Position Summary The Client Support Specialist and Kennel Advocate serves as a staff member at will of Domestic Violence Intervention Services (DVIS). The Client Support Specialist and Kennel Advocate provide inclusive and trauma-informed advocacy and assistance for all safe housing residents with primary responsibility for the Shelter Kennel. Essential Duties & Responsibilities
Priority 1: Equity and Inclusion
- Reflect and understand how identities could give advantages in the workplace—even if they are not asked for or earned—while others might experience disadvantages. Reflect on how our position and power may shift depending on the environment, the people, or the institutions at play. Build the awareness and compassion that is needed and expected to create an equitable and inclusive workplace.
- Create an inclusive environment and behave in a way that ensures that clients and employees feel embraced, no matter what their cultural orientations are, respected and valued, engaged, and connected to the community, and safe from abuse and harassment.
Priority 2: Kennel Support
- Educate survivors so they understand their pet’s vaccination needs, spay/neuter services, and basic health needs and verify that those needs are being met.
- Establishing and maintaining veterinary connections and spay-neuter resources in the community to utilize as a referral source for clients and their pets.
- Report the maltreatment of any animals within the shelter kennel to the assistant shelter director or the vice president of safe housing.
- Responsible for maintaining a clean and orderly kennel.
- Provide survivors with supplies they may need to better care for their pets while staying at the shelter. Assist survivors in exercising, taking pets for potty breaks, grooming, and cleaning the kennel as needed.
- Ensure kennel guidelines are followed by clients and that any concerns are reported to the assistant shelter director or the vice president of safe housing.
- Provide clients with follow-up information for pet care after they leave the shelter. Assist survivors develop a pet safety plan.
- Train volunteers or employees who will work within the shelter kennel.
Priority 3: Advocacy
- Provide crisis intervention services for phone-in and walk-in clients. Assessing needs and make informed referrals to other community resources. Safety plan with survivors for themselves, children, and pets.
- Assist with transportation for children to and from school in the morning and afternoon.
- Assist with transportation for safe housing residents as needed.
- Complete shelter follow-up calls with former shelter residents at one month, three months, and six months following their departure from the shelter. Provide safety planning and referrals as needed.
Other Duties & Responsibilities
Other Duties/Responsibilities: Other assistance to support the overall goals of the department and organization. DVIS retains the right to add or change duties and/or responsibilities at any time. Supervisory Responsibilities: None Budgetary/Fiscal Responsibilities: Acts as a good steward of DVIS’s resources. Responsibility for Confidentiality: The nature of this work requires safeguarding against the release of confidential and proprietary information of DVIS and its clients. Contact with Others: This position will interact with managers at all levels and staff members across the organization, in addition to members of external organizations and the public. Documentation: Maintains up-to-date and accurate files for each client according to agency guidelines and current professional standards. Meetings and Training: Attend meetings and training as requested by supervisor.
Education: A Bachelor’s degree in psychology, or social work is preferred, or in a related field, or any equivalent combination of education and/or experience.
Experience: Requires a minimum of one year’s experience in working with animals in a shelter or kennel stetting, experience working with a nonprofit is strongly preferred, or any equivalent combination of experience, lived experience, and/or special skills.
Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:
Proven computer skills, including Microsoft Office Suite, are necessary. Knowledge of animal behaviors and an interest in how animals can be impacted by domestic violence. Knowledge of basic animal needs.
Knowledge of or experience working with social justice issues, specifically intimate partner and gender-based domestic and sexual violence, and racial, class, gender, sexual orientation issues, and intervention/prevention services strongly preferred. Requires dedication to diversity, equity, and inclusion, excellent organizational skills, written and oral communication skills, attention to detail, and ability to prioritize work and tasks. Requires adaptability to produce and meet deadlines in a fast-paced, multi-task, and changing environment, with frequent pressure related to meeting deadlines and scheduling requirements. Must be able to work independently and as part of a team.
Requires the ability to embrace, support, and integrate DVIS’s philosophies to promote and demonstrate DVIS’s commitment to diversity, inclusion, equity, and anti-racism.
Schedule Availability: Monday through Friday, 8:30 am to 5:00 pm. Occasional extended workdays.
Licenses/Certifications: Valid Oklahoma driver’s license; current CPR and First Aid certification preferred.
Physical Requirements
The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met to successfully perform the essential functions of this position. Reasonable accommodations may be made when requested to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
Ability to communicate and understand in English [and insert language] effectively, in person, and in writing. Ability to hear adequately in person and by phone, in personal and group settings, and function with periodic distractions such as people, telephone calls, and noise.
Ability to work with, and process information from, a variety of individuals and media (e.g., computers, projected images, printed materials), and occasional sitting and/or standing for long periods of time.
Mobility is necessary to access various offices and a wide variety of settings. Mobility is necessary to perform a variety of tasks that involve intermittent standing, walking/traversing, sitting, stooping, kneeling, bending, and twisting, occasionally climbing stairs or using an elevator, and possibly reaching chest high and overhead for materials.
Ability to reach for, move, and/or lift up to 25 pounds and the use of hands to finger, handle, or feel objects, tools, or controls, including frequent repetitive movement such as extended periods of keyboarding.