PALS Project Manager (FUOP)

About Casa Esperanza

Casa Esperanza, Inc. is a bilingual/bicultural behavioral health treatment provider serving Boston and the Merrimack Valley. Our mission is to empower individuals and families to recover from addiction, trauma, mental illness, and other chronic medical conditions; overcome homelessness and discrimination; and achieve health and wellness through comprehensive, integrated care. Casa Esperanza has an operating budget of $15 million and more than $11 million in assets.

About the role

Job Summary Statement: Casa Esperanza is currently seeking an enthusiastic and detail-oriented individual who is passionate about public health and understands the impact social determinants of health have on a person’s ability to recover.   The Program Manager will oversee the development, and implementation of Casa’s new PALS: Promotores Amplificando La Sabidura initiative focused on reducing rates of drug overdose deaths and suicide in a social and community context.  PALS is an innovative Promotores Model collaborative that incorporates culturally appropriate and linguistically accessible Community Health Workers into a trauma-informed continuum of care to build the capacity of Latines to address health quality problems in their communities.

At the center of this model are the Promotores de Salud/Community Health Workers, who address health equity and access to health for Latines struggling with mental health and substance misuse using strategies that combine innovative outreach service delivery models and community engagement. Outreach strategies and action plans are oriented towards the completion of pre-established objectives and involve many cross-sectoral collaborations with internal organizational partners and external partners in the community.

The PALS Program Manager is responsible for developing and implementing a community engagement and outreach plan that includes street outreach, culturally and linguistically appropriate workshops for community members, and developing collaborative working relationships with community partners, agencies and stakeholders. They will also work closely with the Research & Evaluation Department to ensure that benchmarks, timelines, goals and objectives are being met and reported as required.

The ideal candidate will be a member or have a close understanding of the Latine community in Boston, have a desire to help improve the health and well-being of our community, possess a passion for helping others; ability to take initiative; display sympathy, respect, understanding of community values and members; have experience with navigating community resources; be an effective communicator with strong public speaking and relationship building skills; can work in an outdoor setting as part of a field-based team (including tabling); and demonstrates problem-solving skills and a collaborative approach to teamwork.

The Promotores program functions out of the Department of Recovery Support Services and will include a team of two Community Health Workers, a Peer Recovery Coach, and per diem Peer that work a varying work schedule with an average of 4-10 hours per week. The team will draw on their own lived experience to learn about community needs, promote preventative health services, and reduce overdose rates within the Latine community.

What you'll do

Essential Functions and Responsibilities:

Project Planning & Service Delivery:

·       Play a lead role in developing an outreach campaign to engage family members and community leaders

·       Collaborate with other RSS Leaders to develop annual outreach plan that includes map, schedule, and staffing.

·       Support transition of Consume Advisory Board to a Community Advisory Board that includes family members, trusted community messengers, and current and past consumers.

·       Identify peer leaders and community leaders who would benefit from Promotores training

·       Pr