Warrior Advocacy Specialist

K9s For Warriors is the nation’s largest provider of service dogs to veterans suffering from the invisible wounds of war, such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Our unique, in-house program helps change the lives of American heroes by pairing them with a battle buddy, who was likely a rescue dog and then teaching him or her to utilize that dog to mitigate the symptoms of their wounds. In order to continue the great work we are doing, we are in need of a Warrior Advocacy Specialist to join our amazing team!

SUMMARY/OBJECTIVE

Under the direct supervision of the Warrior Advocacy Manager, the Warrior Advocacy Specialist is primarily responsible for supporting Warrior Advocates within the appropriate alphabet split by checking in routinely and providing education and resources from our voluntary program, so that they can support their Warrior and family members.

QUALIFICATIONS AND EDUCATION REQUIREMENTS

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent work experience
• Knowledge of the Veteran community and issues regarding serving clients from this community
• Experience in working with Veteran Service Organizations and Department of Veterans Affairs
• Ability to work with persons with mental and physical disabilities
• Experience working in customer service field preferred, e.g. customer service associate
• Possess patience to interact with challenging clients
• Strong verbal, written, and oral communication skills; this position requires the candidate to possess a strong ability to speak clearly, and effectively as well as the ability to listen to and hear clients who may be in distress or challenging
• Veteran or veteran spouse/partner status preferred
• Valid driver’s license and meet policy requirements for company auto insurance

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS:

• Welcoming the Advocate to the K9s For Warriors family and familiarizing them with all programs and services available to them.
• Maintaining contact with assigned Advocates monthly upon the Warriors’ acceptance into the program, during training, and after graduation.
• Providing a virtual community for Advocates in our Advocate Facebook group, and monitoring posts in that community.
• Providing educational and community support by offering virtual support groups such as the Warrior Advocate Resiliency Members (WARM) program, managing all aspects of promotion, registration and execution of programs.
• Providing educational and community support by offering a monthly Virtual Café program, coordinating, scheduling and managing this program, identifying monthly topics of discussion, inviting and confirming guest speakers, and ensuring a positive and collaborative environment where all participants feel comfortable and welcomed.
• Developing strategies and methods for obtaining support for K9s For Warriors by communicating our vision and values along with the benefits of the program.
• Communicate and coordinate with various departments within K9s For Warriors.
• Locate potential candidate veterans who have not had contact with K9s For Warriors and introduce programs and services.
• Maintain current and accurate data in the internal Warrior database.
• Collect and report results and performance metrics for events and activities.
• Support the Warrior Advocacy team through speaking engagements and creating/drafting written content for various stakeholders, including but not limited to, veterans, academics, and program/resource partners.

OTHER DUTIES

• Limited travel as needed
• Occasional evening/weekend hours

PHYSICAL DEMANDS

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to perform the essential functions of this job successfully. This role routinely uses standard office equipment such as computers, phones, photocopiers, filing cabinets, and fax machines.

In addition to working on a computer, this position would require the ability to lift files, open filing cabinets and to bend or to stand as necessary. This role also requires walking and standing for interim periods of time to communicate in person with the warriors and the general public.