Program Director, Credible Westchester

About the Organization

Center for Community Alternatives (CCA) supports and builds power with people across New York State who have been affected by mass incarceration, criminalization and community disinvestment. Through a statewide network of direct services, advocacy and organizing, and by supporting the leadership of directly-impacted people, we advance civil and human rights for all New Yorkers. CCA works to build a world where everyone has what they need to thrive.

CW is a new countywide initiative designed to serve Westchester’s most vulnerable and at‑risk residents. CW will function as a community‑rooted hub for individuals navigating homelessness, behavioral‑health challenges, substance dependence, and chronic involvement in the criminal legal and social service systems. The program is entirely supervised and staffed by individuals with lived experience.

The Director of CW provides restorative, trauma‑informed, and community‑rooted leadership to a new countywide initiative serving Westchester’s most vulnerable and at‑risk residents. The Director supervises a team of credible messengers—staff with lived experience in the criminal legal system—who support individuals navigating homelessness, behavioral‑health challenges, substance dependence, and chronic system involvement. The Director collaborates with the Project Trainer in organizing, structuring, and implementing the training for the project.

The Director also collaborates with the PQI Department in the design and implementation of the evaluation for the project. In addition to supervisory and system‑level responsibilities, the Director maintains a very small, intentionally paced caseload of one to two low‑needs participants. This limited caseload ensures the Director remains grounded in the lived realities of CW’s target population, models restorative engagement for staff, and maintains credibility with partners and community members.

• Provide supervision grounded in relational accountability, deep listening, and non‑punitive problem‑solving.
• Support credible messengers in managing the emotional labor of working with individuals who cycle through homelessness, crisis, and repeated low‑level arrests.
• Facilitate restorative supervision circles, reflective practice sessions, and healing‑centered debriefs.
• Build staff capacity in trauma‑informed care, crisis navigation, and culturally competent behavioral‑health support.
• Ensure supervision practices honor lived experience as expertise, consistent with CW’s commitment that the program is “entirely supervised and staffed by individuals with lived experience.”
• Develop staff schedules, ensure adequate coverage, and provide ongoing coaching, training, and performance feedback.

• Ensure CW remains aligned with its stated goals:
  • “to establish a needed hub for county agencies and nonprofits to refer their most vulnerable and at‑risk populations”
  • “to increase the efficacy of service delivery… by increasing client engagement and investment”
  • “to utilize credible messengers to gain trust and improve access to and success with social services.”
• Oversee day‑to‑day operations, ensuring services are trauma‑informed, culturally competent, and community‑rooted.
• Maintain fidelity to CW’s design as a connector—not a duplicator—of existing county services.
• Identify emerging needs and adapt program strategies accordingly.

• Lead the cross‑sector planning committee (with at least 50% lived‑experience representation) and maintain it throughout the three‑year pilot.
• Build and sustain partnerships with DSS, DCMH, DOCS, OMH, Legal Aid, 914 United, CCA, YSOW, and other community‑based organizations.
• Develop coordinated referral pathways, shared assessment tools, and data‑sharing protocols.
• Ensure CW fulfills its role as a countywide resource hub, addressing the documented challenge that high‑need individuals “struggle to navigate and effectively engage with these services.”
• Create pathways for inter‑agency collaboration…