Participant Support Specialist Primary Case Manager

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1. FTE 8hr position

8 days ago Requisition

Salary Range: $77,587.00 To $ Annually

PURPOSE. DIGNITY. ACTION.

Participant Support Specialist (Primary Case Manager)

PDA strives to build robust support for non-punitive, community-based solutions to many public safety issues.

With neighborhood and public partners and in partnership with community members actively seeking to move past experiences of harm and injury, we design and deliver widely supported initiatives that promote safety, restoration, and racial equity.

Formed in 1969 as The Defender Association to provide high-quality legal defense for civil rights activists in Seattle, in 2013 we began to concentrate exclusively on alternative public safety models, when King County created an in-house public defense program. PDA remained independent to carry on the work of our Racial Disparity Project, which had helped to design LEAD, the nation’s first pre-booking diversion model for drug-related offenses.

In 2021, we adopted a Co-Executive Director structure, recognizing the value of power-sharing, multiple voices, and perspectives at the leadership level. Our multicultural team of lawyers, organizers, project managers, social workers, direct service providers, and administrative staff blends professional and technical skills with lived experience of the systems we’re working to change.

CoLEAD developed from the LEAD framework to provide intensive case management in non-congregate shelter facilities for people who are at high risk of exposure to the criminal legal system; all participants experience substance use disorder and high barriers to housing and establishing a lawful income source. CoLEAD connects hundreds of participants to primary care, prevents overdoses (no participant has died of an overdose since we launched in Spring 2020), establishes permanent housing plans, and provides legal system coordination under the LEAD model.

The Participant Support Specialist (PSS) Primary Case Manager is a member of a care team responsible for providing engagement in our temporary lodging sites and intensive case management services to Program Participants (PTs). Primary PSSs will maintain small caseloads of 12–15 participants, and will provide companion-based services to ensure participants are connected to all necessary social services such as behavioral health treatment, primary care healthcare, basic needs, entitlements, employment opportunities, and any services or appointments that are indicated.

Ideally this is done before the participant has been in CoLEAD for six months and moves into housing.

Primary PSSs are involved in all aspects of participant placement at lodging sites including, intensive case management services, overdose prevention, creation and implementation of a permanent housing plan for each participant, referral to legal support as needed, reduction of barriers, and coordination with other providers, including follow up after departure from CoLEAD lodging. This position also supports day-to-day participant needs living in CoLEAD lodging sites, and is responsible to ensure participants are following all CoLEAD Lodging Agreement rules and CoLEAD program rules per policy.

This includes supporting participants with room cleaning, room moves, room audits, and overall day to day activities. Primary PSSs work with Participants to reduce illicit activity that has a community impact. Responsibilities further involve coordinating communal activities to cultivate a sense of belonging and encourage constructive social interaction between participants. Furthermore, PSS staff members may receive reassignments to the After Care phase based on programmatic needs.

This position will report to the Hudson House Program Manager.

Available

Schedule:

• Hours:
  
  8am – 4pm

** This schedule reflects current openings; please note that all assignments are subject to change to meet evolving programmatic needs.**