Colorado Poverty Law Project Intake Specialist Denver, CO · Full time

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About Colorado Poverty Law Project

The Colorado Poverty Law Project's mission is to prevent homelessness through legal representation, education, and advocacy. We believe that no one should become homeless for lack of access to housing justice. The CPLP staff is a team of deeply committed professionals who believe in trauma informed and client centered legal representation while taking a holistic approach to ensuring housing stability for CPLP clientele. 

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES:

The following duties are an overview of the primary duties and responsibilities of the Intake Specialist and should not be considered an all-inclusive list. 

• Conducts thorough intakes:
• Gathers information necessary to assess legal claims and/or appropriate resource referrals in a trauma informed and culturally competent manner.
• Provides client-centered self-advocacy assistance directly to individual intakes when appropriate.
• Reviews intakes and determines next steps based on analysis of service requests and organization priorities in coordination with other team leaders and the Managing Attorney. Next steps may include providing information about available resources and/or providing appropriate referrals of cases to staff, private attorneys, organizations, or CPLP volunteer attorneys.
• Ensures accurate and timely data tracking required by our grants:
• Coordinates grants, including data collection for grant reporting and data maintenance, as assigned. 
• Assists with producing data and reports for grant requirements and other needs. 
• Ensures entry of documentation and data for intakes in client files on cloud-based storage system. 
• Monitors entry of data, information, and documents in CPLP’s case management database and tracks recurring themes in service requests. 
• Collaborates and supports the CPLP team as a whole:
• Communicates clearly and frequently with the Managing Attorney, Team Leaders, Leadership, professional staff, staff attorneys, and the Board about activities, duties, and developments. 
• Works collaboratively in a team environment with a spirit of cooperation and compassion. 
• Ensures compliance with attorney rules of professional conduct and laws related to the unauthorized practice of law:
• Exhibits work performance consistent with the Colorado Rules of Professional Conduct, including the prohibition on the Unauthorized Practice of Law
• Maintains expertise in all areas of CPLP’s legal work, including relevant areas of law, CPLP’s priorities, and community resources. 
• Creates, updates, and maintains referral and self-advocacy resources (e.g., toolkits, referral lists, FAQs, guides, and website content) for a variety of topics and client populations, in coordination with other team leaders, the Managing Attorney, and Leadership.
• Continually analyzes and improves the intake process to ensure CPLP is efficiently and effectively serving our stakeholders. 
• Consistently promotes a professional image of CPLP. 
• Performs other duties, as assigned. 

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The individual must also possess these qualifications: 

• Associate or Bachelor’s Degree or demonstrated job experience.
• Demonstrated discretion, independent judgment, and ethical approaches in job performance.
• Demonstrated customer service or client service skills.
• Demonstrated strong critical thinking skills.
• Ability to work independently in a hybrid or remote environment, as well as under general supervision and on a team. 
• Experience conducting methodical and systematic collection of data/documents, gathering vast and diverse amounts of information, and summarizing large amounts of information.
• Experience entering timely and correct data into a database, analyzing data, identifying gaps, creating reports, and sharing the results with Leadership. 
• Experience in conducting document review for investigative and analytical purposes.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills. 
• Ability to interview clients in a client-centered and trauma informed way, identify potential issues, and screen clients for the fit with appropriate services. 
• Demonstration of appropriate and professional behavior in working with members of the public who may often be in crisis or frustrated with service availability. 
• A commitment to understanding and updating knowledge about housing legal issues, including how to work with people in a trauma informed way.
• Diligence and attention to detail in maintaining accurate records and following records retention guidelines. 
• Ability to provide coaching about self-advocacy strategies that are effective and respectful of clients’ needs. 
• Adaptability to collaborate with colleagues and clients with different roles, work styles, communication and coaching needs, professional backgrounds, and levels of experience.
• Adaptability to a changing and flexible non-profit work environment and to modification of funding sources and job responsibilities as needed.
• Commitment to providing services and advocacy that are focused on continuous improvement, the values and mission of CPLP, integrity, housing justice, equity, inclusion, and diversity. 
• Expertise using Microsoft Office products and other technology, such as Zoom, printers, scanners, file-sharing platforms, databases, timekeeping software, and other applications required to perform the essential functions of the job. 
• Demonstrated expertise producing accurate FAQs, informational materials, and/or other informational materials in plain language. 
• Ability to triage multiple responsibilities, adapt to client needs (e.g., communication, language, cultural, disability access), foster collaborative problem-solving, strengthen relationships, and address external and internal concerns and needs. 
• Ability to work successfully in a fast-paced environment where clients communicate via email, online, phone, text, and mail. 

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:

The following qualifications are highly desired to advance CPLP’s work, but they are not required: 

• Bilingual or multilingual. 
• Experience working in a law firm environment. 
• Experience working in a nonprofit environment. 
• Experience communicating with individuals in crisis from a client-centered and trauma informed perspective.
• Experience developing materials that are linguistically, culturally, and disability accessible and relevant. 
• Experience working with grants or within a grant funded environment. 

The Colorado Poverty Law Project offers highly competitive salaries; generous leave; and an excellent benefits package, which includes a 401(k)-retirement savings plan and medical, dental, vision, life, and short term and long-term disability insurance. CPLP employees also enjoy a liberal flexible hours program. We encourage candidates with lived experience and diverse backgrounds to apply. Candidates should submit a cover letter, outlining their interest and qualifications, along with their resume.