Overview:
Beyond Housing is a nationally recognized community development organization that works to strengthen families and transform underserved communities to create a stronger, more equitable, and prosperous St. Louis region for all. We engage where we’re needed, focusing on building consensus among leaders, providing and preserving housing, fostering community structures that shape lives, and guiding systems that make people’s lives better.
We lead with a vision for what a community can be ~ every community is different, but thriving communities tend to share the same basic set of positive traits regarding housing, safety, education, health, infrastructure, and access to basic human services.
We bring together leaders and resources, volunteers and citizens, and pursue a wide assortment of creative approaches to build stronger, healthier communities for life.
Finally, we are community builders, not kingdom builders. “It’s their neighborhood, future, & dreams.” Our objective is to help build and contribute to the good things we do for the sake of adding value to the lives of the people we’re honored to serve.
Position Summary:
Family Engagement Liaisons (FELs) are an integral member of the Beyond Housing Education Department. As school-embedded staff, this position supports students and families by providing resources, hosting trainings, and facilitating collaboration between home and school. FELs work onsite throughout Normandy Schools Collaborative and help to establish meaningful relationships between students, families, Normandy Schools Collaborative, and the broader community. The ideal candidate must have strong verbal and written communication skills.
Responsibilities include, but are not limited to:
Engagement and Resourcing
- Demonstrating empathy, respecting and establishing healthy boundaries, and hosting consistent, high-quality interactions with students and their families.
- Assessing family needs with an emphasis on basic needs such as safety, housing, food, clothing, and transportation.
- Staying up-to-date on resources and services offered by peer and partner organizations.
- Collaborating with school administration to support school-community needs.
- Providing direct case management to a small cohort of students and families.
- Conducting occasional home visits.
- Collaborating with school social worker/counselors to determine needs of students and families and provide support through resources, services, and referrals.
- Assisting in planning for school activities such as parent/teacher conferences, open houses, back-to-school events, recognition activities, and community meetings.
- Planning and hosting FEL-led Parent Engagement Events.
- Planning, hosting, and/or attending monthly Family Engagement Liaison Network meetings.
- Identifying and attending professional development and training opportunities to further develop expertise.
- Documenting and reporting provision of basic need items, interactions, activities, events, and other data.
- Attending bi-weekly supervisory meetings with the Sr. Director of Education.
- Other duties as assigned.
Personal Qualities:
- Collaborative – A dynamic personality that is collaboratively minded, can recognize and identify strengths, seek consensus around mutual goals, and build meaningful relationships.
- Creative and Curious – A systems-thinker and builder who is not afraid to be innovative in designing solutions and has skills in articulating these ideas and concepts.
- Methodical – Strong analytical, systems, and problem-solving skills to evaluate performance, prepare reports, and recommend/implement solutions using independent judgment. Able to move from concepts to action through strong program design and evaluation.
- Reliable – Leadership skills that reflect and value a team approach, demonstrated integrity, effectiveness, efficiency, and the ability to deliver high quality service. Highly capable of handling multiple tasks, projects and timelines. Excellent oral and written communications skills.
- Trusted – Ability to work with residents, partners, and staff of diverse backgrounds with a positive, optimistic, solutions-oriented attitude. Shares a deep respect for the community, its stakeholders, and the residents that we serve.
- Driven – Passion for the work and an interest in continuous learning and improvement.
Preferred Experience and Qualifications:
- 2+ years of experience of professional parent engagement, preferably in an educational setting.
- Experience in early childhood education, primary/secondary education, special education, social work or related fields.
- High School Diploma or equivalent required. Bachelor’s degree is preferred.
- A combination of education and experience will be considered.
- Computer literacy with strong proficiency in Microsoft Office applications is required.
- Familiarity with Salesforce or other CRM databases.
- Strong interpersonal skills. Family Engagement Liaisons must establish meaningful relationships with organizational peers, students, families, schools, and other external stakeholders.
- Ability work some evenings and weekends.
- Must have reliable transportation, valid driver’s license, and proof of auto insurance.
- Position requires driving between Beyond Housing Headquarters, NSC schools, and home visits.
- Knowledgeable about the challenges residents in low-income, majority Black neighborhoods face from long-standing racial exclusion.
- Demonstrated commitment to the principles of Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Inclusion.
Supervisor:
- Senior Director of Education
Supervises:
- None
Salary and Benefits:
- $40,000 annually—to ensure pay equity, this is the best and final salary for this position, and it is not open for salary negotiations.
- Benefits for full-time position as determined in current Beyond Housing Employee Handbook.
- This position is full-time, following the Normandy Schools Collaborative academic calendar (10-months). Salary is paid and benefits are maintained across all 12 months of the year.
Summary of Physical Requirements:
This position works in a professional office environment and in school-related facilities. The Family Engagement Liaison position requires the use of computers, phones, and face-to-face conversations. The constant use of eyes, ears, and hands will be required in all environments where work is performed. The incumbent is required to stand, walk, reach, stoop, climb, lift, carry and bend when performing essential job functions in the office and at other locations. These activities may include walking through various locations during activities, operation of common office equipment – such as photocopiers, fax machines, mailboxes, scanners, etc.
Physical Demands (percent of time during a workday)
- Climate Controlled Environment – 70%
- Non-climate Controlled Environment – 30%
- Inside Building/Structure – 70%
- Outside Building/Structure – 30%
- Sitting – 50%
- Standing – 50%
- Stationary – 50%
- Walking – 50%
- Reaching Overhead – 30%
- Reaching Other – 70%
- Talking – 100%
- Hearing – 100%
- Seeing – 100%
- Tasting – n/a
- Smelling – 10%
- Stooping – 40%
- Kneeling – 40%
- Crouching – 20%
- Crawling – 10%
- Climbing – 15%
- Lift (lbs./frequency %) – 50lbs./30%
- Carry (lbs./frequency %) – 75lbs./30%
- Bending – 40%
- Driving – 20%
- Use Hands/Fingers to Handle or Feel – 100%
- Eye/Hand Coordination – 100%
Application Instructions:
Please send resume and cover letter to hr@beyondhousing.org or complete the form on this page. For more information on Beyond Housing, visit www.beyondhousing.org.
