Community Disaster Program Specialist

American Red Cross•Conover, NC

About The Position

The Community Disaster Program Specialist guides, leads, and supports trained volunteer teams delivering comfort and care during disasters. The role builds and maintains ongoing volunteer engagement in collaboration with volunteer services staff and helps volunteers prepare their communities to respond to disasters. The position supports disaster cycle services in an assigned geographic area, including volunteer-led programming and local Disaster Action Team responses to home fires. It engages community partners and leaders—particularly those serving frontline communities—to strengthen preparedness, response, recovery, and community resilience. Employees participate in regional disaster response operations after completing required training and must deploy outside their region at least once per year. Employees must satisfy training and physical-capacity requirements for deployment. The position is not eligible for relocation assistance. Geographic Community Disaster employees are expected to work daily in their assigned geographic area; regional employees are expected to work daily within their region. The work environment includes business-office noise, a small cubicle, and extended computer use.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree, or an equivalent combination of education and related experience.
At least 3 years of related experience.
Current valid driver's license and good driving record.
Ability to coordinate staff and volunteer activities.
Excellent interpersonal, verbal, and written communication skills.
Demonstrated ability to collaborate with diverse groups and individuals representative of community demographics, manage multiple priorities, facilitate, solve problems, market, lead, and manage partnerships.
Intermediate proficiency with Microsoft Office, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook.
Ability to work outside regular duty hours, including nights and weekends.
Ability to meet training and physical-capacity requirements for deployment.
Ability to meet the stated physical demands, including frequently lifting or moving up to 15 pounds and occasionally up to 30 pounds.

Nice To Haves

Demonstrated ability to inspire and coordinate volunteers and foster a sense of purpose and community impact.
Experience building strong relationships with diverse community groups to drive participation and support.
Strong written and verbal communication skills that support collaboration, clarity, and influence across all levels.
Proficiency with Microsoft Office for documentation, reporting, and presentations.

Responsibilities

Facilitate and support a diverse volunteer team implementing volunteer-led disaster cycle services programming.
Help ensure disaster cycle services are delivered rapidly, accessibly, equitably, and in culturally and linguistically appropriate ways, with a focus on frontline communities.
Assist with implementing assigned disaster cycle services program activities or a specific function within an assigned geographic area.
Engage disaster volunteers who represent the communities they serve, including culturally and linguistically diverse communities.
Support local efforts to prepare and mobilize communities and engage partners to prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters and emergencies.
Implement plans to meet assigned volunteer-engagement targets and volunteer-led Disaster Action Team response targets for local home fires, or support assigned functional tasks.
Serve as a local point of contact for partners and communities, working with local organizations and leaders to support frontline communities and resilience before, during, and after disasters.
Participate in regional disaster response operations after completing training requirements.
Deploy to disaster relief operations outside the region at least once a year.