About Covenant House New York
Join a Legacy of Hope and Empowerment at Covenant House New York!
For over 50 years, Covenant House New York (CHNY) has been at the forefront of transforming lives by providing comprehensive shelter, housing, and wrap-around support services for vulnerable homeless, runaway, and exploited youth. As the largest provider of these essential services in New York City, CHNY impacts the lives of over 1,500 young people aged 16-24 every year.
At CHNY, our doors are open to all young people in need, regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, and expression. Our dedicated team offers various services, including shelter, housing, education, employment, health, mental health support, youth development, and anti-human trafficking initiatives. We operate with harm reduction and trauma-informed principles to ensure the best care for our youth.
But our mission goes beyond immediate support. We are passionate advocates for systemic change, influencing public policy, and raising awareness of the critical issues surrounding youth homelessness. Our ultimate goal is to provide a safe refuge and empower young people to build a brighter future founded on compassion, unconditional love, and absolute respect.
Join us in making a difference in the lives of countless young people. Join a team that inspires long-term transformation and hope.
About the role
The purpose of the Bi-Lingual Intake & Community Specialist position is to ensure that all youth seeking shelter and support at CHNY, have their immediate needs met and to collaborate with community stakeholders to foster connections to support meeting youth needs. In addition, the incumbent of this role will aid in creating a sense of community amongst youth and staff as the primary point of contact to welcome youth into the CHNY environment.
This is a grant funded, time limited position, ending, 12/31/26.
What you'll do
- Develop and implement comprehensive community outreach and collaboration strategies aligned with CHNY’s mission and with the goal of supporting various youth needs particularly youth who are newcomers.
- Develop referral pathways for newcomer youth.
- Build and maintain strong relationships with community partners and stakeholders.
- Represent CHNY at community events and meetings.
- Respond to inquiries from the public and provide information about our programs and services.
- Track and evaluate the effectiveness of outreach efforts.
- Support the development of Memorandums of Understanding as needed.
- Provide newcomer youth with resources including hygiene supplies.
- Refer youth to alternative resources when necessary and create / leverage community resources
- Collaborate with external community-based programs serving the newcomer or migrant population.
- Collaborate with internal teams to support outreach efforts and to ensure that outreach strategies meet the ever-changing needs of youth particularly newcomers.
- Cultivate a welcoming and loving environment while maintaining a high level of customer service
- Ensure that NYC’s newcomer youth feel welcomed and assist them in creating a pathway toward stability.
- Maintain consistent up to date knowledge of CHNY daily census and calculate census reports
- Welcome youth in a friendly and accepting manner
- Ensure newly intake candidates meet qualifications to be accepted into the CHNY community
- Verify identity of all newly intake youth
- Ensure that all youth who are re-intaked have successfully completed all requirements to be considered for re-intake
- Guide youth through orientation to ensure a successful transition to the CHNY environment
- Ensure youth are aware of all 72-hour requirements to maintain residency at CHNY
- Conduct intake assessment and document all findings within ETO
- Escort youth to the care of their assigned floor and act as a point of contact as the youth becomes familiar with CHNY
- Issue and update the welcoming packet as needed
- Refer youth to alternative resources when necessary and create / leverage community resources
- Handle high call volumes and answer inquiries regarding youths within our programs and services offered
- Engage newcomer youth in a linguistically and culturally appropriate manner
- Ensure all documents of re-intaked youth are accessible and up to date
- Act strategically and proactively to create more efficient intake processes.
- Always upholds CHNY’s mission, vision and principles, standards of conduct, policies and procedures.
- Performs other duties as assigned and needed.
Qualifications
- At least one (1) year of work with at risk youth and knowledge of community services that support youth
- High School Diploma required and/or BS/BA preferred.
- Bilingual is required
- Strong communication, interpersonal, and organizational skills
- Ability to develop and implement outreach strategies
- Knowledge of community engagement and relationship-building techniques
- Knowledge of youth engagement strategies
