Sojourner Advocate – Restraining Order BILINGUAL Spanish/English

Primary responsibilities

Sojourner Advocate – Restraining Order BILINGUAL Spanish/English

Full Time (40 hours), Shift: Monday-Friday, 10am-6pm four days a week and 11am-7pm one day a week

Pay: $21.50 per hour

Sojourner Family Peace Center employs dedicated, hardworking professionals who want to be of service to others and make a difference in Milwaukee and surrounding communities. If you have a desire to help support survivors and work with passionate colleagues, whose personal and professional experience is as diverse as the clients we serve, this may be the position for you.

Our Core Values Are: Respect. Diversity & Inclusion. Leadership & Accountability. Courage. Integrity.

Overview

This bilingual advocate position will work within the Milwaukee County Restraining Order Office to support and assist victims from diverse backgrounds. The Advocate will work to help clients understand and navigate the civil and criminal court system processes, explore their options and rights when utilizing these systems, develop safety plans and access needed community resources. This position must maintain collaborative relationships with, but not limited to Court Commissioners, Clerical staff, Milwaukee County Sheriff Department and other advocacy staff.

What are the Job Responsibilities?

-Collaborate with all Sojourner Family Peace Center staff to assist clients and ensure all safety planning, community resource and legal assistance needs are met, among others. Make client referrals to agency and community resources as needed.

-Provide legal advocacy to victims of domestic abuse, harassment, juvenile harassment, individuals at risk and child abuse seeking temporary restraining orders and injunctions.

-Accompany clients to legal proceedings as requested or necessary; become knowledgeable about basic proceedings in criminal, civil and family law in order to assist and support clients understanding and navigation of these systems.

-Provide services including follow-up telephone calls, information and referral to other services, preparation for the final injunction hearing, and accompanying victims to court.  Document all contacts.

-Complete intakes with clients to help identify individual needs and assist with the development of a personal action plan built on formal/informal supports and community resources outlining goals and expectations. Utilize independent critical skills to identify additional challenges such as AODA and mental health issues that can present at varying levels of severity.

-Work with external partners such as the police, district attorney’s office and school systems among others, to maximize the effectiveness of restraining orders and injunctions for clients.

-Provide backup support to other internal programs, specifically the FPC Advocacy Program (i.e. District Attorney Sojourner Advocates and Sojourner Advocates).

-Maintain a full understanding of onsite FPC partners including what services are provided and how to make appropriate referrals. Know community resources and maintain active connections to them.

-Assess clients for emergency legal needs and refer them to the staff paralegal and attorneys at Legal Action Wisconsin or other legal resources.

-Assist non-English speaking clients by walking them through all the steps of the restraining order filing process. Ensure language accessibility and utilize professional interpretation services when appropriate.

-Remain informed about legislation, issues and concerns in court systems.

-Collect, maintain and report client data, computerized and hard copy files.

-Maintain client files, including outcome information.

-Assist with gathering and compiling advocacy statistics and assist with reports to funding sources.

-Assist with training volunteers and interns.

-Attend internal staff meetings and team meetings.

-Provide community outreach and education as applicable.

-Ability to work a regular schedule and have regular attendance at the workplace.

-Practice agency policies and safety in the workplace.

-Attend all mandatory meetings and trainings.

-Uphold and exhibit the agency’s Core Values.

-All other work-related duties and projects as assigned.