Community Outreach Specialist

Corel; Willoughby (OH); On-site; USD 28,000 - 34,000; Part time

Job summary

Jordan CRC / Phoenix Counseling Solutions is seeking a part-time Recruitment & Community Outreach Specialist to connect women facing homelessness or housing instability with services supporting healing and stability.

You'll meet women where they are—shelters, jails, prisons, treatment programs, and community centers—to build trust and guide them through voluntary care with trauma-informed, recovery-oriented approaches alongside clinical teams.

Qualifications

• Experience in outreach, participant recruitment, recovery support, reentry, case management, or related human services.

Responsibilities

• Outreach and recruitment to unhoused women and those with behavioral health or co-occurring disorders.
• Trauma-informed engagement with women affected by trauma, incarceration, and stigma.
• Screening, referrals, and warm handoffs to counseling, treatment, housing, employment, and benefits.
• Reentry support with partnerships with jails, courts, and community providers.
• Documentation of outreach contacts, referrals, enrollments, and service connections; weekly updates to Program Director.

Job description

About Jordan CRC / Phoenix Counseling Solutions

Jordan CRC and Phoenix Counseling Solutions provide behavioral health, substance use treatment, recovery housing, employment services, case management, and other supportive services for women working toward recovery and long-term stability.

Our approach is trauma-informed, person-centered, and recovery-oriented. We work closely with community partners to help women overcome barriers related to treatment, employment, housing, and recovery.

Jordan CRC is accredited by The Joint Commission and certified by the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (OhioMHAS) and the Ohio Recovery Housing (ORH) network.

About the role

We're looking for a Recruitment & Community Outreach Specialist to connect women facing homelessness or housing instability, substance use, mental health conditions, trauma, or justice-system involvement with services that support healing and stability.

You'll meet women where they are, in shelters, jails and prisons, treatment programs, faith communities, and community centers, to build trust and open the door to voluntary care. Using trauma-informed, recovery-oriented approaches, you'll work alongside our clinical and program teams and follow each woman through a warm handoff to treatment, recovery housing, employment, benefits, and other support.

What you'll do

Outreach and recruitment

• Reach out proactively to unhoused women and women with behavioral health, substance use, and co-occurring disorders.
• Engage women at correctional facilities, shelters, treatment programs, hospitals, community centers, and faith-based organizations.
• Explain eligibility, services, and intake accurately while respecting voluntary participation and choice.
• Keep a regular outreach schedule and grow relationships with referral partners.

Trauma-informed engagement

• Build respectful, nonjudgmental relationships with women affected by trauma, incarceration, and stigma.
• Use motivational interviewing–informed communication, without pressure or promises of unavailable services.
• Recognize urgent safety concerns and follow crisis-escalation and outreach safety protocols.

Screening, referrals, and warm handoffs

• Complete approved prescreening and coordinate formal eligibility screening with qualified staff.
• Connect participants to counseling, substance use treatment, medication-assisted treatment, recovery housing, peer support, employment, benefits, and community resources.
• Arrange transportation and documentation help when authorized, and follow up to confirm connections.

Reentry support

• Build referral relationships with jails, prisons, courts, reentry providers, and community supervision partners.
• Coordinate pre-release and post-release service connections, following facility rules and privacy requirements.

Documentation and teamwork

• Record outreach contacts, referrals, follow-ups, enrollments, and service connections in approved systems.
• Send weekly updates to the Program Director and take part in case staffing and quality improvement.
• Follow HIPAA, 42 CFR Part 2 where applicable, confidentiality rules, and professional boundaries.

What you bring

• Documented experience engaging women facing homelessness or housing instability, and women affected by mental health conditions, substance use, or co-occurring disorders.
• Experience in outreach, participant recruitment, recovery support, reentry, case management, or related human services.
• Willingness to work in approved community and correctional settings.
• Reliable transportation for assigned outreach.
• Strong communication, documentation, professional judgment, and follow-through; comfortable working independently.

Nice to have

• CDCA, LCDC, Behavioral Health Specialist, or comparable training.
• Associate or bachelor's degree in human services, social work, behavioral health, addiction studies, psychology, or a related field.
• Experience with women affected by trauma, domestic violence, human trafficking, incarceration, or repeated treatment disruption.

Lived experience with recovery, housing instability, or justice-system involvement is valued alongside formal credentials, paired with professional readiness and healthy boundaries. You are not required to disclose personal medical information.

Your first 90 days

• Days 1–30: Complete orientation and confidentiality and safety training, learn referral workflows, and identify priority partners and outreach sites.
• Days 31–60: Conduct consistent outreach, document contacts and referrals, build partner relationships, and coordinate warm handoffs.
• Days 61–90: Sustain outreach, achieve successful service connections, report on time, and coordinate smoothly with clinical and program teams.

Success is measured by respectful engagement, quality referrals, completed handoffs, and strong partnerships, not outreach volume alone.

Schedule & pay

This is a part-time role of 15–20 hours per week, with a flexible schedule built around facility and community access across Cleveland and Cuyahoga County. Pay is 20.20–25.00 per hour, based on credentials, documented experience, and outreach capacity.