ABOUT THE DEPARTMENT:

The Cambridge Community Safety Department’s (CSD) mission is to provide additional services to enhance the community’s health and well-being. We value compassion in our prevention and intervention efforts.

The Community Safety Department is guided by the following values:

• We are continuously learning, evolving and reimagining our approach in order to best meet the needs of the community we serve. We embrace a growth mindset and value curiosity, humility, and our shared humanity.
• We commit to living restorative practices such as building empathy, compassion, trust and mutual respect in all we do.
• We center relationships, partnerships, authentic collaboration and joy in our work. We are guided by the wisdom, insights, and experiences of those who came before us and those who are doing the work today to build solutions community-wide. We are intentionally laying groundwork for the future we envision.
• We are consciously not reproducing systems of oppression. We aim to create equitable, anti-racist, and non-discriminatory ways of serving our community.
• We acknowledge the historical implications of the criminal legal system and the harm it has done to our communities. With this understanding, we value the dignity and humanity of all people.

The new Community Safety Department is hiring non-public safety personnel who will provide key community services focused on behavioral health crisis (mental health, developmental disabilities, and substance use), violence prevention and intervention, and overall wellness. The Department provides an alternative response model for non-violent behavioral health crises with specialized field teams who serve as a primary response. These specialized teams employ their training as well as lived experiences to provide immediate support to individuals in crisis.

The City established the CSD in response to a City Council policy order to develop an unarmed alternative response program, as well as in response to community concerns about supporting Cambridge’s most vulnerable residents and enhancing violence prevention effort. Check out cambridgesafety.org for more information about CSD.

ABOUT THE ROLE:

The purpose of this position is to provide clinical and programmatic leadership for the CARE team and assist with the overall functioning of the Community Safety Department. The two Assistant Directors of Clinical Services (ADCS) perform supervisory duties that ensure the quality of clinical work and empower staff to advance to further levels of competency. They train CARE team staff to provide crisis intervention services and assess children, adolescents, and adults in crisis, with the goal of immediate symptom reduction, stabilization, and restoration to a previous level of functioning. The ADCS’s work with the CSD Leadership Team to set the tone in creating a work culture of compassion, learning, mutual respect and humor. The ADCS’s report to the Director of the Community Safety Department. The ADCS’s will lead by example in valuing the experiences and perspectives of all members of the team. The ideal candidate will be flexible, adaptable, eager to learn, willing to give and receive direction with comfort and ready to lead an innovative approach to public safety. The ADCS’s will also be a resource not only to the CSD, but to City of Cambridge Employees.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Train and supervise employees to ensure adherence to CSD procedures and clinical functions
• Supervise direct reports in crisis intervention services to individuals in crisis
• Ensure documentation quality, completion and compliance at all times, as well as monitor timelines and CSD policies and procedures.
• Ensure compliance with all applicable laws and requirements related to service delivery policies, practices, and reporting standards
• Responsible for performance feedback and formal evaluation, and disciplinary action in consultation with CSD Leadership Team
• Develop, coach, guide, and determine individual performance expectations for direct reports
• Monitor, manage, and is accountable for productivity goal and concerns of direct reports
• Assess and determine the need for filing of Section 12 for community members who may pose a danger to self or others.
• Maintain compliance with confidentiality policies and procedures at all times
• Assist with outcome measures
• Lead and attend all appropriate internal and external clinical meetings and trainings
• Coordinate and supervise Social Work student(s) field practicum.
• Be involved in quality improvement projects to assist the team in being successful
• Provide weekly supervision to each assigned team member and real time consultation regarding calls.
• Coordinate initial and ongoing training and professional development opportunities for all staff of the CSD
• Dispatch Responders when necessary to assess a situation in person and be available for dispatch as needed
• Maintain and enhance customer service to ensure that both external and internal customers have a positive experience, as well as establish and maintain a collaborative relationship with community and city providers
• Participate in peer review, supervision, educational and administrative meetings as directed
• Be available by phone or in person while the Responders and Clinicians are on call for dispatch, which will include nights and weekends

Community Responsibilities:

• Initiate, cultivate and maintain professional relationships with other City departments and community providers
• Maintain positive and mutually respectful relationships with other human service providers, City departments, vendors, and the community
• Serve as a liaison between CSD and other community providers
• Attend community meetings such as MDOT, case conferencing and other meetings that pertain to mental health, unhoused community members and substance use in Cambridge
• Work with other City departments to identify needs, gaps in services, create training and programming to meet the needs of the community.
• Train community partners to increase their skills for engaging with community members
• Represent the department in a positive and professional manner
• Manage a consultation call line for City employees with inquiries regarding challenging interactions

Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS:

Education/Experience/License/Certification:

• Graduate from an accredited master's in psychology (MA), master's in education (Counseling -MEd.) or MSW program.
• Current Massachusetts license LMHC, LMFT, LICSW.
• Minimum of 7 years relevant post-graduate experience in mental health, community health, crisis intervention or criminal justice setting.
• Minimum of 5 years of experience providing supervision in mental health crisis intervention.
• Commitment to anti-racism, diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging.
• Must possess a valid driver's license.
• Available during the workday and while on-call, at night as needed.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Strong clinical supervision skills including:
  • Ability to provide direct and compassionate real time feedback
  • Ability to assess when direction and guidance are needed vs reflection and coaching
  • Authentic trust building skills
• Sensitivity to multicultural populations and their experiences and perspectives.
• Ability to quickly create rapport with staff and community members, and to navigate encounters with professionalism when attempts at rapport are challenging.
• Working knowledge of major mental illness, personality disorders, dementia, complex trauma, intellectual/developmental disabilities, substance use disorders, suicide assessment, safety planning and crisis de-escalation.
• Ability and eagerness to spend time outdoors and in the community with vulnerable individuals, some of whom are experiencing homelessness.
• Ability to work independently yet collaboratively towards a common goal.
• Ability to learn and help navigate all applicable resources with patients/clients.
• Ability to maintain strong professional boundaries.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong familiarity with psychiatric conditions, crisis de-escalation, and recovery principles.
• Commitment to anti-racism, diversity, equity and inclusion. The City of Cambridge's workforce, like the community it serves, is diverse. Applicants must have the ability to work and interact effectively with individuals and groups with a variety of identities, cultures, backgrounds and ideologies.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Strong awareness of local social service providers/community resources.
• Experience and comfort with working with adults experiencing homelessness, mental illness and substance misuse

PHYSICAL DEMANDS: Ability to access, input, and retrieve information from a computer. Ability to answer phones and maintain multiple files. Ability to travel throughout the City of Cambridge to various meetings, site visits, etc.

WORK ENVIRONMENT: Standard office environment. Fluorescent lighting and window unit air conditioning. Moderate noise level. This position may be eligible for hybrid work under the City's Telework Policy depending on operational needs.

SUMMARY OF BENEFITS

• Health, dental and vision insurance
• Vacation, personal and sick days
• Sick incentive pay eligibility
• Management bonus of $2700/year
• City employee commuter benefits (T-Pass reimbursement, Bluebikes membership, EZRide Shuttle membership)

DOCUMENTS REQUIRED:

Please upload the below documents to complete your application:

• Resume
• Cover Letter

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