Bilingual CalFresh Outreach Program Associate

Are you a skilled professional who believes in lending your skills to end hunger during these unprecedented times? If so, consider being the Bilingual CalFresh Outreach Program Associate for the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank. Join our friendly, collaborative, and hardworking programs team, reporting to the Bilingual CalFresh Outreach Supervisor. The Bilingual CalFresh Outreach Program Associate is responsible for helping San Francisco and Marin County residents to apply for and maintain their CalFresh benefits. They will provide this service directly through regular community outreach in both counties and through regular collaboration with new and existing community partners to promote services.  

Who We Are: 

Our mission is to end hunger in San Francisco and Marin. 

We envision a just and equitable society that nurtures a resilient community. We envision a community where everyone will have access to nutritious food of their choosing and will be uplifted by a network of support. We work with our community to create lasting solutions to address both the hunger we see today and the root causes that perpetuate food insecurity in our society. Every week, over 50,000 households count on us for food assistance. 60% of what we distribute is fresh fruits and vegetables. 

Who You Are: 

To excel in this position, you will need to approach the work with the following habits and values: 

• Customer Focus: Enjoys meeting new people in a variety of community settings; Willingness to seek out new opportunities to provide CalFresh to under-enrolled community members; regularly working in the community, interacting with neighbors and learning their service delivery needs and meeting them where they are; Diligently follows through with client requests and related tasks; Skilled at building trust quickly and putting people at ease.  

• Values Differences: Seek to understand different cultures and perspectives and incorporate these learnings into day-to-day practices for outreach and application assistance; Sensitivity and understanding of the needs of low-income community members    

• Adaptability: Respond to change and unexpected challenges as an opportunity to learn; Change your approach, expectations, and work style when needed to respond to the needs of the client and the situation; comfortable with de-escalating challenging customer service interactions  

• Places high importance on maintaining client confidentiality and protecting client personally identifiable information.  

• Interested in hunger or food issues, social justice, and community advocacy; Works daily to create food secure communities, one person at a time.  

What You Would Be Accountable for: 

The Bilingual CalFresh Outreach Program Associate will be responsible for the following key pieces of work: 

• Outreach, Screening, and Application Assistance – direct to community awareness building and motivating unenrolled neighbors to apply for benefits with the support of the Food Bank, finding new and improved ways to reach people and make the enrollment process easy.  

• Benefits Case Support and Troubleshooting- regularly communicating with community members seeking information about their current benefits, benefits maintenance support, and fair hearing requests/appeals; providing direct assistance and recommendations for actionable steps to maintain benefits.   

• Client Data Management & Tracking- gathering all required information to successfully submit benefits applications and maintenance reports, real time data entry into case management system, following up with clients to remind them of action items and responsibilities to improve successful benefits enrollment  

• Elevating best practices and escalating potential barriers to accessing benefits- voicing current barriers to accessing benefits faced by community members, sharing new ideas and practices for successful outreach.   

What You Would Be Doing Right Now: 

Outreach, Screening, and Application Assistance   

• Develop an understanding of CalFresh program rules and regulations, as well as application and enrollment procedures (training will be provided).   

• Outreach to diverse groups and individuals in person, over the phone, and virtually, to create awareness about the CalFresh program.   

• Educate clients on eligibility for the CalFresh program and provide pre-screening, as necessary.   

• Provide eligible neighbors with assistance in completing a new CalFresh application, semi-annual ("SAR7") report, or annual recertification ("RRR.")  

• With the support of teammates and/or supervisor, provide case management (including but not limited to application status tracking, teleconferences with County welfare departments, and filing appeals) for clients requiring assistance to complete application process and maintain benefits.   

• Develop existing and establish new virtual outreach connections with community-based sites utilizing innovative methods for identifying and reaching non-participating populations.   

• Adapt existing educational and marketing materials (from public and private sources) for use among community members, pantry network, and community partners.   

• Screen all potential participants through face-to-face interactions, incoming calls, emails and/or texts for eligibility to other food bank programming and make referrals or offer application assistance as appropriate.   

Client Data Management and Tracking   

• Track CalFresh outreach activities, pre-screens, applications submitted, outcomes and other data.   

• Track applications and referrals to other food bank programming.   

• Maintain accurate database of client information.   

• Maintain client confidentiality.   

• Maintain accurate files and contribute to preparation of monthly reports.   

Other Responsibilities and Expectations      

• Work with teammates and/or supervisor to interpret how benefit program policies apply to a neighbor in a "grey area" situation.  

• Provide feedback to internal and external stakeholders regarding barriers faced by clients in accessing and maintaining CalFresh benefits; share learnings to strengthen program policies, procedures, and tools to serve more people efficiently.   

• Other duties as assigned.  

What Else You Should Know: 

PREFERRED EXPERIENCE: 

• One or more years of experience in the non-profit or social services sector working directly with clients and/or community engagement is preferred. Lived experience with public benefits access is preferred.   

• Experience working with communities facing multiple barriers to receiving services is preferred. Knowledge of Bay Area food security landscape preferred.  

KEY KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, & ABILITIES: 

• Fluency in English, receive a level 8 score on the verbal assessment; Fluency in Spanish receive a level 10 score on the verbal and written assessments.

• Demonstrated proficiency and comfort with presenting information to small- to medium-sized groups, updating information relevant for specific audiences as needed.

• Proven record of accuracy in completing, tracking, and reviewing data. Must pass a data speed and accuracy test.  

• Capacity to learn new systems, and flexibility to adapt to them.  

• Dependable in maintaining a flexible schedule and communicating changes when needed.   

• Demonstrated ability to follow established procedures and organize, plan, and carry out activities to meet specific timelines.  

CERTIFICATES, LICENSES, REGISTRATIONS: 

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience preferred. 

PHYSICAL DEMANDS AND WORK ENVIRONMENT: 

This position is set in a hybrid environment. The physical and environment demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.