Bilingual Contact Center Advocate

Brief Description

Interfaces with victims, survivors, perpetrators of abuse, and community members to provide trauma-informed crisis intervention, safety planning, resource referral, and advocacy services to remedy intimate partner violence, sexual assault, and other social problems unique to victims within Baltimore and the surrounding area.

Maintains departmental quality assurance standards and trauma-informed principles during live responses to incoming calls, chats, and walk-in contacts during designated shifts.

Attends department-specific training and meetings to maintain knowledge of advocacy best practices, internal and external resources for clients, and community resources and trends.

Demonstrates inclusiveness during interactions with differently abled persons and individuals with varied sexual, gender, racial, ethnic, cultural, and socioeconomic backgrounds.

Provides resources and facilitates a “warm handoff” during referrals to other agencies on behalf of callers seeking access to external recovery services.

Advocates on behalf of high-risk clients to internal stakeholders across programs to facilitate emergency housing options, including emergency shelter and hotel stays.

Performs daily data entry to document each contact and other administrative tasks as needed for essential Contact Center or site functions. This may include filing call reports, organizing call center spaces, responding to voicemails, etc.

Requirements

• Bilingual fluency in English and Spanish
• High School Diploma/GED
• One year of paid or voluntary experience in either call center, customer service, retail, hospitality, or work with vulnerable populations required. Phone or chat-based experience is highly preferred.
• Demonstrated ability to work quickly and calmly in a crisis required
• Demonstrated ability to make decisions that de-escalate conflict and resolve a crisis effectively required
• Excellent oral and written interpersonal skills with a solid ability to relate to various individuals, including victims, perpetrators of abuse, children, donors, business leaders, and human service providers. Particular emphasis on communication over the telephone and computer
• Demonstrated ability to work independently and juggle multiple tasks

Summary

The Bilingual Contact Center Advocate provides world-class, trauma informed customer service to individuals contacting House of Ruth Maryland via our 24/7 crisis hotline or online chat. The Bilingual Contact Center Advocate is part of the Contact Center team and is responsible for ensuring that every contact victims, family members, community members, perpetrators of abuse etc.- are offered the support, information, referral, crisis intervention counseling, and safety planning consistent with HRM standards.