Community Outreach Specialist

Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas•Austin, TX

About The Position

The Community Outreach Specialist is responsible for bringing Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas’s (PPGT’s) mission to the community through a vibrant volunteer program; legislative advocacy, active presence at community events; and supportive leadership on college campuses. Manages the volunteer program for community outreach activities. Supports the organization’s strategic plan and workplace inclusion initiatives. Meets productivity expectations, follows organization policies, and ensures customer service and compliance standards are maintained. Abides by the organization’s mission in performing job duties. Demonstrates an understanding and commitment to PPGT’s culture of quality, safety and risk awareness.

Requirements

High School diploma or equivalent + 5 years of related experience or Associate’s degree + 3 years of related experience or Bachelor’s degree + 1 year of related experience.
Related experience: Public Affairs, Government Affairs, Community Building or Advocacy or related.
Must have excellent computer skills with knowledge of Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Internet.
Must have the willingness and ability to adapt to change including advances or new technology.
Must have excellent customer service skills and be committed to providing the highest level of customer satisfaction.
Must be able to work flexible hours as required including evenings and weekends.
Must be able to travel as required.
Effective leadership skills and ability to manage community partnerships.
Establishes rapport and earns the confidence of others. Able to earn the confidence of a wide range of internal and external constituents.
Ability to think strategically and achieve organization’s goals relating to position.
Ability to manage details and complexity, to handle a variety of tasks simultaneously and to work under pressure.
Comfortable and knowledgeable with discussing topics relating to sexual and reproductive health.
Must be able to speak effectively in a public or group setting.
Be discreet and safeguard confidential information.
Possess integrity and compliance – can be relied upon to act ethically.
Ability to provide effective, equitable, understandable, and respectful quality care and services that are responsive to diverse cultural beliefs and practices, preferred language, and other communication needs.
Ability to exercise initiative, sound judgment, and problem-solving techniques in the decision-making process.
Able to develop cooperation and work collaboratively in a team setting. Demonstrates sincerity and truthfulness in interactions with others.
Must have effective verbal and written communication skills. Expresses ideas in a clear, thorough and concise manner, using good grammatical form and appropriate style.
Able to speak and present in individual and group settings.
Ability to effectively use organization’s computer systems and use technology to accomplish job duties.
Planning/Organizing: Establishes a systematic course of action for self or others to assure accomplishments of a specific objective. Determines priorities and allocates time and resources effectively.
Work Management: Effectively manages time as a resource; establishes realistic priorities; schedules own time and activities effectively; gives balanced focus and attention to appropriate long- and short-term priorities. Develops action plans and budgets; leverages technology; anticipates obstacles; establishes check points and monitors progress.
Recovery Skills: Responds effectively and acknowledges responsibilities when clients (internal or external) experience problems or mistakes; rectifies the situation to restore client satisfaction; seeks information and collaborates with others to take action to implement permanent fixes. Maintains stable performance and emotions when faced with opposition, pressure, and or stressful conditions.
Building Relationships: Shows genuine interest in others’ needs and opinions; establishes rapport; earns the confidence and trust of others; demonstrates consistency between words and actions; delivers on commitments.
Adaptability or Flexibility: Responds with flexibility to shifting priorities and changing work situations; recovers quickly from problems and setbacks; develops new skills to remain competitive. Adapts easily to change, sees the merits of differing positions, and adapts own positions and strategies in response to new information or changes to a situation.
Coping with Demands of the Position: Uses effective problem solving while working under stress, high volume of work demands and/or time demands; regularly meets deadlines.
Exemplify the organization’s In This Together values: We Tend to the Team; We Respect and Honor All People; We Jump In; We Try and We Learn; We Care for our Business; and We Return to our Mission.
Must be able to bend, stoop, kneel, crouch, reach, and grasp.
Must be able to stand, particularly for sustained periods of time.
Must be able to move about on foot to accomplish tasks, such as moving from one work site to another.
Must be able to push/pull.
Must be able to work primarily with fingers such as picking, pinching, or typing.
Must be able to talk such as convey detailed or important spoken instructions to other workers accurately.
Must be able to hear such as the ability to receive detailed communication orally.
Must be able to communicate effectively.
Will have substantial movements of the wrists, hands, and/or fingers.
Must be able to lift and/or exert up to 20 pounds of force occasionally, and/or up to 10 pounds of force frequently.
Worker is subject to both environmental conditions including activities occurring inside and outside.
Must be able to have close visual acuity to perform an activity such as: preparing and analyzing data and figures; transcribing; viewing a computer terminal; extensive reading.
Office/community environment.

Nice To Haves

Fluency in Spanish/English may be required (if a job requirement it is documented in your employee records).

Responsibilities

Designs and Implements programs to increase advocacy for all supporters.
Identifies and creates opportunities to develop and expand partnerships within assigned region and communities to increase health care and education services.
Conducts and coordinates community outreach and advocacy education at local community events, concerts, health fairs, special events or conferences as needed, to include dissemination of information related to services provided by PPGT.
Coordinates legislative advocacy efforts such as voter engagement and education.
Recruits, nurtures, and mobilizes the volunteer program for community outreach activities including: recruit, train, and supervise volunteers; conduct volunteer training to educate community volunteers about PPGT’s mission and services.
Coordinates among staff to schedule volunteer activities and ensure that volunteers are meeting organization’s ongoing needs, including dissemination of information related to services provided by PPGT.
Creates and implements volunteer activities and appreciation strategies that engage and motivate volunteers to remain involved; Conducts periodic volunteer surveys to solicit feedback and input on improvements to volunteer program and make improvements as needed; and tracks growth in volunteer program.
Coordinates outreach events on college campuses to educate and activate college students to advocate on behalf of PPGT and reproductive rights issues.
Contacts and coordinates college students on the local campuses to support VOX (voice) chapters or affiliated groups. Identify student leaders, help with developing group structure, guide interested students through the process of creating and leading campus advocacy groups, support special events and public affairs projects by the group and ensure that student groups comply with all Planned Parenthood policy and guidelines.
Meets with leaders of like-minded organizations as a representative of PPGT to establish and expand collaborative partnerships.
Records and tracks department metrics, including maintenance of databases.
Tracks volunteer and outreach expenses and plan budget expenditures.
May act as a spokesperson to the community and media for the assigned region.
Attends community meetings, conferences and events as a representative of Planned Parenthood.
Educates PPGT health center staff and clients about current public policy issues and the linkage between public policies and center services, and create advocacy opportunities for PPGT clients and staff.
Works with Statewide Project within PPGT and other affiliates to establish and implement grassroots outreach programs such as block walks in targeted neighborhoods. This includes logistics planning, scheduling, indentifying target areas, training staff and volunteers, creating scripts, ordering and shipping materials, collecting the data, and any other needs to ensure successful completion.
May train staff (or new hires) regarding PPGT’s advocacy goals and guidelines to educate employees about the roles of advocacy at Planned Parenthood.
Identifies and cultivates patients to be able to speak to media (determines they can communicate effectively.
Be seen as a resource in the community for evidence-based sexual health information.
Has restricted access to patient private health information and has no reason to view protected health information (PHI). May have access to data that is not considered PHI, such as aggregate numbers.
Duties and responsibilities may be added, deleted or changed at any time at the discretion of management, formally or informally, either verbally or in writing.