Ascentria Care Alliance employees and volunteers take pride in the impact they have on the people they serve. It’s more than just a job, it’s an opportunity our employees have to care for and share in the lives of people who greatly need and appreciate their presence. Ascentria Care Alliance focuses on every child, elder, disabled person, refugee, endangered teen or teenage mom in order to build stronger communities one person at a time. This is an excellent opportunity to enhance the operations of a $75m non-profit social services organization with programs throughout New England.  

Summary:

The Services for New Americans employment team empowers resettled refugees to become economically self-sufficient.  The Employment Counselor provides employment related assistance and counseling to refugees, develops and implements employment plans, conducts job searches, and trains clients on the essentials of participating in the US workforce.  The Employment Counselor develops and maintains relationships with employers in order to help clients find suitable employment and obtain self-sufficiency.  The Employment Counselor is part of the broader Services for New Americans team serving refugees and provides other support as needed.

Essential Responsibilities: 

Employer Relations and Job Development

• Maintains relationships with current employers through frequent communication and coordination.
• Researches employment opportunities and trends; networks and develops relationships with potential employers; educates employers about the benefits of hiring refugees.
• Creates and supports connections with government agencies, business associations, faith communities and community members who may provide opportunities for clients to develop competencies, integrate learning and work, and to explore career possibilities.
• Engages in outreach to establish new employer and/or community partnerships.
• Serves as the contact for businesses, employers, and service agencies. Coordinates with agencies on services that refugees access and follows up on individual cases as needed.
• Promotes the program through community networking, and providing presentations; developing and maintaining relationships with key stakeholders and partners. 

Client Services

• Conducts pre-employment orientation and budgeting sessions for newly arrived clients. Ensures that clients understand the benefits and responsibilities of the employment program in which they enroll.
• Assesses clients’ aptitudes, interests, work skills, work experience, education, and/or degree of limitations to identify opportunities and challenges to employment.
• Assists clients in developing an employment plan.
• Coaches and prepares clients for finding suitable employment by developing job-search skills, resumes, and effective interview skills. Infuses and reinforces job-related and/or vocational English.
• Assists clients with developing resumes, completing job applications, and arranging job interviews. Provides and/or arranges transportation and interpretation.
• Researches, develops, prepares career pathways and offers guidance and goal-setting to help clients with long-term career planning.
• Provides placement and post-placement services including onboarding and follow-up activities with employed refugees to support retention or job upgrades.
• Assists clients with overcoming barriers to work such as transportation, childcare, etc.
• Conducts post-employment budgeting sessions with clients.
• Provides exceptional customer service both verbally and face-to-face.
• Ensures that refugee clients are treated with respect, dignity and respect for privacy at all times.

Record Keeping and Reporting

• Serves as secondary point of contact for relevant funding agencies.
• Reports to funders on individual client progress as well as overall program outcomes.
• Ensures quality of casefiles associated with clients and services on an ongoing basis as well as monthly casefile reviews.
• Completes, submits and maintains documentation in accordance with contractual standards and in a timely manner. Maintains client database, client financial records and case files, including case notes, contacts made on behalf of clients, documents held for safekeeping on behalf of clients.
• Completes and files progress and other administrative reports according to program procedures and according to deadline.
• Represents team during monitoring by funders. 

Non-Essential Responsibilities:

• Supports case management team as needed, including after-hours airport reception of newly- arriving clients.
• Performs other duties as assigned to help meet the goals of the program or the agency.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s Degree preferred.  Two years’ experience required.
• Valid Driver’s License, positive driving record and proof of automobile insurance is required to transport clients. 
• Computer skills required: Word, Excel, databases.
• Restricted funding sources and rapidly changing political and regulatory requirements demand a creative approach to the delivery of services; innovation and creativity required.
• Must be comfortable speaking with groups, working on collaborative teams and advocating for systems change as needed.
• Ability to effectively lead staff, and delegation skills required.
• Ability to work sensitively and effectively in a multi-cultural/multi-lingual environment.
• Ability to work as a team member and independently.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced environment and respond to rapidly changing priorities throughout the day.
• Ability to recommend and make process improvements.
• Ability to be flexible, adapt, and contribute to ongoing organizational transformation.
• Must have positive outlook and enthusiasm for dynamic work environment.
• Ability to work within the mission of the organization, “We are called to strengthen communities by empowering people to respond to life’s challenges.”
• Must have excellent oral and written communication skills and ability to handle situations with diplomacy and tact.
• Must be well organized, able to multi-task, prioritize, and attend to detail.
• Knowledge of local, state, national and federal regulations that govern the described service areas.
• Ability to speak a language our clients speak is preferred (Nepali, Hindi, Rohingya, Swahili, Kinyarwanda). 

Trainings Required:

• Participates in trainings related to position requirements.

Physical/Mental Demands:

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee of this job.  Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable an individual with disabilities to perform the essential duties of the position.

Physical Demands are generally:

Sedentary - While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to stand; walk; sit and talk or hear. The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 20 pounds.  Specific vision abilities required by this job include Close vision, Distance vision, Peripheral vision, Depth perception and Ability to adjust focus. The employee is frequently required to use hands to finger, handle, or feel and reach with hands and arms.

• Required to sit for long periods of time.
• Infrequent light physical effort required
• Requires driving own vehicle to various sites.

Mental Demands are generally:

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to problem solve, make decisions, interpret data and organize. 

• Ability to do detailed work with high degree of concentration
• Ability to work under stress or in a fast-paced environment.