Community Outreach Specialist

firsthand is changing the way individuals living with Serious Mental Illness (SMI) get care – by putting them at the center of everything we do. Our peer led model aims to build trust with these individuals, many of whom have been underserved, stigmatized, deprioritized and have very often lost trust in the systems intended to serve them. Our holistic approach includes partnering with our team of peer recovery specialists, licensed social workers and nurse practitioners, and focuses on meeting them where they are and walking with them side by side, as a trusted guide, partner, and first call, on their journeys’ to wellness. 

Our aim is to not only improve lives, but also improve the economics for managed care plans and states responsible for providing care to this community. This enables us to build solutions that scale and, as a result, change the way our society supports those most impacted by SMI.

We are building a team of deeply passionate problem-solvers who are courageous enough to take on one of the country’s most challenging healthcare problems. Those who are up for the task will be rewarded with deeply mission-oriented workdays, mentorship from a similarly motivated team, and a supportive culture that prioritizes learning, creativity, and fun.

Our approach has resonated with individuals who were traditionally suspicious of and/or unwilling to engage with traditional health care services. As our team's caseloads grow we are now problem solving how best to balance the ongoing social, medical and behavioral health care needed by our engaged individuals with our desire to engage and support more hard-to-reach individuals. We also recognize that assertive outreach is an effective and crucial method of locating and engaging to the most hard to reach individuals assigned to our teams.

Our solution is to recruit a Community Outreach Specialist who will spearhead their team's outreach efforts in collaboration with the local Guide Team Lead (GTL) and member engagement team. The Community Outreach Specialist’s primary focus will be to develop and implement strategies that will increase engagement amongst those considered hard-to-reach and/or those who have initially declined firsthand support. Upon engagement, the Community Outreach Specialist will ensure a warm hand-off to an assigned firsthand Guide for continuous engagement and peer support.

Responsibilities for this role include

• Manage the list of assigned individuals to the Community Team, ensuring all investigative steps, (including looking for additional contact information via our database vendor, contacting providers, etc) are completed with accuracy and in an appropriate time frame
• Try and test new ways of getting existing contact information and/or identifying new information; strategies may include contacting providers and pharmacies
• Support firsthand Guides’ engagement efforts, by together conducting regular, consistent community outreach to individuals, including visiting their homes and other locations within the local community where they spend time (such as clubhouses, drop-in centers, homeless shelters, hospitals, and emergency departments)
• Collaborate with other community providers on strategies to identify shared individuals and processes for ensuring timely introductions

You will be a good fit if you have

• Empathy, compassion, and approachability
• Ability to perform research independently
• Enjoy problem solving, talking with people, working independently and in the community
• Excellent listening, communication, and interpersonal skills
• Comfort working as part of a multidisciplinary team
• Strong computer skills - bonus if you have used Google suite and Slack Excellent attention to detail

The experience you bring to this role includes

• Proven track record in surpassing performance targets
• Experience with inside sales, market research, and/or investigative work highly preferred
• A high school diploma or GEDA valid driver's license and clean driving record

Benefits 

For full-time employees, our compensation package includes base, equity and a bonus potential.

Our benefits include physical and mental health, dental, vision, 401(k) with a match, 16 weeks

parental leave for either parent, flexible vacation, and a supportive culture.

Unfortunately, we are not able to offer sponsorship at this time.

Vaccination Policy

Employment with firsthand is contingent upon attesting to medical clearance requirements, which include, but may not be limited to: evidence of vaccination for/immunity to COVID-19, Hepatitis B, Influenza, MMR, Chickenpox, Tetanus and Diphtheria. All employees of firsthand are required to receive these vaccinations on a cadence/frequency as advised by the CDC, whereas not otherwise prohibited by state law.

New hires may submit for consideration a request to be exempted from these requirements (based on a valid religious or medical reason) via forms provided by firsthand. Such requests will be subject to review and approval by the Company, and exemptions will be granted only if the Company can provide a reasonable accommodation in relation to the requested exemption. Note that approvals for reasonable accommodations are reviewed and approved on a case-by-case basis and availability of a reasonable accommodation is not guaranteed.