Community Support Liaison

Posting number: BPD Community Support Liaison

Department: Police

Job classification: Community Support Liaison

Posting type: Open

Categories: Public Safety, Community and Social Services

Summary

The Community Support Liaison (CSL) will be a trained professional focusing on services associated with homelessness, substance-use disorder, mental health, and persons with chronic service needs. The CLS will be an integral part of a team that uses timely and accurate information to implement effective tactics and strategies to reduce the need for a police officer’s response to calls for service without immediate public safety or criminal component. The person hired will be responsible for the coordination of all aspects of social work, to include intensive coordination across agencies, stakeholders, and platforms. At times, CSLs will be paired with Police Officers to respond to calls for service. 

The CSL’s insights and strategies, informed by trauma-centered, person-centered practices, will guide a fast-paced work environment with a single-minded focus on addressing gaps in Burlington’s various social-service systems. The CSL will help individuals and families in Burlington live healthier lives by working with those who seek service through the Police Department, moderating disputes that result from quality-of-life issues, and acting as an advocate for those in need. The CSL will be directed and supervised by the Community Support Supervisor, in close collaboration with the Deputy Chief of Operations, and will work closely with all of the services that are embedded within the Police Department. 

This position will be expected to work a flexible 2nd shift schedule. The schedule is a monthly rotating four days on, three days off, working 10 hours each shift. Start and end of shift are flexible (i.e., shift can start as early as 10 am or as late as 12 pm, at staff discretion). 

Union Affiliation: American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME)
Pay Grade 18: $36.14 - $40.30 Hourly
Remote Tier 1:  Zero (0) days remote/month

Examples of duties

• Engage and help individuals with substance use disorder. This includes screening arrestees for opioid use disorder and following up with those individuals, post-arrest, to help them access and be induced into medically-assisted treatment.
• Respond to requests from police, other City departments, and community members for intervention in non-criminal matters. Interventions could include, but are not limited to, interactions with individuals in the midst of a mental-health crisis, deescalating individuals struggling with co-occurring issues, mediating disputes between quarreling neighbors, working with homeless populations on housing solutions and relocations, following up with people suffering from substance-use disorder (particularly after instances of overdose), etc.
• Work as a partner to collaborate, consult, and coordinate services with all of the Burlington social-service providers to include intensive collaboration with mental-health and substance-use disorder providers.
• Develop and maintain relationships with partners for a team approach to problem solving that allows for coordinated interventions to challenging quality-of-life issues and/or neighborhood conflicts.
• Prepare for and attend strategy and planning meetings with the full range of stakeholders in order to assess the effectiveness of tactics and strategies.
• Provide effective assessments and develop strategies to assist individuals in finding appropriate community resources to address their underlying need. Must engage in person-centered, low-barrier best practices.
• Partner with the Community Affairs Liaison in outreach efforts to homeless encampments as well as other community-related activities.
• Work on a team alongside other social workers and law-enforcement officers, with a high degree of autonomy, responsibility, and accountability.
• Maintain a high operational tempo, working in a critical-incident-management setting, rather than an academic or clinical setting.
• Develop and implement trainings with community partners on topics such as conflict resolution and restorative strategies around solving quality-of-life issues like noise and neighbor/roommate disputes. Present trainings to community groups as needed.
• Create and maintain up-to-date electronic records for all case interventions.
• Act as a liaison between the community and the Police Department to encourage open dialogue with the Police Department, which allows for better results in addressing the needs of the community, and greater transparency on behalf of