Program Officer (East Coast) EPRR

Church World Service

About The Position

The EPRR Program Officer plays a key role in the Emergency Preparedness, Response, and Recovery (EPRR) Program, which sits in CWS’ US Programs department. The goal of the EPRR program is to advance CWS’s commitment to emergency preparedness, response, and recovery for vulnerable communities within the United States. EPRR focuses on, but is not exclusive to, the needs of refugees, immigrants, and unaccompanied children in the disaster lifecycle. Reporting to the EPRR Senior Manager, the EPRR Program Officer supports vulnerable communities with designing and delivering high-quality, technically sound, and collaborative interventions throughout the entire disaster lifecycle. This position represents CWS in various communities, within their specific region, serves as a trusted resource, and subject-matter expert to connect vulnerable populations to appropriate resources and networks. Driven by the EPRR Program strategy, this position will work closely with CWS’s US Local offices, to ensure that CWS continues to build robust local networks and knowledge bases in the areas of preparedness, response, and recovery.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in social services, disaster management, human rights, humanitarian affairs, or related field or equivalent experience in lieu of degree.
Minimum of 5 year's demonstrated professional and practical experience working on disaster programming.
Demonstrated experience in emergency response across full spectrum from preparedness to response to recovery; extensive and demonstrated knowledge of the needs of disaster affected communities, especially vulnerable communities.
Extensive knowledge of disaster response mechanisms and services in the United States, including local, state, and federal response agencies, resources, and processes.
Ability to work independently and within a team setting.
Ability to work within a variety of different cultural contexts and with diverse populations.
Demonstrated flexibility when working in stressful complex situations.
Ability to work on several different programs at the same time, as well as flexibility to manage competing priorities.
Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to develop and maintain relationships both internal and external to the organization.
Ability to act with discretion and maintain confidentiality.
Professional maturity and strong decision-making skills.
Forward thinking mindset, who actively seeks opportunities and proposes solutions.
Proficient in Microsoft Office (Outlook, Word, Excel, and Power point) and social media platforms and confident in the integration of new programs and technologies.
Superior written and verbal communication skills are required.
Required fluency in English with strong written and verbal communication skills.
Will require significant traveling up to 70%, mostly through the East Coast of the United States.
Proximity to a major airport.
Must have access to reliable internet.
Must be willing to deploy to disaster impacted communities for days and/or weeks at a time.
Must be willing to travel to locations in national network to conduct training, attend in-person meetings and conferences.
Standard Work hours, with occasional evening and weekends during a disaster response.

Nice To Haves

Higher education with study in or pertinent to the specialized field preferred, including but not limited to
Direct experience in designing, commissioning, and delivering training of technical competencies to different target groups preferred.
Fluency in a refugee language strongly desired. (Desired languages are Pashto, Dari, Ukrainian, Russian, Spanish, although other languages will be considered.)

Responsibilities

Leads and represents CWS’s EPRR strategy within their assigned region.
Intentionally engages with and serves as the primary point of contact for external relationships including with state VOAD partners, LTRG, faith-based partners, Emergency Management, and others.
Develops a deep understanding of the unique challenges and needs of CWS offices, the communities and cultures they support and proposes appropriate solutions and implements EPRR interventions.
Conducts ongoing preparedness training, provides resources, and develops relevant network connections in vulnerable communities per EPRR program strategy.
Actively cultivates relationships between CWS local offices, emergency management, response organizations, and CBOs to maximize preparedness efforts and emergency response effectiveness.
Deploys to impacted region-specific communities where CWS has presence to support response and recovery efforts following disasters and assists CWS local offices with guidance, technical assistance, and navigation.
Provides regular updates and reports to EPRR leadership, related to ongoing responses within their region.
Promotes and facilitates EPRR preparedness kit packing events and identifies and vets beneficiary organizations and/or populations.