Habitat’s work focuses mostly on long-term recovery, so although we engage in immediate response to disasters such as Hurricane Harvey, this position also supports the longer-term disaster recovery and risk reduction efforts nationwide.
Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI) is currently seeking a volunteer management professional for the role of a Specialist - Disaster Response Field Operations (US & Canada), who will focus heavily on disaster response and recovery volunteer programs. This position provides key field operations support to the US/Canada Disaster Risk Reduction and Response (DR3) program, specializing in volunteer management. This individual is responsible for managing HFHI's Disaster Corps skilled volunteer program and Mobile Response Unit program to support US affiliates and State Support Organizations build capacity related to disaster response, risk reduction, mitigation, and preparedness.
This position is based at our administrative headquarters office in Atlanta, GA.
In addition to managing programs, this individual will also contribute to communications, knowledge management, and training to support the overall functions and goals of the US/C DR3 program. This individual will play a key role in collaborating with HFHI's US Office and Volunteer & Institutional Engagement (VIE) to align DR3 services and initiatives, and serve as liaison between HFHI, affiliates, and volunteers. This position is responsible for developing and maintaining strong external relationships with peer agencies, partners, affiliates, volunteers and donors. Strong verbal and written communication, knowledge management, and teamwork skills are necessary to building the capacity of this program to it's full potential. While mostly office based, this position may travel up to 20% of the time, representing Habitat externally and also as support to US affiliates post-disaster.
DISASTER CORPS VOLUNTEER (DCV) PROGRAM (40%)
- Manage the DCV program and budget
- Facilitate deployments: identifying capacity building opportunities; recruiting and placing DCVs in coordination with US operations and affiliates; tracking deployment activities; conducting follow-up evaluations, and recognizing volunteers
- Cultivate mission-aligned partnerships to enhance volunteer engagement opportunities
- Track and reimburse authorized expenses and report financial stewardship to donors
- Develop and deliver training to newly recruited volunteers, HFH Affiliates, and existing DCVs
- Contribute to strategy planning for program sustainability and growth in coordination with VIE and RV Care-A-Vanners; advance role of volunteers; and recruit new volunteers through internal and external networks
- Recruitment, development, and deployment of an affiliate leadership team, as well as general volunteers interested in disaster-affected affiliates, to create a more robust network for affiliates/SSOs post-disaster
- Support international scale up of program
- Serve as subject matter expert for DR3 volunteer engagement
- Contribute to funding strategies and proposal development to support program
- Ensure proper monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning is documented and incorporated into program strategy
COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION MANAGEMENT (30%)
- Serve as Publishing Coordinator for disaster content posted on My.Habitat.
- Support online portal publishing and management of DR SharePoint team sites
- Research, write and update content for external website and resource materials, and publish quarterly newsletters
- Create talking points regarding volunteer management for post-disaster communications
- Maintain US/C DR3 stats and collect / maintain up-to-date case studies/examples
- Provide general administrative support to the US program team
MOBILE RESPONSE UNIT PROGRAM (15%)
- Manage the MRU program and budget
- Track vehicle maintenance; deployment activity, baseline inventory and upkeep of tools for each MRU.
- Ensure HFHI policies and regulations regarding vehicle usage are followed by SSOs and affiliate host sites
- Coordinate deployment of staff and/or volunteers as needed for transport of vehicles
- Track and reimburse authorized expenses and report financial stewardship to donors
- Coordinate with SSOs for engagement outside of their area of responsibility in the event of a large-scale response or national priority
- Scale up program in an effort to expand geographic coverage, reduce response time, and create redundancy
- Determine host SSOs for each MRU in coordination with the SSO Field Operations Manager
- Contribute to funding strategies and proposal development to support program
- Ensure proper MEAL is documented and incorporated into program strategy
TRAINING / CAPACITY BUILDING (10%)
- Assist with the development and delivery of DR3 training courses to support the overall training goals of the DR3 department.
- Assist with development and delivery of DR3 resources - checklists, toolkits, templates, technical guides and standard operating procedures - to build capacity of affiliates/SSOs
EXTERNAL RELATIONS / SUBJECT MATTER EXPERT (5%)
- Contribute to sector collaboration and the development of industry standards and best practices; information sharing and coordination with peers (partner organizations, FEMA, etc.)
- Represent HFHI externally
- 1-2 years of related work experience, including volunteer management/coordination and/or disaster response programming experience
- Experience networking and forming partnerships/alliances with organizations
- Strong teamwork skills required
- Strong leadership, planning, organizational and diplomatic skills required
- Ability to maintain cross-cultural sensitivity
- Ability to drive operational vehicles in post-disaster environments (MRUs)
- Computer literate and knowledge of satellite phones, GPS systems and VHF/HF radio communication
- Strong writing and communication skills required
- Willingness to learn about a variety of disaster response issues and perform tasks accordingly
Preferred:
- Formal training in disaster risk management and volunteer management
Beneficial but not required:
- Fluency in language other than English desired