Volunteer Program Manager

POSITION SUMMARY:

HIAS seeks a Volunteer Program Manager to administer, oversee and expand HIAS’ in-house volunteer programs in both New York and Silver Spring. The position seeks to enhance volunteer services to HIAS’ legal clients and support for HIAS’ legal team, and to increase community support for asylum seekers and new asylees. The volunteer program connects individual legal clients and their families with trained community volunteers to help navigate access to medical and social services, educational and employment opportunities, interpretation and translation services, English language learning, attending appointments related to the clients’ legal cases, community-building activities, and other services. Program client participants include asylees, SIVs, asylum seekers and other Forcibly Displaced Persons (“FDPs”) in the New York and DC metropolitan areas, as well as detained migrants served by the monthly Letter Writing Program. The volunteer program also seeks to build community support for asylum seekers and other forced migrants through the development and facilitation of educational, informative and recruitment events, the creation of local partnerships and the engagement of community members in responding and contributing to local efforts to assist asylum seekers and other forced migrants.

This person directly reports to the Director, Social Services (located in Silver Spring, MD), while working collaboratively with HIAS’ Legal Services team and the Community Engagement team to recruit, train and mentor volunteers drawn from the DC and New York metropolitan areas.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS:

• Maintains the current volunteer program and works closely with the legal and social services teams to develop new volunteer-based projects to serve HIAS’ legal clients.
• Supervises Avodah Corps Members in New York and DC, as well as short-term interns on an as-needed basis.
• Conducts and expands volunteer recruitment through coalitions, community partners, and digital platforms; works to expand cultural and language diversity among volunteers.
• Oversees volunteer outreach, recruitment and interviews for prospective volunteers to determine their level of commitment, area of interest and expertise.
• Develops and oversees volunteer onboarding materials and activities; conducts comprehensive training for new volunteers.
• Oversees the facilitation of volunteer-client matches, including career mentorship, cultural exchange, interpretation and English language instruction.
• Works closely with referred clients to fully assess needs, identify appropriate volunteer match and create need-specific roles for volunteers to best serve legal and social services clients; collaborates with legal and social services teams to address gaps and resolve problems related to referral process and communication of volunteer services to legal clients.
• Cultivates client resources through supporting local communities in running donation drives and fundraisers.
• Works closely with Clinical Case Managers to identify local community-based organizations serving asylum seekers and build partnerships to enhance service provision.
• Manages relationships with and oversight of volunteers by developing and facilitating continuous training, developing written guidelines and ensuring that volunteers receive regular communication, follow-up, guidance and support.
• Collaborates with legal and program staff on volunteer training curricula to ensure trauma-informed and location-specific training aligned with the needs of local clients
• Partners with local immigration and faith-based groups to develop initiatives in support of asylum seekers.
• Oversees and assigns interpretation and translation requests from across the Legal & Asylum Department.
• Collaborates with other HIAS teams to engage volunteers in support of HIAS projects or initiatives.
• Conducts periodic reporting of in-kind donations, volunteer service records, volunteer matches and logged hours, and the impact of community-based events. Maintains, collects and provides data for grant proposals, quarterly reports, and other internal and external needs.
• Works with HIAS’ Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning team to develop and implement tracking and monitoring procedures to ensure program goals are met.
• Assists with the development, update and implementation of HIAS’ volunteer program standard operating procedures and the regular upkeep of Better Impact and Apricot, HIAS’ online volunteer and client management software.
• Brings commitment and integrity to accomplishing HIAS’ mission and goals in this and other duties as assigned, and commits to personal and professional implementation of HIAS’ core values.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

QUALIFICATIONS & REQUIREMENTS:

• Undergraduate degree.
• 4-6 years of experience working in a non-profit environment (may include internships and substantial volunteer experience).
• 2 years supervisory experience required (may include interns or volunteers).
• Fluency in Russian, French or Spanish preferred; fluency in other languages positively considered.
• Excellent interpersonal, writing and public speaking skills; ability to engage and coordinate volunteers of various demographics, clearly define and explain the volunteer program, and represent the HIAS volunteer program at community events.
• Experience creating promotional and outreach materials, and in organizing and facilitating volunteer and community trainings and other events.
• Demonstrated ability to build and maintain partnerships with local non-profit and grassroots organizations.
• Organized, thorough and efficient work ethic, while also being able to work with clients from a range of backgrounds with sensitivity to culture, trauma history, age and other vulnerabilities.
• Knowledge of refugee resettlement and/or asylum process and trauma-informed care (TAC).
• Self-directed and able to work autonomously.
• Attention to detail; experience tracking and reporting on program updates, progress, data and outcomes.
• Demonstrated ability to multi-task and handle multiple priorities under strict deadlines.
• Occasional weeknight and weekend service provision, especially during the volunteer recruitment cycle.
• Travel, to include travel to insecure operating environments, may be required.