Community Safety and Overdose Response Specialist

Pay

Salary range: $78,500 – $92,500 per year. Starting pay for new hires is typically established near the base of the range. Employees may also be eligible for an additional $1,000 for qualifying bilingual or multilingual language proficiency and/or $1,000 for qualifying advanced educational credentials.

Schedule

8:00am – 5:00pm, Monday through Friday. Local travel on behalf of the agency is a job requirement.

About the role

Evergreen Treatment Services (ETS) has been transforming lives through innovative and effective addiction and social services in Western Washington for over 50 years. The REACH Program works with individuals experiencing homelessness and behavioral health conditions to help them achieve stability and improved quality of life. REACH's mission is to foster community health and safety through outreach, relationship, healing interventions, and systems advocacy for people who use drugs. Services are based in harm reduction principles, incorporate a racial equity lens, and aim to divert people from jail by rebuilding community and providing services so marginalized individuals can thrive.

This position focuses on overdose response and fatality prevention by building relationships with people who use drugs (PWUD) in and around REACH drop-in spaces, integrating harm reduction best practices into milieu work. The role involves supporting the drop-in/milieu space, fostering relationships and community building with clients, setting respectful limits to maintain a safe and welcoming environment, managing client flow, and using de-escalation skills to proactively intervene when clients exhibit challenging behaviors associated with intoxication or behavioral health conditions. Excellent interpersonal skills, attention to detail, regular multi-tasking, and the ability to develop systems to maintain safety and client flow are required.

Responsibilities

• Community Safety, Client Engagement & Milieu Management
  • Build trusting relationships with clients living outside and using drugs near the REACH office, emphasizing harm reduction practices.
  • Leverage trusting relationships to proactively intervene in situations to prevent escalation and encourage engagement in supportive services.
  • Foster a sense of community safety within and immediately outside the REACH Milieu through respectful interactions and clear behavioral expectations and boundaries.
  • Manage client flow in and out of the Milieu: welcoming people at entry, triaging needs, and ensuring safety by managing appropriate client-to-staff ratios.
  • Maintain up-to-date knowledge of community resources, especially linkage to overdose prevention and MOUD treatment options; provide information and referrals to clients and staff.
  • Orient new clients to the milieu, including client rights and responsibilities.
  • Help orient new staff to the milieu and support all REACH staff in utilizing trauma-informed harm reduction best practices.
  • Collaborate with Care Managers to set up self-care and crisis intervention plans for all REACH clients.
  • Maintain order in the office by staffing the front desk and checking clients into AGENCY.
  • Answer phones and general inquiries.
  • Coffee-making and associated supply replenishment.
  • Help coordinate and facilitate support groups, client and staff trainings, outings, special events, and other group activities in conjunction with other REACH staff.
  • Develop and maintain positive, collaborative relationships with REACH staff and partner agencies to effectively coordinate and deliver services.
• Neighborhood Response
  • Conduct brief needs assessments to understand clients' substance use patterns and mental health status to reduce risks associated with drug use and enhance overall safety of the milieu and surrounding area.
  • Coordinate with emergency medical services (EMS), law enforcement, and other relevant stakeholders and providers when necessary, ensuring seamless emergency response and appropriate aftercare.
  • Conduct regular trash pick-up and other activities to maintain a tidy and respectful environment.
• Overdose & Crisis Response
  • Educate clients on safer drug use practices, overdose prevention, and accessing harm reduction resources (e.g., MOUD access & linkage, overdose after-care options).
  • Act as milieu-sited liaison to the REACH Drug User Health Team, including support and coordination of site-based drug checking services, harm reduction supply inventory management, kit making, and distribution.
  • Perform bathroom checks as needed to ensure client safety and restroom cleanliness.
  • Act as the milieu point person for responding to overdoses and behavioral health crises in and around the REACH office, including coordinating with external partners to reduce escalations, prevent fatalities, coordinate care, and respond to needs of clients and community neighbors.
  • Identify gaps and barriers in available community resources and advocate for systemic changes.
• Documentation and Administrative Tasks
  • Document all relevant client and community interactions in AGENCY according to program requirements; prepare reports as required by funding sources or organizational needs.
  • Regularly utilize clinical supervision, case consultation, and peer support for exploring clinical intervention strategies, counter-transference, resource development, self-care, and burnout prevention.
  • Attend REACH Program staff meetings and other required meetings.

Note: New and/or different duties and responsibilities may be assigned at any time.

Qualifications

Education and Experience

• High school diploma or equivalent required; undergraduate degree preferred.
• Academic training in social services, substance use disorder, and mental health services desired. Relevant experience may substitute for degree.
• Minimum three years of direct client service experience in mission-driven programs serving the unhoused community.
• Experience providing healing-centered services from a harm-reduction perspective for people experiencing complex behavioral health challenges is essential.
• Demonstrated conflict resolution and de-escalation skills required.
• Knowledge of local resources, community services, harm reduction, and overdose prevention principles.
• Strong interpersonal and written/verbal communication skills with the ability to build rapport with diverse populations in challenging environments.

Knowledge and Skills

• Understanding of racial equity and social justice; commitment to helping create an equitable environment for all ETS clients, patients, and staff.
• Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with clients, patients, and staff from a wide variety of ethnic, socioeconomic, and cultural backgrounds.
• Training/expertise in: Compassionate Overdose Response, Naloxone Administration, Motivational Interviewing, Harm Reduction, MOUD Options Counseling, De-escalation.
• Excellent organizational skills; ability to prioritize workload, work independently, and complete tasks timely and efficiently.
• Dependable, able to work under pressure, receptive to change, willingness to learn, cooperative approach to problem solving.
• Flexible team player with excellent attention to detail.
• Ability to maintain confidentiality and use discretion when handling highly sensitive information.
• Ability to set boundaries, resolve conflict, and de-escalate issues.
• Computer literate with basic knowledge of Microsoft Office Suite; high level of initiative in keeping current with technological change.

Physical Requirements

• Potential exposure to illicit drug residues, fumes, bio-hazardous materials, and bloodborne pathogens. ETS provides appropriate training to limit exposure risk; policies and procedures are in place.
• Regularly required to sit; use hands to finger, handle, or feel objects, tools, or controls; reach with hands and arms; talk or hear.
• Frequently required to stand, walk, and kneel.
• Occasionally required to climb, balance, or stoop.
• Rarely required to crouch or crawl.
• Must occasionally lift and/or move up to 30 pounds.
• Specific vision abilities: close, color, and peripheral vision; ability to adjust focus.
• Moderate noise level in the work environment.

Equipment Used

• Computer, photocopier, fax machine, phone, and tablets.
• Possible use of a program vehicle, for which a valid Driver's License and