Program Associate

Impact Justice advances safety, justice, and opportunity through boundary-breaking work that honors and empowers people and is changing expectations about what we can accomplish together. We imagine, build, and scale innovations, leverage research and other knowledge to connect the desire for change with informed action, and work to shift the narrative so that decision-makers and the public understand what’s at stake and what’s possible.

We are a diverse and allied staff of reformers, transformers, abolitionists, and dreamers who bring a wide range of knowledge, skill, and life experience to the challenging work we undertake together. We’re committed to living our values and to creating the kinds of equitable and inclusive team environments internally that we fight to help create in our broader communities. This includes providing opportunities to all job applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender identity, national origin, age, criminal history, disability, or genetics. The organization strongly encourages people of color, individuals who identify as part of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and/or queer communities, and individuals impacted by the legal system to join the team. A majority of individuals on our current executive team identify as BIPOC and/or LGBTQ.

About the Housing Lab

The Housing Lab at Impact Justice builds and supports innovative housing solutions for people impacted by the criminal legal system. The Housing Lab has three projects: 1. The Homecoming Project and 2. The Center and 3. The National Housing Incubator.  The Homecoming Project (THP) uses the sharing economy model to provide housing for people leaving prison. THP pairs individuals returning home from prison with welcoming community residents (hosts) who have a room in their homes to spare. The Homecoming Project pays each host a daily stipend for housing the participant for up to 6 months. THP participants are also provided with a community navigator who works to connect them to the resources, support, and wraparound services necessary for community re-entry. The Homecoming Project is currently in Alameda County, Contra Costa County, and Los Angeles County. The Center creates and delivers training and professional and personal coaching to formerly incarcerated individuals. Training curriculum includes financial literacy food and nutrition and health and wellness. The National Housing Incubator is a first-of-its-kind, federally-funded program that focuses on expanding the impact of reentry housing efforts by investing in solutions around the country. The National Housing Incubator will fund a select group of organizations who are seeking to refine or scale their own reentry housing programs.

Check us out here. 

Who You Are

You are a detail-oriented person who wants to join a team that is expanding its impact.  You thrive in a fast-paced, dynamic, creative, and collaborative environment and demonstrate from the outset an ability to both execute assigned tasks and demonstrate initiative to create better systems and processes. In this role, you will be an integral part of supporting The Housing Lab's deliverables and development by working on various tasks to ensure programmatic success.  We are seeking a candidate with excellent administrative, communication, and organizational skills, along with a strong commitment to confidentiality.

You have an ethos of social justice, racial justice, community, and mutuality. You have an orientation and belief that criminal justice involvement should not be an impediment to employment, career, and personal growth opportunities. You are a self-starter and can work independently. You have excellent attention to detail with verbal communication and writing skills. Excellent computer skills, ability to use Microsoft Office Suite, Google G-Suite, and Salesforce, and learn other information database systems quickly. You have highly developed interpersonal skills with good relationship-building techniques. You are adept at time management and highly organized, with a proven ability to meet deadlines, plan, organize, and execute.

You Are Also 

• Comfort working with remote team members
• Self-starter
• Have experience in affordable housing 
• Adept at time management with a proven ability to meet deadlines
• Experience in data entry
• Able to juggle and implement simultaneous multiple project elements and tasks
• Comfortable interacting with a wide variety of people, including individuals impacted by the criminal legal system, criminal legal system staff, and individuals from diverse backgrounds and life experiences
• Tech-savvy: comfortable with Google Suite, Microsoft Office Suite, Asana, and databases/case management systems
• Experience working in Salesforce or other data management software 

That said, we know there are great candidates who may not think they fit into what we’ve described above or who have important skills we haven’t thought of. If that is you, don’t hesitate to apply and tell us about yourself! And if you’re a formerly incarcerated individual, someone who has a family member who is or has been incarcerated, or otherwise have direct experience with the criminal legal or juvenile legal systems, we will be particularly excited to hear from you.

What You Will Do

The anticipated start date for this position is July 15th. You will report to the Director of The Housing Lab. Your core responsibilities will be:

• The Homecoming Project Administration Support: Responsible for data entry of program stakeholders, including host and participants. The support team leads the processing of host housing agreements and payments and conducts HUD inspections.  This includes coordination of payment schedules and ensuring all documentation is completed and filed appropriately. This position will also play an active role in the coordination and process of new and onboarding participants, including facilitating interviews, meet & greets, and background checks. Supporting The Center, a re-entry resource and training program with administrative tasks, including partnership meeting coordination, coordination and calibrating of materials, and event, meeting, and training planning responsibilities and other tasks as assigned.
• The Homecoming Project Participant Processing Support: Manage the project email inbox and received postal mail, enter data for potential participants, manage all procurement and purchasing for the Housing Lab, and coordinate and manage the resources provided to participants and other tasks as assigned.

Education / Experience Level 

Successful candidates applying for the Program Associate role at Impact Justice will have at least 3 years of administrative experience, professional training/education, and/or closely related experience.

Travel

Some travel is required to attend training, outreach and partner meetings, host and participate visits, conferences, and visits to the Impact Justice offices in Los Angeles estimated to be less than 10%.  In addition, this role may require limited evening and weekend commitments.

The benefits that come with working at Impact Justice include medical, dental, and FSA plans, significant vacation and wellness leave, and immediate vesting in our 401K with a generous match. This is a full-time, salaried position. The candidate could be located in the Oakland, or Greater Los Angeles areas and will work out of one of these offices. The successful candidate will work a hybrid schedule.

We ARE NOT considering remote staff for this position.

COVID-19 Vaccination is a condition of employment for all employees (office-based and remote). We require employees to have received all recommended doses in the primary series and at least one booster.

If this all sounds like a good fit for you, please include your resume and a cover letter explaining why you are particularly interested in the role and why we should be particularly interested in you!

Hiring Process 

Elements of the Impact Justice hiring process may include phone screen interviews, candidate exercises (written or presentations), Zoom interviews, in-person interviews, and reference checks. Candidates are welcome to ask for alternative arrangements in the process if needed (for example, conducting an interview via phone rather than Zoom), Impact Justice will do our best to accommodate reasonable requests. Please communicate any alternative arrangements requested to the hiring manager.