First Impressions Advocate

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JOB SUMMARY

The First Impressions Advocate role carries a primary responsibility of establishing welcoming and professional first impressions for West Town Resource Center (WTRC) visitors, whoever that contact is, the contact's need, or whether that contact is through email, a phone call, referral, or in person. The successful incumbent will have a friendly and outgoing personality, understand the nature of communication appropriate to the visitor, be detail oriented, and enjoy helping others. Additional areas of responsibility include, but are not be limited to, providing administrative assistance to the Homeless Alliance, managing online calendars, and other general administrative activities to help keep the Homeless Alliance provide its services and resources as smoothly as possible.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Serves all WTRC visitors by greeting, welcoming and directing them appropriately; notifies relevant agency personnel of visitor arrival.
• Ensures that the resource center's door is open, and the reception area and telephones covered from 9:00 to 3:30. The position could be filled by one full-time person or 2 part-time people. If part-time, one shift will operate from 8:30-12:30. One shift will operate from 12:00-4:00.
• Answers, assesses and routes all incoming calls, maintaining a professional and courteous demeanor at all times.
• Maintains a clean and orderly reception area, including the adjoining playroom and conference area.
• Remains alert and sensitive to needs of homeless individuals and or families, or those at risk for becoming homeless, who are in need of assistance.
• Assists staff with intake procedure; opens, maintains and updates departmental files and keeps accurate records.
• Maintains security by following Homeless Alliance safety and security procedures
• Maintains and updates on-site schedule of the government, faith-based, and nonprofit agencies serving the homeless and co-located at West Town to better serve the homeless community.
• Interacts with vendors, non-profit service providers, volunteers and the public to answer questions and direct to appropriate internal resource as needed.
• Assists Vendor Coordinator with magazine sales.
• Maintains reception area in neat and orderly condition at all times.
• Purchase and maintain office supply inventory in accordance with purchasing policies and budgetary restrictions.
• Assist with data entry as needed.
• Receive mail and deliveries, and notify appropriate staff of arrival.
• Perform other office and clerical tasks as needed.

REQUIREMENTS

• Must possess excellent oral skills.
• Must have the ability to excel in a diverse, collaborative team environment.
• Must have strong planning and coordination skills.
• Must have strong organization skills and have the ability to be flexible.
• Knowledge of telephone and business machine operations; skilled in the use of personal computers and related software.
• Must have a high level of interpersonal skills to handle sensitive and confidential Homeless Alliance, client, donor, and employee information and situations.
• Must be able to multi-task and remain calm in demanding and unpredictable situations.
• Must possess ability to understand various Homeless Alliance operations and procedures.
• Must be able to maintain a professional, customer service-oriented attitude at all times.
• Ability to meet face-to-face with a diverse clientele; able to develop rapport, provide information, and refer with sensitivity to cultural issues.
• Ability to work and communicate with staff, clients and their families, donors, vendors, community agencies, etc. to meet their needs in a polite, courteous and cooperative manner, yet appropriately assertive needed.
• Must display a high level of initiative, effort and commitment towards completing assignments efficiently.
• Ability to work with minimum supervision and demonstrate attention to detail.

EDUCATION & WORK EXPERIENCE

• Minimum of a High School diploma or GED required.
Experience working in an office environment; experience working in a nonprofit service provider environment preferred.

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS

While performing duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to sit and work at a computer and telephone system for long periods of time in an office environment; may occasionally lift/move weight up to 25lbs. Must be able to meet the physical demands of this job. Must have the manual dexterity to manually operate and use a computer. The noise level is quiet to moderate; non-smoking environment.

Work Environment

The employee will work in an office and public, service-delivery environment. Hectic situations can occur in the public area of the facility characteristic to working with the homeless community and the related concerns and situations related to homeless conditions. Potential exists for volatile and unpredictable situations to occur. Exposure to strong odors such as soiled clothes and poor hygiene are common.

The qualifications, physical demands, and work environment described herein are representative of those an employee will encounter and must meet to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. The requirements listed in this document are the minimum levels of knowledge, skills, or abilities.

This document does not create an employment contract, implied or otherwise, other than an "at will" relationship .

The above noted is not intended to describe, in detail, the multitude of tasks that may be assigned but rather to give the associate a general sense of the responsibilities and expectations of his/her position. As the nature of business demands change, so, too, may the essential functions of this position.