Deputy Director

Reports to: Director of Outreach and Interim Case Management            Classification:   Exempt

The Deputy Director is a highly skilled social service professional who oversees a multidisciplinary team, providing outreach, interim case management, behavioral health interventions, shelter placements, and housing placement services.  This leadership role ensures fidelity to evidence-based and evidence-informed practices, prioritizes service delivery for individuals with the highest acuity, and upholds the highest standards in program execution, data integrity, and staff development. The Deputy Director is the primary decision-maker in the Director’s absence and is a key liaison between the organization, community partners, and government agencies.

The Deputy Director is the gateway to acceptance into the program, prioritizing those potential service participants with the highest acuity first and allocating the service participant to a designated Housing Navigator or Case Manager. In performing duties, the Deputy Director must have impeccable brokering, advocacy, and communication skills when working with other community organizations and government agencies.

The Deputy Director must also ensure that all team members are informed of and follow agency policies and procedures, oversee service outcomes, and monitor data quality.

Using a multi-disciplinary skill set, the Deputy Director must be able to exercise the following skills:

Program Oversight & Service Delivery

• Assist the Director in developing and implementing outreach strategies that align with the organization's mission and goals.
• Oversee a team ensuring the effective delivery of outreach, behavioral health interventions, brokering of services, assessments, shelter, and housing placement services.
• Maintain fidelity to evidence-based practices, including Housing First, trauma-informed care, and harm reduction approaches.
• Assess and approve service participants for program entry, prioritizing those with the highest needs.
• Allocate participants to Housing Navigators or Case Managers and ensure proper case planning.
• Coordinate pathways to housing and maintain ongoing staff support.
• Develop plans to improve the health and wellness of participants' wellbeing.
• Research and refer participants to community resources, such as food stamps, child care, and health care.
• Coordinate provision of services with other programs within the community.
• Ensure services are provided in a safe, respectful, and client-centered manner.

Staff Supervision & Development

• Provide leadership, supervision, training, and coaching to assigned staff.
• Conduct performance evaluations and provide ongoing mentorship and professional development opportunities.
• Chair weekly case conferences to review and strategize service interventions.
• Monitor service quality, coach staff, and ensure alignment with program goals.
• Assist in recruiting, onboarding, and retaining a high-performing team.

Community Engagement & Advocacy

• Attend assigned community and other stakeholder meetings and community collaborations.
• Build and maintain strong partnerships with external organizations to enhance client services.
• Advocate for service participants and program needs at the local and state levels.
• Coordinate service provision with community partners to ensure holistic care.

Data Management & Compliance

• Ensure accurate, timely data entry in compliance with funding and regulatory requirements.
• Monitor program outcomes, including electronic and hard-file records, service documentation, and performance metrics.
• Liaise with the HMIS Data Specialist to oversee data accuracy and reporting.
• Maintain knowledge of grants and contracts, ensuring compliance with funder expectations.

Crisis Management & Problem-Solving

• Respond to crises professionally, ensuring the safety of clients and staff.
• Provide crisis debriefing and support on client issues, risky situations, and critical and near-miss events.
• Resolve complex issues involving participants, staff, or community stakeholders.
• Critically assess program performance and implement improvements while maintaining core service values.

Additional Support

• Provide internal and external presentations on the program, its intentions and its results;
• Achieve knowledge of the contracts and grants that financially support the program;
• Actively participate in staff meetings and trainings;
• Other duties as assigned.

The Deputy Director must be able to fulfill duties following the service orientation of a Housing First approach, including:

• Housing as the first essential step, without any requirements for sobriety, participation in treatment, medication protocol, compliance, or demonstrated “housing readiness”;
• Recovery orientation related to mental wellness and cognitive functioning;
• Reducing harm to the individual and broader community, especially as it relates to mental wellness, use of substances and involvement in higher risk behavior like sex work;
• Remaining non-judgmental in behaviors, practices, beliefs and actions of service participants;
• Promoting and empowering meaningful choices and service access options, as well as allowing the service participant to influence the type, duration, frequency, and intensity of supports;
• Absence of coercion, tricks or contracting;
• Supporting greater independence over time;
• Professional relationship without dependency that supports “doing with” instead of “doing for”;
• Expressing empathy and positivity;
• Remaining future-oriented, not anchored to past events, with a strong sense of promoting hope and possibility realistically;
• Transparency and disclosure of information with the service participant using full informed consent;
• Balancing the needs of the client, community, and landlord in each situation;
• The right to refuse or revoke services and/or seek restitution or grieve instances where they feel services are inappropriate or inadequate.

The Deputy Director must have a considerable knowledge and expertise in the areas of:

• Legal requirements and risks to perform this type of work, including the relevant legislation that impacts decision-making in particular situations;
• Rental housing and requirements of tenants and landlords by law;
• Must be able to demonstrate and live the organizational values of Communication, Integrity, Respect, Collaboration, and Accountability;
• Familiarize with Excel, PowerPoint, and Word;
• Homelessness, especially chronic homelessness;
• Dependency on substances, as well as addictions;
• Aboriginal culture and legacy impacts of residential schools, colonization, cultural compromises and effects on cultural identity;
• Economic poverty; Income support services;
• Child welfare;
• Health care, mental health care, and addiction services;
• Harm reduction; trauma and abuse;
• Domestic and intimate partner violence (victim and perpetrators);
• Privacy and confidentiality;
• Corrections and criminal justice;
• Policies and procedures of Hope Services Hawaii.

In the course of performing the duties of the Deputy Director it is not uncommon to see, engage or be confronted with first hand – or have staff encounter first hand – the following: violence and threats of violence; profane, racist and/or sexist language; bodily fluids; conflict; interactions with First Responders; alcohol and other street drugs; cigarette smoke; death of service participants or her/his associates; nudity of service participants or her/his associates; friends/family dynamics with service participants; people involved with sex work; people involved in the drug trade; persons used against their consent, will or knowledge; people in conflict with the law; and/or other situations that may be unsettling.

Measures are taken to train staff to deal with these situations appropriately, but those in the position should reasonably expect these types of things to occur, and the Deputy Director must provide appropriate direction and support to these situations.

Minimum Qualifications:

• High School diploma required.
• Two (2) or more years of work experience serving vulnerable and challenged individuals.
• Current driver’s license and traffic abstract.
• Personal vehicle with a current safety check, registration, and minimum no-fault insurance coverage.
• Available to work occasional evening and weekend shifts.

Candidates must display and/or demonstrate physical ability to:

• Climb and/or walk up and down stairs and/or walkways, as well as traverse roadways, park-land, beaches and other natural topography
• Sit for periods of up to 30 minutes at a time.
• Walk and/or stand for up to 30 minutes at a time.
• Lift, carry, pull and/or push items up to 30 pounds at a time and for short distances. Such motions may include reasonable bending, stooping, reaching, and twisting.