Community Safety and Overdose Response Specialist

Description

Title: Community Safety and Overdose Response Specialist

Location: Seattle - Belltown

Schedule: 8:00am-5pm

Salary Range: $78,500 – $92,500

The posted salary range reflects the full compensation band for this position. Starting pay for new hires is typically established near the base of the range. Employees may also be eligible for an additional $1,000 for qualifying bilingual or multilingual language proficiency and/or $1,000 for qualifying advanced educational credentials.

Working at Evergreen Treatment Services makes a big difference in our community!

• •ETS has been working to transform the lives of individuals and their communities through innovative and effective addiction and social services in Western Washington for over 50 years. Learn more about our mission and values.
• •Change begins within. We strive to foster and sustain a diverse and inclusive community within our organization. Find out how we are working to achieve racial equity, health equity, and community justice.
• •Our Clinic Services and REACH teams bring critical professional expertise and heartfelt compassion to the work they do every day to serve our most vulnerable community members. Check out the compelling stories told by our patients, clients, and staff members that provide more information and a clear picture regarding our organization’s essential work.

REACH Mission and Values

The REACH Program of Evergreen Treatment Services works with individuals experiencing homelessness and behavioral health conditions to help them achieve stability and improved quality of life. The REACH mission is to foster community health and safety through outreach, relationship, healing interventions and systems advocacy for people who use drugs. REACH provides outreach-based-care coordination, multidisciplinary clinical services, and supports to access and maintain housing. All services are based in principles of harm reduction that offer respect and dignity to individuals moving through stages of change in their lives.

REACH incorporates a racial equity lens that includes naming the impact and actively dismantling systems of oppression rooted in White Supremacy, while addressing the root causes perpetuating historical trauma and immense suffering in individuals’ lives. We are committed to building a robust behavioral health response that diverts people away from jail by rebuilding community and providing services to ensure those presently marginalized aren’t just surviving, but able to thrive.

REACH offers an array of services ranging from survival support provided where folks are living outside to linkages to essential resources such as housing, assistance to resolve legal issues, health care, entitlements and easily accessible treatment for substance use disorders and mental health conditions.

The REACH team is passionate about creating a hospitable and welcoming environment for all people while providing quality services on an individually tailored basis to our clientele. REACH values diversity of lived experience, is committed to racial equity and social justice, and appreciates hard work, creativity, and a good sense of humor. People who have been impacted by the criminal legal system are encouraged to apply.

This dynamic position plays an important role in helping ETS accomplish our mission!

Job Summary:

• •Overdose response and fatality prevention by building relationships with PWUD in and around our drop-in spaces and integrating harm reduction best practices into milieu work.
• •Support drop-in/milieu space. fosters relationships and community building with clients.
• •Services centered in harm reduction, utilizing motivational interviewing and trauma informed care approaches. set limits in a respectful manner to ensure the milieu remains safe and welcoming for all awareness of interpersonal interactions and the ability to manage client flow in and around the REACH office space.
• •De-escalation skills and the ability to prevent conflicts by proactively intervening when people exhibit challenging behaviors associated with intoxication or other behavioral health conditions is required.
• •This position requires excellent interpersonal skills, attention to detail and regular multi-tasking, ability to develop systems to maintain safety and the flow of clients in the milieu.

What you contribute to this role – Responsibilities:

• •Community Safety, Client Engagement & Milieu Management:
• •Build trusting relationships with clients who are living outside and using drugs in the immediate vicinity of the REACH office, emphasizing harm reduction practices.
• •Leverage trusting relationships to proactively intervene, as needed, in situations to prevent escalation and encourage client engagement in supportive services.
• •Foster a sense of community safety within and immediately outside of the REACH Milieu through respectful interactions and communicating clear behavioral expectations and boundaries.
• •Help manage the flow of clients in and out of the REACH Milieu; welcoming people in at entry, triaging needs and ensuring safety by managing the right ratio of clients to staff
• •Maintain up to date knowledge of community resources, especially linkage to overdose prevention and MOUD treatment options, and provide information and referral services to clients and staff as needed in the milieu.
• •Orient new clients to the milieu, including client rights and responsibilities.
• •Help orient new staff to the milieu and support all REACH staff in utilizing trauma-informed harm reduction best practices.
• •Collaborate with Care Managers to set up self-care and crisis intervention plans for all REACH clients
• •Maintain order in the office by staffing the front desk and checking clients into AGENCY
• •Answer phones and general inquires.
• •Coffee-making and associated supply replenishment
• •Help coordinate and facilitate, in conjunction with other REACH staff, support groups, client and staff trainings, outings, special events, and other group activities. This requires community engagement and the development and maintenance of positive, collaborative relationships with REACH staff and partner agencies to effectively coordinate and deliver services.

• •Neighborhood Response:
• •Conduct brief needs assessments to understand clients' substance use patterns and mental health status to reduce risks associated with drug use and enhance the overall safety of the milieu and surrounding area.
• •Coordinate with emergency medical services (EMS), law enforcement and other relevant stakeholders and providers when necessary, ensuring seamless response to emergencies and appropriate after care following emergency situations.
• •Conduct regular trash pick-up and other activities to maintain a tidy and respectful environment.

• •Overdose & Crisis Response:
• •Educate clients on safer drug use practices, overdose prevention, and accessing harm reduction resources (e.g., MOUD access & linkage, overdose after-care options).
• •Act as milieu-sited liaison to the REACH Drug User Health Team, including providing support and coordination of site-based drug checking services, harm reduction supply inventory management, kit making and distribution.
• •Bathroom Checks as needed to ensure client safety and restroom cleanliness.
• •Act as the milieu point person for responding to overdoses and behavioral health crises that occur in and around the REACH office. This includes coordinating with external partners and stakeholders when necessary to reduce escalations, prevent fatalities, coordinate care, and respond to the needs of clients and community neighbors alike.
• •Identify gaps and barriers in available community resources and advocate for systemic changes.

• •Documentation and Administrative Tasks:
• •Document all relevant client and community interactions in AGENCY according to program requirements; prepare reports as required by funding sources or organizational needs.
• •Regularly utilize clinical supervision, case con