Vocational Counselor - Queens

Compensation Range: $25/hr - $28/hr commensurate with experience

Benefits:
We have three comprehensive healthcare plans to choose from based on your priorities and budget. Housing Works covers most of the plan; you pay a portion, based on your salary. Staff begins accruing PTO immediately for a total of up to 30 days earned in the first year. We offer employees an educational benefit. This money is available for tuition loan reimbursement, tuition costs, and text books.

Overview:

In collaboration between Housing Works Inc. and the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice (MOCJ), the Emergency & Transitional Housing (ETH) Program will provide individuals involved in the criminal legal system experiencing housing insecurity, or chronic homelessness, with transitional housing placement and reentry support services with the goal of providing assistance with more permanent housing solutions. This housing program operates utilizing hotels across NYC boroughs and offers medical, behavior health, reentry support services, connection to additional health and wellness services and housing placement assistance to residents enrolled to promote positive reintegration to the five borough communities, reduce recidivism and build stronger, safer communities. Reporting to the Director of Workforce Development Services, the Vocational Counselor will be responsible for conducting vocational program intakes, creating resumes and cover letters, facilitating work readiness workshops, provide individual vocational counseling sessions, referring clients to continued education or specialized employment trainings and conducting employment retention activities. This position will provide vocational support services to program participants across the three ETH Program sites located in Corona, Fresh Meadows and Long Island City Queens.

Responsibilities:

Primary:

• Conduct vocational programming intakes with participants across the three ETH Program sites.
• Co-develop employment and education-related goals with participants and include in their individualized service plans.
• Assist clients with developing and creating resumes and cover letters.
• Provide individual vocational counseling to participants assigned to caseload.
• Facilitate group level interventions relating to work readiness and career training.
• Coordinate and refer participants to specialized job training, hard skills trainings or continuing education services.
• Assist participants with applying for employment opportunities in their desired career sectors.
• Provide participants with interview and other vocational appointment reminders.
• Follow up with participants for employment retention services when employed for 30, 60 and 90 days.
• Assist the overall Justice Initiatives Workforce Team with developing and maintaining relationships with NYC employers to create career opportunities for the client community.
• Actively participate in supervision, team meetings and agency meetings.
• Attend and participate in case conference meetings as needed.
• Complete data entry and program outcome tracking in accordance to contract deliverables.
• Promotes Housing Works’ core values in day to day activities.
• Performs other tasks as assigned by supervisor.

Secondary:

• Provide culturally competent services in accordance to Housing Works policies and practices.
• Attend and participate in advocacy efforts as outlined in Housing Works’ and the Justice Initiatives Department policies.
• Promotes Housing Works core values consistently.
• Ability to work with clients with diverse clients with varying levels of service needs.
• Works collaboratively with other team members within the Justice Initiatives Department and cross-agency.

Other functions that may be required with this position include:

• Responsiveness to emails, texts and phone calls.
• Ability to adapt and successfully uphold job functions in a full remote workforce or hybrid in-person remote workforce environment.

Requirements:

• Bachelor’s Degree required in social services, psychology, social work or other related field.

The following are qualifications and requirements of the position:

• Minimum 1 year experience providing vocational counseling or workforce development services.
• Experience working with individuals with previous involvement in the criminal legal system or history of mental health or substance use challenges.
• Knowledge of city, state and federal workforce related regulations and legislation.
• Strong written documentation and communication skills
• Good problem-solving skills and ability to work autonomously
• Microsoft Office Suite, particularly Excel, required
• Experience utilizing EMR systems.

The following additional competencies are viewed as important to success in this position:

• Preferably bi-lingual in Spanish.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills.
• Excellent or proficient technical skills to perform tasks related to Microsoft Office, email and case management systems.
• Ability to work independently and collaboratively with the team.
• Dependability and reliability to arrive and depart timely for scheduled shift.
• Ability to frequently travel within the boroughs via public transportation.

Job candidates should be aware that scammers may pose as employers and create fake job postings in order to extract personal information from individuals for financial gain. Housing Works will never ask job candidates for personal information, such as social security numbers or bank account details, over the phone. If you suspect that a job posting may be fake or wish to confirm that a job posting from Housing Works is genuine, please contact us at [email protected]

Housing Works was founded in 1990; With a long-term commitment to AIDS advocacy. Housing Works established New York State’s first harm reduction-based, OASAS-licensed outpatient drug treatment program. Other services include Health Home care management, behavioral health, and syringe exchange programs. A pioneer in the social entrepreneurship movement, Housing Works operates 10 high-end thrift shops in Manhattan and Brooklyn and a much-loved Bookstore Cafe in Soho. For more information, visit

Housing Works fights for funding and legislation to ensure that all people living with HIV/AIDS have access to quality housing, healthcare, HIV prevention, and treatment, among other lifesaving services.

Housing Works provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability or genetics. In addition to federal law requirements. Housing Works complies with applicable state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment in every location in which the company has facilities. Housing Works also does not request prior salary information during the hiring process. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.

This position is included in a bargaining unit of Housing Works’ New York City employees represented by a labor union known as the Retail Wholesale and Department Store Union (“RWDSU”). Accordingly, the RWDSU has the exclusive right to bargain over the terms and conditions of employment related to this position and this position may become covered by the terms of a collective bargaining agreement (a “CBA”) between Housing Works and the RWDSU