, confidential records of interactions, referrals and follow-ups.
• Share observations about neighborhood needs and trends with the wider team.
• Follow all safety, confidentiality and lone-working policies and procedures.

• Experience working with the public, communities, or vulnerable individuals in a support, outreach, or frontline role.
• Familiarity with and strong ties to, the communities served and the ability to build trust across diverse groups.
• Strong interpersonal and active-listening skills.
• Comfort with basic de-escalation and everyday conflict resolution.
• Good judgment about the limits of the role and when to elevate point or refer.
• Knowledge of, or…