Social Worker Job at Social Worker at Non-Profit in Chicago

Overview

Jane Addams Senior Caucus (JASC) is a power building 501c3 that empowers and supports tenant unions in federally subsidized buildings to win legally binding contracts with their landlords. We’ve developed an organizing model that prioritizes supermajority tenant participation and harnesses that context in order to achieve our goals of winning material improvements in tenants' lives.

JASC Team

The JASC team includes a tenants rights’ attorney, social worker, and housing organizers.

Salary and Benefits

• Salary Range: $60,000 – 65,000 depending on experience
• Benefits: Healthcare, Dental, Life Insurance; PTO and office closures for holidays

How to Apply

Send resume and cover letter to jasc@seniorcaucus.org

Position

JASC is seeking an empathetic, hard-working, communicative and detail oriented Social Worker who shares our vision for a national, democratic tenant union representing thousands of members. They must be able to take initiative to move our mission forward. They must bring a willingness to learn our whole tenant organizing approach and how social work is deeply integrated. They must be a teamplayer and be flexible to changing environments and needs of our members.

Social Work Roles and Responsibilities

• Case Management: provide housing stability case management to support housing stability. Assess needs, develop individualized plans and coordinate resources.
• Housing Assistance: engage in eviction prevention and diversion strategies.
• Outreach: collaborate with the JASC team to cohesively connect clients with services and support. Develop relationships with other organizations in institutions in the field and/or that share our values to create partnerships and bring additional benefits to our members.
• Support & Advocacy: support individuals facing turbulence and challenges without judgment. Advocate for clients, including writing letters of support, attending meetings with members, etc.
• Life Skills Training: assist with developing essential life skills including digital literacy, completing job applications and building out resumes or interview skills.
• Connect with Community Resources: link clients with appropriate resources, including healthcare facilities, employment services, and mental health professionals.

Key Tasks to Effectively Complete These Roles

• Prepare and train staff on concepts like developing mutual aid networks and using the crisis intervention toolkit.
• Learn applicable tenant laws, how to accurately calculate rent, and how to read rent ledgers.
• Assist tenants in collecting and organizing documents for interim and annual recertifications.
• Assist tenants in navigating relevant bureaucracies to obtain and retain benefits (e.g., Food Stamps, Utility Assistance, Unemployment Insurance, Medicaid). Apply new laws to limit harm as much as possible.
• Learn about and build relationships with individuals in different supportive service agencies in Chicago, Waukegan and Aurora.

Requirements

Equal Opportunity
Jane Addams Senior Caucus is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Applicants will not be discriminated against on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, ethnicity, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender expression, medical condition, or any other basis prohibited by federal, state, or local law. We are committed to building a diverse and passionate team, and especially encourage women, people of color, LGBTQIA+ folks, people with disabilities, and other historically marginalized communities to apply.

• Demonstrated history of:
  • Working as a community social worker
  • Self-sufficiently owning, designing, and executing internal systems projects and trainings
  • Minimum of 3 years of social work experience doing some form of community social work
  • Experience in writing formal letters on behalf of others
• Willingness to travel throughout Illinois on a monthly basis
• Willingness to work nontraditional hours including nights and weekends, totaling 40 hours per week
• Willingness to be onsite in buildings and talk to tenants on a regular basis
• Must be honest and empathetic with tenants, co-workers, donors, etc.
• Fluency in Spanish is a plus
• Car & Valid Driver’s License
• Must live in Illinois

Requirements specific to our tenant organizing model

• Excellent data management and collection skills. Must be detail oriented. For example, taking tenant documents or condition issues and uploading them to an online database, appropriately titling, filing and organizing them.
• Experience with Excel, Google Drive, and other spreadsheet and data management tools. This is how we document issues and track case management and notes.
• Comfortable using a smartphone to collect photos and videos and transferring them to an online database.

Requirements specific to tenant organizing in general

• Excellent and empathetic listening skills
• Non-judgmental approach to tenants’ issues and circumstances
• Pro-tenant disposition in any tenant-landlord dispute
• Responding in a timely fashion to tenants and staff who reach out about questions and issues
• Excellent and diligent note taking – detailed case notes are a requirement and will be reviewed weekly
• Following through on commitments made to staff and tenants