Survivor Support Specialist Freedom Community Center St. Louis, MO 63108 • Hybrid work

Position Title:

Survivor Support Specialist Reports to:

Director of Transformative Justice Location:

Saint Louis City, MO The Freedom Community Center (FCC) is a Black-led organization in North St. Louis that was founded to dismantle systems of oppression that inflict harm and trauma on Black communities in St. Louis City, particularly the police and the criminal punishment system. We ground ourselves in the knowledge that the Black survivors of St. Louis have the solutions to the question: What will keep us safe? We seek to build a community-based approach centered in power, healing, accountability, and repair. Given the resources to alleviate immediate economic needs, the space to facilitate communal healing, and the time to dream collectively of alternative approaches, our community of survivors will meaningfully address harm happening in St. Louis City at the individual and systemic level. We dismantle mass incarceration by modeling alternative responses to the criminal punishment system. The current punitive approaches to violence such as police and incarceration do not prevent future violence, they create it. At FCC, we take a survivor centered approach to build solutions that interrupt violence at its root. In the place of violence, we make peace and build power. Our approach fosters accountability, healing, repair and transformation. The cornerstone of our peacemaking work is the Free Us Project which is made up of several different transformative justice processes. One of our transformative processes is a restorative justice program that seeks to intervene and work with people who are experiencing or perpetuating harm before they interact with the police or at the beginning of their interaction with the criminal punishment system. In addition, we intervene with individuals who have experienced a violent injury in order to promote repair and reduce the likelihood of retaliation or re-injury. At FCC, we have an opportunity to seek a different path, one marked by healing, true accountability, and reparative solutions that will transform those involved so that they might participate in imagining an alternative future for themselves and our community. This work is materialized through our Free US project but also through our community organizing branch called Power Builders, where we build power within our community members. We interrupt violence both systemic and interpersonal by forging a different path toward reconciliation, transformation, healing, and freedom.

What You'll Do:

The Survivor Support Specialist is responsible for the following. Work closely with social service providers to connect individuals to supportive services for victim and family needs You will support survivors of multiple types of violence (i.e gun, domestic, sexual violence) Work in collaboration with survivors and their families to create personalized healing plans tailored to individual needs Conduct weekly restorative chats with participants to facilitate healing conversations around their harm Maintain detailed records of participant progress and treatment plans Work with participants in develop supportive healing pods Accompany the participants to court hearings, community appointments, individualized education program (IEP) meetings, and probation meetings as needed Who You Are & Keys to Success (the must-haves): One of the indicators of success for this role is to be highly organized and be able to manage a large volume of work. Able to juggle competing demands and prioritize without sacrificing quality. Plans backwards to make deadlines. Ask for help when needed. Critical thinking and problem solving ability: Quickly grasps the subtleties of complex trauma and identifies patterns in challenges. Comes up with insightful and sustainable ways to tackle common challenges and produce positive change.

Collaborative communicator:

FCC emphasizes the importance of caring for each other just as much as we care for our participants. Survivor Support Specialists engage in a systemic approach, collaborating with team practitioners and fellow community organizations to ensure comprehensive care. Effective communication skills facilitate the seamless exchange of ideas, enabling Survivor Support Specialists to contribute to a culture of collaboration that ultimately benefits the participants.

Presence:

Being to sit in uncomfortable moments with participants and help them process Active listening skills: Being able to reflect the thoughts of participants back to them, and be able to remember important events and feelings that they convey to you. You will also need to pay attention to what someone is not saying, and explore what that communicates.

Boundary Setting:

Must be able to establish and maintain healthy boundaries with the people they help and clearly communicate to clients the nature and limits of the healing relationship. If you were here right now you would be: Building rapport and establishing a relationship with your participants Assisting participants with moving into a healing space as a survivor of violence Working with a team of practitioners who support your participants healing

What Else You Should Know:

This is a full-time (40 hr a week) non-exempt position based in St. Louis, MO with a starting salary of $50,000. Freedom Community Center offers competitive health benefits, dental and vision plans, flexible PTO, and life insurance.

Job Type:

Full-time Pay:

From $50,000.00 per year

Benefits:

401(k) Dental insurance Flexible spending account Health insurance Health savings account Life insurance Paid time off Parental leave Professional development assistance Vision insurance

Schedule:

8 hour shift Monday to Friday People with a criminal record are encouraged to apply Ability to

Commute:

St. Louis, MO 63108 (Required)

Work Location:

Hybrid remote in St. Louis, MO 63108