The Dale House Project seeks a Supportive Housing Specialist to provide relational, life-on-life support in our residential community of older adolescents learning skills for independent living. The Dale House is a Christ-centered community of and for broken people doing life together.
The Dale House Project is a residential community for at-risk youth. Youth who face severe challenges to adulthood move into our community to experience a safe, supportive, environment where they can prepare for independent living as adults. Youth often come from the foster care/child welfare system, the juvenile justice system, or having experienced homelessness. All of the youth have experience with trauma, abuse, and neglect.
The supportive housing specialist job has several key components:
- Focuses on building relationships. Your goal is to build relationships with youth who have been harmed in their personal relationships, both within their own families and also by the ‘systems’ that care for them. They often have issues extending trust to other people. Your job is to invest in the youth who live in our community. We do that in a wide variety of ways: just hanging out with them (and “wasting time” with them), showing them that you do what you say you will do, and more. In that relationship, you “win the right to be heard” in their life,
- Guiding youth towards independent living as they attempt to do critical tasks to becoming an adult: Finding (and keeping) a job, finishing (or starting) school, building up savings, and preparing to move into safe living situations out in the community. Youth can name big goals but often struggle to stay motivated and on task on a daily basis: you are a key source of encouragement and motivation for them throughout this journey.
- Serving as part of a caring team and in community. The Dale House Project believes that communities are greater sources of healing than individuals. Youth must attend community activities that take place throughout the week, including evenings and weekends. You’ll be part of a Supportive Housing team that collaborates together in investing in youth and in supporting their development. That means you believe that , holding out faith, encouraging each other, and setting up the rest of the team to be as successful as they can in their own roles. This takes emotional maturity, since youth often seek to “split” caregivers as a coping skill.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s Degree in related field, preferably in human services
- One-year experience with youth: in juvenile justice or in human services. Must be over age 22.
- Basic knowledge and understanding of Google and Microsoft platforms.
- Ability to take initiative and work independently.
- Ability to learn how to take notes and document progress made in treatment.
Who You’d Be Working With:
You also work on a team of people who are in an intentional community of caring, mutual support, and Christian ministry. We strive to do our best on the team, but as a training program, we acknowledge that we are all learning and growing in this place. We commit to being honest and real with one another, to spend time together (and have fun together!), and, when we have issues, we clear the air with one another when we’ve let one another down. (We call that keeping “short accounts” with each other, so we don’t build long lists of grievances with each other.)
This Fall, we are re-starting our one-year discipleship program, and you’ll be working very closely with them throughout their year. Discipleship staff work in an entry-level staff position to invest deeply in relational ministry on the block with youth. They arrive from all over the country, learn on-the-job and via dedicated training how to be with and serve kids, and then experience all of the ups and downs of a very challenging job: learning how to hold lines of accountability with youth, getting yelled at by youth regularly, engaging in conflict, and discovering ones’ own conflict style and sense of personal gifts. Alongside their investment in kids and community, they also participate in group and personal work to develop their own spiritual lives to become resilient as Christian ministers for the rest of their life.
You join other Supportive Housing Specialists as the “backbone” of this housing program, as discipleship staff invest as help on these teams as well. A year at the Dale House involves building up these participants - they start off very “green” and idealistic, and as they go through their year in relationships they experience grief and loss, heartbreak and disappointment, and greater reliance on their faith. By the end of their year, they are finally able to do their job consistently and reliably - and they leave and a new cohort of green staff come in. This is part of the cycle of ministry at Dale House, so it’s vital to have a passion for training young Christian leaders for this work as well.
What you’ll be doing:
- This job includes nighttime, evening, and weekend responsibilities. Your job is to build relationships, and most youth will have work schedules that have them off the block for many hours of a normal workweek. So, you’ll work when they’re around.
- You are part of an intentional Christian community, where some staff live on the block alongside fellow staff. Not all of our staff live together - but we still value community and the importance of building relationships with each other.
- You are responsible for holding the lines that allow our Dale House culture to remain consistent. Sometimes that means you engage in conflict with residents directly. You might help youth negotiate roommate conflicts, suggesting ways to de-escalate youth when they have a hard time processing their emotions. You will probably be cussed out, lied to, and mistreated by youth at one point or another - These are the kinds of survival techniques youth have learned to protect themselves in their upbringing. You’ll be asked to help youth go through the process of repairing / reconciling relationships, asking for forgiveness, and experiencing grace. A lot of youth have a tendency to quit on relationships when things get hard. At the Dale House, we show youth that conflict done well actually strengthens relationships - and you’ll play a wide variety of roles to make that possible
The ideal candidate will possess certain essential traits for success in this role:
- Authentic Faith. Has a heart for Jesus and seeks to live out their faith more deeply. Often, that means exploring whether personal sacrifices are necessary to walk by faith.
- Relational. Has a heart for other people. Is curious about other people and is always seeking to deepen relationships with others.
- Heart for Youth. Has compassion for youth who have faced difficulty in their lives. Seeks to make connections with people who have very different life experiences - juvenile justice, homelessness, involvement in foster care, etc.
- Task Oriented. Has, or can create, a system for keeping tasks from slipping through the cracks.. Asks for help when needed.
- Collaboration / Team Player. Communicates well with a team of people to keep everyone on the same page. Seeks to help others grow. Uses coaching, training, and feedback to develop others and support problem-solving. Sees mistakes as learning opportunities. Seeks and engages well with feedback.
- Adaptability / Flexibility. Every day at the Dale House is full of surprises, so this candidate can roll with new information, changing goals, and unexpected hiccups. Can juggle competing demands and prioritize based on new information. Can problem solve and troubleshoot to find other ways to get across the finish line.
Compensation:
This is a full-time position. Salary Range: $36,000 to $40,000, with a full benefit package.
Dale House covers the cost for health coverage (monthly premiums) at no expense to you. Other benefits come from Young Life, including: dental, vision, basic life insurance, and a match on 401(k) contributions up to 4%.
How to apply:**Please submit your resume and cover letter as PDF attachments to transitionspecialist@dalehouse.org. For the email subject heading line type: Transition Specialist, Your First Name, Your Last Name.
