Community Program Coordinator

The Community Program Coordinator will be funded to work on a study called B’More Healthy Brain and Child Development ( B’More HBCD). As one of 25 sites across the country conducting this study, the B’more HBCD team will be a part of the Wendy Klag Center in the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, with direct collaboration across the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins Hospital and Kennedy Krieger Institute. The study plans to recruit pregnant women and follow these women and their babies through age 10, with a focus on monitoring neurodevelopment. At least one-quarter of the women recruited will be active substance users (alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, opioids, opioid agonists or stimulants) during pregnancy. Responsible recruitment and support for participants will require deep and authentic community relationships with organizations across the city of Baltimore and surrounding counties such as the Department of Health, the Department of Social Services, WIC, the Center for Addiction and Pregnancy, and many others. It is imperative that the team work closely with the Baltimore community to ensure we can provide as much support and access to resources for enrolled families. We plan to offer referrals and supportive resources for enrolled women who may need assistance with housing, food, healthcare access, substance use treatment, and other needs.

We are seeking a Community Program Coordinator who can create and maintain these critical community relationships and also provide referral guidance to participating families by training and informing the family navigators and other HBCD staff who are working closely with these families. This resource coordinator will also be cross-trained to be a family manager and to do primary data collection as well as some basic research coordination tasks like schedule and host our Community Advisory Board (CAB) quarterly meetings, our monthly Recruitment and Retention and Community Partnerships meetings, attend the study-wide Recruitment and Retention meetings, as well as our Spanish-Language Working group meetings. It is important so that all staff members can work interchangeably when necessary, in this complicated longitudinal study.

This position also requires supervision of any newly hired peer navigators as well as up to 1 work study student.

The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health is consistently ranked the #1 School of Public Health in the world. It is dedicated to promoting human health and provides a rich environment for research and translation of those findings. Additionally, our research team is affiliated with the Wendy Klag Center for Autism & Developmental Disabilities (WKC). As a member of our research team you will have an opportunity to attend WKC hosted journal clubs, meetings, and annual symposia and retreat events.

Specific Duties & Responsibilities

• Working alongside family navigators and family manager staff to ensure mothers enrolled in the study are guided to the correct resources when needed. This could include referrals to substance use treatment, housing agencies, WIC or other organizations that assist with food access, health care assistance, domestic violence assistance, etc.
• Making lasting connections to organizations in the Baltimore City and surrounding counties that provide services to mothers and children in need, by initiating meetings, attending events, and promoting mutually beneficial relationships for organizations in the Baltimore and surrounding communities.
• Attending all study team meetings that relate to community partnerships and stakeholders, community advisory board meetings, and any relevant internal staff meetings.
• Attending events in the community. While this may include hosting booths or information tables about our study, the more important function is consistent attendance to build trust, increase knowledge, and offer support to the community organizations where possible.
• Report to the program coordinator any concerns or issues with a particular family or an organization that may arise while the family is involved with the study (i.e. in cases of child maltreatment, parental incarceration, child removal from the home, etc).
• Maintain all HIPAA and CITI human subjects training as well as any additional trainings that community partners may request.
• Train family navigators/students and meet weekly to exchange information on families and referral organizations and ensure proper follow-up.
• Supervise a peer navigator familiar with substance use issues particularly where relevant for participating women.
• Cross-train on screening, consenting, and all data collection including developmental and neurocognitive testing and other study tasks as needed through the grant period.