Build meaningful connections with students and schools while supporting youth through life's toughest moments.
HOOTS Core Values
Youth empowerment: We believe our role in working with youth is to provide support, tools and resources to help them draw on their own strengths and support systems to take charge of their situation and move forward in their lives.
Community: We engage in community building and community care within schools, as well as connecting youth to resources and opportunities in the wider community outside of their schools.
Position Summary:
As a HOOTS Crisis Intervention Worker, you work alongside a medic as part of a two-person team staffing wellness clinics in local high schools. You will have the primary responsibility of completing mental health assessments and providing crisis counseling during clinics. Interactions with students are incredibly varied and range from suicide risk assessments to conflict mediation to relationship advice to listening to a new favorite song together. Successful HOOTS crisis workers should be expected to easily build rapport with students from a range of backgrounds and presentations, as well as building and maintaining positive relationships with school staff and teachers. You will also be expected to make referrals and share information about resources available in the community to meet any identified needs. As a collectively run program each staff member's experiences and input is a valuable resource in our work to continually evaluate and improve our services.
Position Responsibilities
Staff HOOTS clinics at local high schools.
Continuously build and maintain positive relationships with school staff and teachers.
Assume primary responsibility for making mental health assessments and providing crisis counseling during clinics.
Make appropriate referrals and resource recommendations to services in the community.
Appropriately document all client interactions according to department policy.
Fulfill mandatory reporter duties.
Teach mental wellness presentations to classrooms.
Attend required department and clinic meetings and share in other responsibilities as needed.
Complete all required training.
Other duties as assigned.
Required Qualifications
Minimum two years of experience in crisis intervention or delivery of mental health services in non-traditional settings.
Ability to work effectively with a diverse population including impoverished and alienated persons.
Ability to operate a cell phone and laptop computer.
Ability to occasionally lift up to 30 pounds.
Ability to pass a DHS background check.
Current Basic Life Support (BLS) certification (or completed within 1 month of hire).
Complete HOOTS Hogwarts within four months of hire.
Complete White Bird's 'Basic Crisis' class within 1 year of hire.
Must be able to be certified by Lane County as a Qualified Mental Health Associate.
Preferred Qualifications
Experience working with youth in mental health settings.
Knowledge about humanistic, client-centered approaches to mental health services.
Experience with harm reduction and/or restorative justice practices.
Excellent verbal communication and active listening skills, including skills in building rapport with clients and school staff, and communicating effectively with co-workers.
Experience with public speaking and/or teaching.
Experience with consensus decision-making.
Ability to thrive in a collaborative, dynamic, non-hierarchical environment.
Ability to give and receive feedback with grace and compassion.
Compensation Details:
This is a union, non-exempt position with target starting base compensation of $22 per hour paid on a bi-weekly basis.
This position requires successful passage of a State mandated background check.