Community Navigator

[Kathleen Norwood Crisafi]

We Love What Makes You Unique 

Your perspective fuels our mission-driven work at United Way of Greater New Haven. We are committed to building a team that is inclusive across race, gender, age, religion, identity, and lived experience. As an organization, we are committed to addressing systemic racism and injustice in our community, our partnerships, and our practices.

   

Who We Are Looking For 

Are you passionate about living in a community where people have the skills, access, and confidence to build the life they want for themselves and their families? Do you like connecting dots, people and ideas? Do you like to listen and guide people through difficult times? Are you highly skilled at building relationships and navigating complex systems? 

If so, our Community Navigator position may be perfect for you. 

 

An Overview of the Role

United Way is committed to helping community members live a more financially stable life. To do so, people must navigate many systems and programs to get what they need, which can be confusing and time consuming. To support our community, United Way is creating the position of Community Navigator to support community members by helping them identify their needs and connecting them to resources to address them, ultimately breaking down barriers to achieve their goals.

The Community Navigator will be based in high traffic community locations, will meet with individuals one-on-one to assess their needs to increase their financial stability and then make direct referrals to appropriate community partners. Our vision is that our community can more quickly access the right resources to achieve their goals.

This is a full-time hourly position that includes benefits with a salary range of $23-$25/hour.

 

What You Are Great At  

• You are a creative network-builder. You are connected across diverse networks of service providers, community organizations, and community leaders and leverage those networks to recruit participants and supporters. You invest in community relationships in a way that benefits the community in all directions.
• You enjoy talking with people about issues that impact families. You have experience advocating for change, with a particular passion for children and families.  You bring the spirit, creativity, and voice of working with parents and children into the work!
• You are a strong communicator. You have strong writing skills that show up as clear emails to colleagues and partners and thorough project documentation. You are also comfortable speaking to groups about the needs and resources in our community and the work you do. Your communication skills (which includes good listening skills!) also help you build productive relationships with partners and participants. 
• You value data to shine light on the most impactful stories. You have experience with collecting and tracking individual level and outcome specific data. 
• You’re a team player.You work well with others, including both internal and external audiences. You proactively help colleagues when you see the need.  And, you have experience contributing to a positive organizational culture that values diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. 

 

What You Will Do 

• Support and guide families within greater New Haven to access supports such as workforce training, child care, basic needs and more. Meet with individuals one-on-one to assess and support warm hand-offs to partner agencies.  
• Record and track all referrals to wrap-around services, education programs, etc. in order to identify trends and monitor effectiveness of program.
• Build an understanding of local programs and services that will support the needs of clients.
• Communicate barriers that families face while trying to access services to program leadership.

 

What You Need

• Substantive knowledge of the Greater New Haven landscape of nonprofit and city partners who provide services and/or programs that address education, early childcare, financial stability, workforce development, and other issues.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to interface with key stakeholders and represent the program and UWGNH in many settings.
• Positive customer-service orientation to external partners and our internal UWGNH team. Skills to establish and maintain high quality relationships with a variety of stakeholders.
• Excellent organization skills and sharp attention to detail. Ability to proactively see what actions are needed and take initiative.
• Strong proficiency in Microsoft Office applications including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Demonstrated comfort in learning new software/ online tools as needed.  
• Highly motivated and creative out-of-the-box problem solver who demonstrates sound judgement.
• Community minded with high-level active listening skills and the ability to connect with people of different economic and ethnic backgrounds. Ability to balance a variety of perspectives representing all areas of diversity including race, ethnicity, gender, ability, age, sexual orientation, and religious beliefs/faith practices.
• Spanish speaker preferred, but not required.
• Local and statewide travel is required; out of state travel as needed.

 

About United Way 

United Way of Greater New Haven brings people and organizations together to create solutions to Greater New Haven’s most pressing challenges in the areas of Education, Health, and Financial Stability grounded in racial and social justice. We tackle issues that cannot be solved by any one group working alone. We operate according to our organizational values.

In accordance with organizational policies, this position requires a criminal background check as a condition of employment. Pay for this full-time position is $23 - $25/hour. 

United Way is an Equal Opportunity Employer. 

Don’t check off every box in the requirements listed above? Please apply anyway! Studies have shown that marginalized communities - such as women, LGBTQ+ and people of color - are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. United Way of Greater New Haven is dedicated to building an inclusive, diverse, equitable, and accessible workplace that fosters a sense of belonging – so if you’re excited about this role but your experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to still consider submitting an application. You may be just the right candidate for this role or another one of our openings! 

 

To apply: www.uwgnh.org/careers